Viewing Your Show
After you plan and set up your PowerPoint presentation, it's time to present it. To do this, select Slide Show, View Show or press F5.
Note
Before presenting your show live, you should preview it to test content, flow, and narration. After you determine that your show itself is flawless, you should work on perfecting your delivery, particularly if you don't deliver live presentations on a regular basis. By simulating live conditions as much as possible in your practice sessions, you'll increase your odds of delivering a perfect presentation.
PowerPoint presents a show using the settings you enter in the Set Up Show dialog box. For example, you can view in a browser or full screen, depending on what you entered in this dialog box. Whether you need to advance each slide manually depends on your choices in this dialog box. How you navigate the presentation also depends on how you view it:
Full screen You'll display full screen if you choose the Presented by a Speaker or the Browsed at a Kiosk option in the Set Up Show dialog box. The major difference between the two is that when you present by a speaker, you have numerous navigation options available because a person is in control of the presentation. When you browse at a kiosk, these navigation options aren't available because this type of show is self-running.
PowerPoint Browser You'll view in the PowerPoint browser if you choose Browsed by an Individual in the Set Up Show dialog box. This is similar to other browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. You can use the scrollbar to scroll through the presentation if it's available, or you can use the Page Up and Page Down keys to navigate manually. To switch to the full screen view, choose Browse, Full Screen from within the PowerPoint browser.
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Displaying a scrollbar can make it easier for viewers to navigate your show. Specify whether to display a scrollbar in the Set Up Show dialog box.
→ For more information about the Set Up Show dialog box, see “Setting Up a Show” earlier in this chapter.
Note
To present the show starting with the current slide, click the Slide Show button in the lower-left corner of the window.
Navigating a Show Full Screen
If you choose to present your PowerPoint slideshow by a speaker, you'll display your presentation full screen. In this type slideshow, you have several ways to advance each slide manually if you choose this method of advancing slides, rather than by automatic timing. Table 9.1 lists a variety of ways to navigate a slideshow.
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Right-click anywhere on the screen and choose Help from the shortcut menu to display this list of shortcuts within your slideshow.
Note
The capability to toggle a black or white screen is a useful tool. For example, if you want to explain a detailed concept and want your audience to focus on what you're saying and not on the slide, you can temporarily make the screen either black or white. This is also useful during breaks for long presentations.
You have other ways to navigate a PowerPoint show. Right-click the mouse anywhere on the screen and choose Go from the shortcut menu. You can choose any of the following navigational options:
Slide Navigator This displays the Slide Navigator dialog box (see Figure 9.14), in which you can choose the show and slide titles you want to view. Simply select the slide you want and click the Go To button. The Show field is available only in presentations that include custom shows and enables you to choose the custom show that contains the slides you want to view.
By Title Displays a menu listing all slides in your presentation. Click the one you want to view.
Figure 9.14. The Slide Navigator dialog box helps you find slides.
Custom Show Displays a menu listing available custom shows. Click the one you want to view.
Previously Viewed Displays the previously viewed slide again.
Tip from
Although the options that appear on the Go menu are useful for finding a specific slide you want to display, you'll probably want to avoid using these features during an actual presentation because a break in your flow can be distracting. One case in which you might want to do so during a presentation would be when you have to go back to previous slides to answer questions or clarify a point and don't want to page through numerous slides to do so.
Setting Pointer Options
You can use an arrow pointer during a PowerPoint presentation, write with a pen, or hide all pointers. To choose these options, right-click the mouse anywhere on the screen, choose Pointer Options from the shortcut menu, and select Arrow, Pen, or Hidden from the menu that appears.
The Arrow option displays a standard mouse pointer arrow on your screen, which you can use to point to specific areas. If you want to actually draw on the screen, choose the Pen option. Using a pen enables you to draw circles around important words to highlight them, draw shapes and objects to emphasize a point, or even write text on the screen. Writing text is a bit hard to read, however, so you'll probably want to do this sparingly. To erase your pen markings, right-click the mouse and choose Screen, Erase Pen or press the letter E. Annotations are also erased when you advance to the next slide. If you don't want any pointer to appear, choose the Hidden option.
Figure 9.15 shows the standard arrow pointer with which most people are familiar.
Figure 9.15. Use a pointer during your slide presentation.
Figure 9.16 illustrates a sample use of the pen feature.
Figure 9.16. Use the pen to add comments or illustrations to the presentation.
You can choose your pen color in the Set Up Show dialog box, or you can set it by right-clicking the mouse, choosing Pointer Options, Pen Color, and selecting a color from the list that appears.
→ To set up the pen color in the Set Up Show dialog box, see “Setting Up a Show” earlier in this chapter.
Using the Meeting Minder
The Meeting Minder enables you to take meeting minutes and assign action items. You can also export your minutes to Outlook if you want to e-mail them to others or to Word if you want to edit, format, and print them. To use the Meeting Minder, right-click the mouse anywhere on the screen and choose Meeting Minder. Figure 9.17 shows the Meeting Minutes tab of the Meeting Minder dialog box where you can enter detailed minutes from your presentation.
Figure 9.17. The Meeting Minutes tab of the Meeting Minder enables you to keep track of what happens during a meeting.
In the Action Items tab (see Figure 9.18), you can enter multiple action items (like a “to do” list) for specific people that come up during the course of a meeting.
Figure 9.18. Record action items in the Action Items tab.
To add an action item, enter its description, the name of the person to whom it's assigned, and a due date. Then click the Add button to add this item to the action item list below. You can also edit and delete selected action items by clicking the Edit and Delete buttons.
To export the meeting minutes and action items to Outlook or Word, click the Export button. Figure 9.19 shows the Meeting Minder Export dialog box.
Figure 9.19. Export meeting minutes to Word or Outlook.
Can't see the Post Action Items to Microsoft Outlook option? See the “Troubleshooting” section near the end of this chapter.
The Export Options offered are
Post Action Items to Microsoft Outlook
Send Meeting Minutes and Action Items to Microsoft Word
Choose one or both options and click the Export Now button. Figure 9.20 shows a sample export to Microsoft Word.
Figure 9.20. In Word, you can format meeting minutes.
Click the Schedule button in the Meeting Minder dialog box to open Outlook and display an appointment.
Note
If you haven't installed Microsoft Outlook, the option won't activate.
Click OK to exit Meeting Minder. You'll notice that PowerPoint adds a slide that contains your recorded action items to the end of this presentation (see Figure 9.21).
Figure 9.21. PowerPoint adds a slide summarizing your action items.
Note
In addition to taking your own meeting minutes, you can also refer to your speaker's notes during your presentation (the notes you enter on the Notes pane in Normal view). To do this, right-click the mouse and choose Speaker Notes from the menu. The notes from the current slide are displayed.