Read an exclusive book excerpt from Kathy Jacobs on PowerPoint.
Author: Kathy Jacobs
Product/Version: PowerPoint
Slick Presenting Tricks
Keystrokes You Need To Know
Use The Pen
Using 2003?
Meeting Minder
Other Cool Tricks
You have practiced, prepared and tested. You are ready to give the presentation. This section will give you some tips for moving through the presentation with ease.
The first thing to do is to memorize some very important shortcuts to use when presenting. While a presentation is running, either right-click and select Help or press F1. A window will appear which lists the key combinations to use during the presentation to wow the audience.
I recommend you bring up the Help window and learn what options are available. These are the ones you will use most frequently:
I am not going to go over the rest of these great navigation tools. Instead, I recommend you play with them and get comfortable with the ones you are most likely to use.
Figure 14.2 Slide Show Help Window
Tip 46: Out of time before you are out of slides?
If you run out of time before you run out of slides, you can easily cover the fact by typing B or W to blank the slide, do a quick wrap up and ask for final questions. The audience won't know you had more slides if you don't tell them.
Why not just hit escape? Because you don't really want to go to the desktop or the PowerPoint interface while summarizing. You want the audience looking at you, not the desktop.
Practice this move a few times and it will become more natural. You never know when you will need it.
Need to make a note on a slide during the show? Right-click on the slide and change the pointer to a pen. In most cases, you will also find a button at the bottom left of the slide that looks like a pen. It will change from pointer to pen as well. Once the pointer changes to the pen, draw all you want. Note unless you are using PowerPoint 2003, the drawings won't be saved.
Need to save the annotations in an earlier version? You could use print screen to capture the final drawings or notations on any particular slide. Or, you can use a facility called the Meeting Minder which I will cover later.
Need to change the pen color? That's on the buttons and the right-click menu, too. Just select Pen Color and slide over to the color needed.
With 2003, you are not limited to changing the color of the pen - can select the type of pen as well. The choices are a ballpoint pen, a felt tip pen or a highlighter.
If you have a computer that uses an electronic pen for control instead of a mouse, you may have an option called inking enabled. This allows you to write on the screen and have PowerPoint understand what you write. You can even turn it on and off from the right-click menu.
Need to run another program during the presentation? Right-click, Screen | Switch Programs. You can also use ALT+Tab to switch between programs.
Meeting Minder lets you take minutes and assign action items during the presentation. When activated, a new two-tabbed window will appear.
Figure 14.3 Meeting Minder Meeting Minutes Window
The Meeting Minutes tab allows you to enter anything you need to remember about the meeting. At the end of the presentation, you will be prompted to save the meeting minutes. If you say yes, the minutes will be saved with the presentation.
As soon as you make a change to a set of meeting minutes, the export button will become active. Use this button to send meeting minutes to either Word or Outlook when done. If you save the notes but don't export them, you can export them later by bringing up the Meeting Minder and clicking Export.
Figure 14.4 Meeting Minder Action Items Window
The Action Items tab allows you to create and assign action items during the presentation. This is quite useful for noting changes to the presentation or the content. Each action item is tracked within the presentation. Just as with the minutes, you can export the action items to Word or Outlook.
The schedule button creates a meeting, but only if Outlook is installed and an account has been set up on the computer.
Meeting Minder was removed in PowerPoint 2003. Microsoft felt the inking capabilities added with Office System 2003, combined with One Note, was a better solution for taking notes during presentations. You will have to judge for yourself.
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