Over the last number of weeks, we have addressed Accessibility and below you will find the previous three posts which directly relate to MS PowerPoint:
- Accessibility: PowerPoint Design & Output – Pt 3
- Accessibility: PowerPoint Design & Output – Pt 2
- Accessibility: PowerPoint Design & Output – Pt 1
Whilst finishing off last weeks post, we thought it would be beneficial to cover MS PowerPoint Presenter View / Mode when it comes to presenting to an audience.
Presenting in this scenario is assumed to be in a face-to-face setting such as teaching or conference scenarios. This is where you, as the speaker, can see your slides and notes on screen, whilst the audience sees just the slide content.
What is Presenter view/mode?
This view whilst presenting your slides, allows you as the speaker to view your notes ‘behind the scenes’. In the pre-digital era, speakers may well have had a set of index cards with bullet points to help keep speeches on track and structured.
When creating your presentation, add notes to the Notes section per slide. These can be updated for the next presentation. Additionally, notes can be provided as handouts for audience members who might need them (accessibility and inclusiveness).
Presenter view/mode options
There are a number of reasons to use Presenter view/mode and within that, a number of helpful tools.
In PowerPoint, when you go to the SlideShow tab, ensure the Use Presenter View is selected.
This allows you to view the following screen:
On the bottom right hand side of the screen above, you have icons to make the notes text larger or smaller for your (as speakers) ease of viewing. There are other icons around the screen to help you too.
You can go forward or backward in the slide sequence by using the left and right arrow icons at the bottom of the screen and there is a preview of the slide to follow (top right).
Presenter view icons
Imagine you’ve got to a point in your speech and you want to ask the audience questions and hide the current screen content. Don’t worry about stopping the presentation and reloading it. Simply click the Screen/Blank Screen icon:
This is a really helpful icon which allows a break in the presentation and keeps the next slide ready for display. There are options as well for the blank screen to be black or white.
What if you want to zoom in on some content within the slide? The Magnification Tool allows you to make information on the current slide larger and you can move the zoom section around the slide to suit your needs. The Magnification Tool:
There may be times you want to skip a slide or two due to time constraints, etc. To do this, click the See All Slides icon (as seen below). Only you, as speaker, can see this content. You can select any of the slides and the selected slide will update for audience viewing.
It might be a slide that has already been displayed and you want to refer to the content again or you might want to skip some slides and move forward.
Lastly, sometimes as a presenter, it might be helpful to have a pointer, pen or cursor to highlight information on screen. There is a Pen and Laser Pointer Tool (as seen below) which allows for this.
Evidently, pens allow you to draw. This could be arrows, writing, circles/boxes to highlight visual content, etc. Highlighters are good for highlighting the key words for audiences to remember.
Pointers are great for bringing your audience’s attention to information in real-time.
Elapsed time counter
Lastly, we would like to highlight the elapsed time of your presentation. This should give you an idea of how long you have been presenting and how long you have left. As an added benefit, if you have an elapsed time to finish by, it saves clock watching and looks more professional.
To conclude
Few speakers are totally comfortable speaking to and addressing groups. Being able to refer to notes (through technology) and appear self-assured whilst presenting is a great confidence boost and makes the overall presentation more engaging.
Make notes. Use Presenter view / mode and make those tools work for you. It will improve you A-game!
Next time
Our blog post next Monday will look at the Design and Output using MS Word and how this can improve accessibility.
Remember, the DigiKnow blog posts are now released at noon on a Monday.
Please do join us then to learn more and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: @MDBSelearn.
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