Presenter’s View in PowerPoint

Still happens… this… to me…

After doing countless presentations to intelligent and confused audience alike, I still feel stage-fear. I do all sorts of tricks to get at ease – deep breathing, trying to remember what I have to say, squeezing my finger tips etc, but still, I am nervous sometimes, especially when I am delivering a presentation prepared by someone else and I am ‘tasked’ to present it to the audience I don’t know anything about.

And then I go back to self-analysis why am I so lousy at this, and one of the reasons that come to my mind is that I don’t know my charts well enough (cuz somebody else passed them to me, you know the ‘last minute’ thingi!), I don’t even remember the sequence and content of the slides in detail. And, when I am presenting there is no way to keep flipping between paper printouts as cheat-sheets and the projected slides. Hell.

Then, in a flash, I remember that in my Mac there is a Presenter’s View option that shows only one slide on the screen and another view to the presenter – with previous/next slide, notes, time elapsed/remaining etc …yes thats what I need too. Then, in a flash again, I know that I use Windows at work, and not PowerPoint 2007 which ‘directly’ allows that feature, but I use PowerPoint 2003. So, how to make life easier? Doing some research in frustration – the trick was unraveled to me, here it is… ‘Presentation View mode in PowerPoint‘.

Do this way:

1. Activate 2nd monitor option on your notebook (or PC). Make sure that the cable to the projector is connected and the projector is turned on, else, in some cases the system may not recognize and following steps may not work. Okay, done.
2. Go to ‘Desktop’ > [right-click] > ‘Properties’
3. Navigate to the rightmost tab ‘Settings’, your screen will look like Figure-1
4. Do what the Figure-1 says (and in that order)
5. Now, go to PowerPoint
6. In PowerPoint, go to ‘Slide Show’ > ‘Set up Show…’ in the menu, you will see Figure-2
7. Do what the Figure-2 shows (in that order), press ‘okay’
8. Launch your presentation via F5 (observe your desktop and the projected view, check it out by yourself, amazed! //screenshot deliberately omitted here, ha ha ha, yes I am evil sometimes!)
9. Have fun, impress others! And, make your own life easier!

Figure-1 (below)

Figure-2 (below)

Hopefully, by now you have total control on your presentations (plus, this way of cheat-sheets) and feel less nervous …like I do.