Presentations Online?
Almost two months ago, I said Nobody needs to install Word as everything could be done online without the need of installing any software. The only requirement is to have an internet connection and since you are reading this, I doubt that you have any problem accessing the internet.
One of the greatest advantages of working on the web is collaboration. Anyone, anywhere with anything can access a document and make changes to it. What’s even better is that everyone can make any changes at the same time without creating conflicts. Now, what about presentations?
Like many people on this planet, I make my presentations with Powerpoint. A while back, I read this excellent document [fr]. It gives 10 tips to prepare for a presentation, 10 tips for the presentation and 10 tips for the slides you create. All of those points work well if you use Powerpoint.
Thumbstacks.com, Zoho Show and ThinkFree Show are three online tools for making presentations and they are free. You don’t get all the transition effects and animations, but that is not a big loss. While they are all great in allowing to make presentations that go straight to the point, they lack a feature that I absolutely love in Powerpoint.
There are many advices about presentations, but none of them mention the help feature in Powerpoint. Open Powerpoint, put some text on the first slide, then press F5 to start the slideshow. Now, press F1. This is what I like. Through simple shortcuts, your audience never knows what you are doing.
The A button is useful if you can’t wait for that mouse to disappear. The B button is also useful, if you want your audience to pay attention to something that isn’t in the slides.
What I like most is to use CTRL+P and CTRL+A to go back and forth between the pen and the arrow, respectively. Drawing on the slides while presenting is something I love doing and it has always been well received. It ads a human side to the slides that doesn’t come from prefabricated animations and it makes things clearer to the audience. I also prefer that over using a stick because the traces remain on the slides and I also prefer it over a laser because… well let’s face it, all those people in the back can’t see that little red dot if you keep the lights on.
The lights on? Of course the lights on! It’s not time to sleep and it’s not like everything anything on the screen becomes invisible.
Anyways, all those features in Powerpoint that can divert the audience’s attention where you want it to be, are, unfortunately, not available if a presentation is prepared online.
