What's That Up On The Wall?

It's a bird...it's a plane...it's 5 bullet points with 5 words each!

If you've ever had to create a Powerpoint presentation, chances are you've bored people to tears.

And you know it.

Want to improve your Powerpoint skills a million percent? Go read Cliff Atkinson's beyond bullets.

If you don't have time to read his entire blog - and you only want to improve your skills ten thousand percent - just go read this one post.

Keep rereading it until you scream at other presenters when they violate its principle (proof that you have internalized his message). You WILL thank me later.

And you'll buy Cliff's book, because that's the best way to thank him.

UPDATE: Not convinced you've bored people to tears? Take the Spooky Action PowerPain Quiz!

Question 1: My presentation handouts consist of:

1. The Slides As Presented
2. Slides with Notes Pages
3. Completely Unrelated Material
4. Airbrushed 8x10's Suitable for Autographing

Question 2: If you trip over a microphone wire and knock yourself unconscious midway through your presentation, your assistant will:

1. read the rest of your slides off the wall and not miss a beat
2. Read your speaker notes and not miss a beat
3. Pretend not to speak english and read your slides in pig latin
4. Quietly grab the projector and slip out while everyone's still asleep

Question 3: Percentage of slides that use the bullet point slide master:

1. 10
2. 25
3. Toothpicks please!
4. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz