Product Description

POWERPOINT 2000 STEP BY STEP

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #468021 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-16
• Platform: No Operating System
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.63 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Amazon.com
"An informative, well designed book without a soul."

I know nothing about PowerPoint, other than it's a presentation program and that I've spent many a dark hour barely awake at such presentations. So in these waning days of Office 2000, I thought I'd pick up a popular PowerPoint primer and see what's up. Upon leafing through the book, I was pleasantly surprised--but then I found myself suddenly mortified. This book has no author!

A book without an author is like a person without a personality. It's just shocking to think that such a thing could happen. Of course, someone did have to write this book, and that's this "Perspection, Inc." organization. After leafing madly through the front matter, I found the true author, one Katherine Pinard. Hey, Kathy! You wrote a good book. Go to work for yourself and make some real money!

Overall, I liked the book. I can see how the Step by Step series is one of the most popular computer book series of all time. At first I was taken aback by the many, many design elements. There are steps, figures, sidebars, icons, callouts, and margin art on just about every page. But it works! It's not junky; it's actually informative and makes the book highly accessible.

The book is also keenly organized. Information is presented clearly and accurately. You don't need to read the whole thing, either: just hop up to whatever chapter or section you need and you can get going. It's nice that the book appreciates that, seeing how people who are involved in presentations are often rushed.

Of course, the book is utterly devoid of a personality, which is sad because it would add a fun dimension it presently lacks. For example, the examples. They're painfully trite. Without an author, the book lacks a certain companionship I find in personality-laden books. I get no sense of "we're in this together" or "let me offer some insight." No, it's just information. Good, well-written information, but uninspiring.

I remember another computer book publisher seething with envy over the Step by Step books, which is fully justified. If the PowerPoint 2000 book is any indication, this is a solid series that serves its purpose well. But I'll never be fully comfortable with any book that lacks an author. --Dan Gookin

Book Info
Presents instructions on how to use PowerPoint 2000 using step by step lessons to create, deliver and print slide presentations, outline ideas and add and modify text. Softcover. CD-ROM included. DLC: Computer graphics.

Customer Reviews

Everything Except a Life
This is a nice book that's written in such a dry style that it's difficult to finish the book. So you might rush through the pages when you are stuck somewhere but if you thought they could have written it in a more human style, then you are spot on what this book is!

Anyway, I use PowerPoint 2003 but this book has a nice coverage of color schemes but nothing like Cutting Edge PowerPoint for Dummies. That book covers PowerPoint 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Step-by-Step Powerpoint
I had not even opened Powerpoint before I bought this book and it took me from ground zero up to detailed editing. It was easy to understand and the 'real world' excercises made learning fun. It was especially helpful to be able to play with presentations, without the fear of damanging or destroying. I will keep the book as a wonderful resource guide. It's definitely geared toward the beginner Powerpoint user. >

Good for begining users, maybe
The "step-by-step" in the title should have clued me in to the fact that this book is really for someone with limited (or no) knowledge of PowerPoint. I think I would have been much better off purchasing the "running" series, instead. Having said that, the strength of this book is in the way it familiarizes the reader with some of the things that one can do in PowerPoint and (perhaps more importantly) provides the reader with the vocabulary to ask the paperclip guy the right question. It did not, to my knowledge cover anything that was not covered in the help section and in some case presented it in a more confusing way. I did share this book with a colleague, though, and she used it to enhance an existing slide show. If you are more that a little familiar with PowerPoint, though I think you will find (as I did) that The Running PowerPoint book has much more substance to it.