This book, sponsored by Microsoft, uses contemporary theories about communication to advocate that people stop using PowerPoint as a crutch and instead use it as a tool to tell a story. It accomplishes that task very effectively.

Most people use PowerPoint to delineate a series of statements to be used in a presentation. I've sat through many lectures in my education where lecturers merely regurgitate a series of messages already outlines on a slide deck. One can be pardoned for wondering whether one can get by with just reading print-outs of their slides in personal time.

Atkinson seeks to revise this problem, and he got Microsoft to publish his response. He makes PowerPoint a tool in the hands of a speaker to drive home central points in a talk. Warning against overcrowding slides, he advocates a simpler approach. He wants people to put only main points on slides because more material tends to confuse one's working memory, which can only handle between three and nine items at a time, depending on whose research you use.

He uses the motif of a story/narrative to center the presenter's ideas around in order to change/inform the audience's minds better. As such, he moves the center of a presentation from the presenter's delineations to the audience's cognitive processes. This shift makes communication much more effective.

A simple and easy read with good research to back it up and with stories to entertain.
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