Chapter 14: Getting Ready To Present
By: Kathy Jacobs
Page 5 of 5
Read Kathy's interview here...
Date Created: June 2nd 2007
Last Updated: June 2nd 2007
Slick Presenting Tricks
Keystrokes You Need To Know
Use The Pen
Using 2003?
Meeting Minder
Other Cool Tricks
Slick Presenting 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.
Keystrokes You Need To Know
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:
- B and W - Blank the screen. Typing a "B" turns
the screen into a black screen. Along the same lines, typing a "W" turns
the screen into a white screen. Depending on the presentation
environment, you will use these keys to hide slides while you
talk about things not on the slides. To bring the slide back again,
either press the same key again or press the spacebar.
- Number followed by Enter - Typing a number
followed by the Enter key takes you directly to that slide. If
you have a list of the slide titles and numbers, you can go to
any slide in the presentation without the audience knowing you
went out of order.
- Escape key - End the show. This is a great way to leave the show in a hurry. It will return you to the PowerPoint interface or desktop, depending on where you started.
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
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.
Use The Pen
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.
Using 2003?
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
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 anaccount 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.
Other Cool Tricks
- Need to see the speaker notes? Right-click,
Screen ' Speaker Notes, or clickthe folder icon at the bottom
left and select Speaker Notes. Be aware if you do this on
the primary monitor, the audience will see the notes as well.
If pulling up a reference, this can be a good thing. If you
have a full script in the notes, it probably isn't.
- Bring up a list of slides by using the folder button at the bottom left of the screen or by right-clicking. From either option, select the slide number off the Go to slide list. Or, slide over from the custom show item and select a show to run.
