Delivering Your Presentation

Rehearsing

Never give a presentation without first rehearsing it. You should rehearse in three stages:

Stage 1: Sit in front of the computer and speak out your presentation while you advance the slides in Slide Show view.

Stage 2: If you have a sound card and a microphone attached to your computer, use PowerPoint's Record Narration feature to record your presentation. Then sit back and listen to the results. You'll probably find plenty to adjust and perfect. Keep on practicing until you like the results. To record narration, follow these steps:

1. Choose Slide Show > Record Narration.
2. In the dialog box click OK to embed the narration into your presentation. To link the narration (the sound files will be separate), click Link Narrations, and then click OK.
3. PowerPoint moves you to slide show view. Start delivering your presentation by speaking into your microphone and advancing through the slides as you normally would.
4. When you're done, click Yes if you want to save the timings with the narration. (You don't have to use them. You would use timings for a self-playing presentation.) To save only the narration, click No.

To run the presentation later without the narration, choose Slide Show > Set Up Show and check the Show Without Narrations checkbox.

(If you don't have a mike, you can forget about PowerPoint's narration feature and just use a plain tape recorder.)

Stage 3: Set up all your equipment, in the actual location if possible. Practice the presentation again, including where you will stand, how you will set up the lighting, and so on. It's very important to do this in advance. For example, what if you don't have a long enough extension cord? What if there's no flat surface to put your laptop and projector on? What if you can't find the light switch? You get the idea!

Adding Slide Timings

Flash lets you add timings for each slide. You can use these timings for a self-running presentation, such as the kind that runs in the lobby of a building or at a convention. Often, slide timings for a self-running presentation work together with recorded narration, so that the whole presentation can run completely without a live presenter.

To set timings while creating narration or rehearsing, choose Slide Show > Rehearse Timings. PowerPoint puts you in slide show view and displays the Rehearse toolbar. Start talking as if you're delivering the presentation. When you're ready to go to the next slide, click the Advance button. on the Rehearse toolbar. Continue until the last slide and click the Advance button again. Click Yes to accept the timings (or no to try it over again).

To set timings manually, choose Slide Show > Slide Transition. In the Advance section, click Automatically After and enter the number of seconds you want the slide to remain displayed. Click Apply to apply the timing to selected slides or Apply All to apply the timing to all the slides in the presentation.

Tips for Presenting

Your presenting skills are more important as the PowerPoint presentation that you create. Always remember that you, not the screen, should be the focus of your audience's attention. The PowerPoint presentation is just a visual aid and it should be aiding you, not replacing you. Here are some guidelines:

• Stand to the left of the screen, as seen from the audience's viewpoint. Viewers are trained to scan from left to right because that's how we read (most of us, anyway).
• Don't hide behind a podium. Stand in full view of the audience and move about a bit. If the room is dark, be sure the lights aren't out at the beginning and the end of the presentation, so the audience can see you.
• Find out as much as possible in advance about your audience's level of knowledge and reason for wanting to hear your presentation. Design your presentation individually for each audience.
• Chat with individuals before the presentation to create a friendly relationship. This will also help allay any discomfort you might feel about speaking before an audience.
• Always respect a person's question and answer the question as thoroughly as you can. If you can't answer the question, offer to get back to the person and then do so.
• Always have a backup in case of mechanical failure. This could include printed handouts or overheads. Of course, if you use overheads, you need an overhead projector.
• Relax and enjoy! Your demeanor and enthusiasm is infectious.

Using Slide Show View

When you're ready to present, click the slide show view icons or choose View > Slide Show. For the most professional effect, have your first slide displayed in slide show view before your audience enters the room.

• To move from slide to slide, just click once with the mouse.
• To move back one slide or elsewhere in the presentation, right-click/ctrl-click and choose Previous from; the shortcut menu. Note that if you have builds (animation) on a slide, choosing previous only brings you back one step in the build so you may have to choose Previous more than once to get to the previous slide.
• An alternative is to choose Go on the shortcut menu. Then choose By Title from the submenu and choose from the list of slides. This method only works if all your slides have titles. The PC version of PowerPoint also has a slide navigator which gives you slide numbers, but it's awkward to use during a presentation.
• If you click on the last slide, PowerPoint returns to regular slide/normal view. Try to avoid this, as it looks unprofessional. Instead, leave the presentation on the last slide until you turn off your projector.
• You can use the shortcut menu to open the Meeting Minder and take minutes. You can also use the Action Items tab to assign action steps to people, based on the presentation. You can export these to Microsoft Word. In the PC version, you can automatically export these to Outlook.
• You can add temporary marks on the screen to point out items on a slide using the Pen feature. Use the shortcut menu and choose Pen. Then click and drag on the screen.

Using Hyperlinks

You can add hyperlinks to your presentation to help you navigate around the slides more easily. For example, if you take questions at the end, you can have a question slide with hyperlinks back to some important slides. Then, if someone asks you a question, you can quickly go to the appropriate slide that you want to revisit.

You can add a hyperlink to text and to graphics. The advantage of adding a hyperlink to graphics is that the hyperlink can be invisible. It also looks nicer. (Hyperlinked text has a line beneath it.) To follow the previous example, if you have a hyperlink on a question slide at the end, you need return hyperlinks on each of the slides. However, during the presentation, you don't necessarily want the hyperlinks to be obvious. Therefore, you can attach the hyperlink going back to the question slide to any existing graphic on that slide.

To add a hyperlink, select text or a graphic and choose Insert > Hyperlink. In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, you can specify any URL or use the Named Location section to find a slide in the presentation. Click OK when you're done.

Using a Projector

The University has three projectors for faculty members to use when teaching. To reserve one, call Information Systems at 1170. Reserve well in advance. Generally, you should reserve for a week at a time.

To connect a projector to a laptop, plug it in using the power cord. Then use the connector cord to connect the projector to the laptop. The connection locations are generally obvious. Then turn on your laptop. After a short wait, you should see the computer screen on the wall/screen. The projector may take some time to adjust the picture. If you don't see the computer screen on the wall, read the projector's manual for instructions on using the projector's menu. Use the menu to make adjustments. Also, some computers have a keyboard shortcut for switching the display between the computer and the projector (and both). You usually want the display to be in both places.

When you're finished with the presentation, turn off the projector first. Let it sit for a few minutes to cool down before disassembling everything.

Printing Handouts and Speaker's Notes

You may want to print handouts to give to your audience. In fact, you probably should do this even if you don't want to hand them out, as a backup in case the projector or your computer doesn't work. Print speakers notes if you created notes in the Notes pane and want to use them while you present. To print:

1. Choose File > Print.
2. On the Mac, choose Microsoft PowerPoint from the drop-down list beneath the Printer list.
3. In the Print What section, choose Handouts (by the number of slides per page) or Notes Pages. (PowerPoint 2000 offers more printing options, including a handout with note-taking space.)
4. If you have a color printer, make sure Black and White is not checked. Otherwise, check it for the best gray-scale reproduction.
5. Choose the number of copies you want. (On the Mac, you have to choose General from the drop-down list beneath the Printer list to select the number of copies.)
6. Click OK/Print.