Say It with Charts: The Executive's Guide to Visual Communication - Hardcover

by Gene Zelazny (Author)

Step-by-step guide to creating compelling, memorable presentations

A chart that once took ten hours to prepare can now be produced by anyone with ten minutes and a computer keyboard. What hasn't changed, however, are the basics behind creating a powerful visual - what to say, why to say it, and how to say it for the most impact. In Say It With Charts, Fourth Edition --the latest, cutting-edge edition of his best-selling presentation guide -- Gene Zelazny reveals time-tested tips for preparing effective presentations. Then, this presentation guru shows you how to combine those tips with today's hottest technologies for sharper, stronger visuals. Look to this comprehensive presentation encyclopedia for information on:

* How to prepare different types of charts -- pie, bar, column, line, or dot -- and when to use each
* Lettering size, color choice, appropriate chart types, and more
* Techniques for producing dramatic eVisuals using animation, scanned images, sound, video, and links to pertinent website

Back Jacket

Today's most comprehensive, up-to-date business presentation guidebook

Easy-to-Follow Tools and Strategies for Creating Powerful, Interactive Business Presentations

As a professional, your career relies on reaching audiences, convincing them that your message is valuable, then making them remember that message. Say It With Charts, 4th Edition, walks you through the entire visual presentation process and shows you--step-by-step--how to create compelling, memorable presentations.

Business presentation tools have changed tremendously. A chart that once took ten hours--and ten co-workers--to prepare can now be produced by anyone with ten minutes and a computer keyboard. What hasn't changed, however, are the basics behind creating a powerful visual--what to say, why to say it, and how to say it for the most impact.

Say It With Charts, 4th Edition, reveals time-tested tips for preparing effective presentations, then shows you how to combine those tips with today's technologies for sharper, stronger visuals. Look to this comprehensive presentation encyclopedia for information on:

• How to prepare different types of charts--pie, bar, column, line, or dot--and when to use each
• Hands-on recommendations on lettering size, color choice, appropriate chart types, and more
• Techniques for producing dramatic eVisuals using animation, scanned images, sound, video, and links to pertinent websites

"When well-conceived and designed, charts help us communicate more quickly and more clearly than we would if we left the data in tabular form."
--From Chapter 1

Business is about communication. Every day, scores of questions must be answered, and each answer must be communicated quickly, completely, and with a minimum of confusion. Time has become our most valuable, irreplaceable commodity, and--in today's rapid fire, ultra-competitive business environment--delays or errors in communicating information are uncalled for, unaffordable...and unacceptable.

Say It With Charts, 4th Edition, shows you how to put your message in visual form and translate information and ideas into persuasive, powerful charts, visuals, and multimedia presentations--holding your audience's attention as you communicate exactly what you want, with no confusion. The newest edition of this bestselling classic covers every important point from previous editions and, in addition, shows you how to use today's digital technologies to create professional-quality, attention-grabbing visuals on your computer screen.

Everything you need to know to make your charts and visuals eye-catching and memorable is in these pages, including:

• Commandments for designing successful onscreen visuals
• Techniques for conveying your messages using visuals and visual metaphors
• How to decide when to use a chart--and know when a chart could work against you
• Graphic representations of ineffective, counter-productive charts--with examples of how they could be improved
• Time- and money-saving methods to make one presentation template serve multiple audiences
• Hands-on practice projects and exercises to help you grasp each important concept

Over the years, Say It With Charts has become the standard guidebook for executives, sales managers, management consultants--all those who want to make their points clearly and concisely, whether speaking directly to a packed conference room or communicating on computer screens across the globe. Now updated for today's technological communications revolution, it will show you how to translate your most compelling data and messages into even more compelling visuals, and hammer home your message every time.

Author Biography

Gene Zelazny is Director of Visual Communications for McKinsey and Company, and has over 40 years of experience working with colleagues and clients to design powerful management reports and presentations. In addition, Zelazny frequently presents his ideas at the world's top business schools, including Chicago, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Wharton, Haas, MIT, Oxford, Kellogg, Stanford, Tuck, INSEAD, and others. He also is author of the how-to classic Say It With Presentations.