Rating: 
Summary: Know what you're looking for before buying this book.
Review: Although there were some very good points about graphics communication, this book was very deceptive when buying it. 198 pages in length, I'd say that about 160 of the pages deal with exercises and sample graphs to jog your brain with good and bad ways to represent data. There's about 30 some pages of actual "stuff" to read and absorb for tips for Visual Communications. Add to that the fact that the fonts used for the book were something that elementary school students would be accustomed to reading and you could probably boil the book down to about 10 pages front and back of normal 12 point Times Roman font. That was really the most disappointing thing about the book for me. $45 retail for a book that boils down to about 10 pages of actual reading was definitely not worth it from a simple cost/benefit analysis. The reason I gave it a 3 star rating was that it was ridiculously easy to read and understand, and it did have some very good points. I really would give it more of a 3.5 star rating independent of cost, and 2 stars cost dependent. Cost aside, the book did discuss some very good principles about presenting information for audiences and goes specifically into McKinsey's recommendations for graphics presentations. Although not an unusually exciting or groundbreaking book I did pick up one or two very good business suggestions from it, and for that reason alone, I consider the book valuable.
Rating: 
Summary: helpful - nothing more need be said
Review: Full disclosure - I used to work at IBM and as an entry level consultant with an MBA there the first thing you are is the .ppt whipping post. That being said, the IBM training program covers many of the concepts from this book. Why?? Simple, they work. Is it the be all and end all? No. The only thing that can help you assemble good content is practice, practice, practice - with a healthy dose of constructive criticism from someone that knows what they are talking about. I just got through a days worth of presentations last Friday to one of the most senior technology people at a major government agency. All I can say is that I really, really, really wish that the people presenting before and after me had taken 5 mintues to review this book before getting in front of that crowd - it would have prevented some spectacular flamouts.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for reference
Review: I have to agree with one reviewer that the presentation of the information throughout some of "Say it with Charts" was a little childish. However, I found the reference pages to be quite valuable for helping you think outside the box of the types of charts and graphics that you put together to represent the message.
Rating:
Summary: Good for reference
Review: I have to agree with one reviewer that the presentation of the information throughout some of "Say it with Charts" was a little childish. However, I found the reference pages to be quite valuable for helping you think outside the box of the types of charts and graphics that you put together to represent the message.
Rating:
Summary: Superceded by Excel? NOT!!
Review: I think the fellow from Indiana misses the point. This bookhelps people to understand how to communicate ideas with charts. Inthe process, lots of hand-drawn charts are shown. Sure, Excel and similar programs can make them prettier, but the point is understanding what kind of chart is best for making a specific substantive point. No program can make that judgement, and too many people let software pick the chart format with predictably uninformative results. Students, excutives, etc., who work through this book will know what kind of a chart they really need. That knowledge in hand, turn to Excel or whatever to produce presentation quality graphics. In some cases, the data will have to be transformed in ways you might not have anticipated before the right graph can be produced. This is a great book, certainly the best and clearest introduction to statistical graphs I have seen. I also strongly recommend Tufte's books on effective graphics.
Rating:
Summary: Good Little Book With Many Useful Ideas.
Review: If you're interested in getting ideas on how to present ideas graphically, this is a good little book. As many other reviewers have pointed out, several of the articles were prepared by graphic designers (some by hand in fact) and not computer graphics packages. If you're looking for suggestions on how to present ideas graphically, this is perfectly fine,... even useful. However, if you're looking for information on how to prepare graphics using Excel, you're out of luck (however, there are dozens of other books that can help you). That's just not what this books is about. Instead, the book gives you several suggestions for expressing the relationship between various activities (flow charts, diagrams, etc) illustrating performance timelines (bar graphs, area graphs, etc), and other information. However, where this book really shines, is in showing you how to incorporate various illustrations into your graphics to make them truly unique and informative. The benefit of this book is in teaching you how to conceptialize and develop unique graphics -- not in telling you how to produce generic off-the-shelf graphics. I'd recommend this book, along with "Information Graphics" by Harris and "Digital Diagrams" by Bounford, to anyone interested in learning more about charts. Overall Grade: B+/A-
Rating:
Summary: Good Little Book With Many Useful Ideas.
Review: If you're interested in getting ideas on how to present ideas graphically, this is a good little book. As many other reviewers have pointed out, several of the articles were prepared by graphic designers (some by hand in fact) and not computer graphics packages. If you're looking for suggestions on how to present ideas graphically, this is perfectly fine,... even useful. However, if you're looking for information on how to prepare graphics using Excel, you're out of luck (however, there are dozens of other books that can help you). That's just not what this books is about. Instead, the book gives you several suggestions for expressing the relationship between various activities (flow charts, diagrams, etc) illustrating performance timelines (bar graphs, area graphs, etc), and other information. However, where this book really shines, is in showing you how to incorporate various illustrations into your graphics to make them truly unique and informative. The benefit of this book is in teaching you how to conceptialize and develop unique graphics -- not in telling you how to produce generic off-the-shelf graphics. I'd recommend this book, along with "Information Graphics" by Harris and "Digital Diagrams" by Bounford, to anyone interested in learning more about charts. Overall Grade: B+/A-
Rating:
Summary: Is a real good support to say your ideas to other people
Review: It helps you to structure your ideas in order to communicate them to others. I think that it's realy good.
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: They have better charts in Excel templates.
Rating: 
Summary: Superceded by Excel's charting capabilities
Review: This book has been completely superceded by the detailed charting capabilities of Excel. It might have been useful ten years ago (when it was first written) but today it seems like a dinosaur. Excel can do everything better.Moreover, even the familiar charts seem untidy by today's standards. Mr. Zelazny seems to be a creative soul. Witness his website on creating a chessboard. I am sure his thinking has advanced in the last decade. His next book promises to be interesting (if he writes one). This one is worse than a yawn. It should be withdrawn, before it besmirches his name further.
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