Presentation Tips
by Ray DeCosta
Introduction
While this page is primarily devoted to helping your
presentation to the Prescott Computer Society (PCS) at the
Prescott Public Library go well, there are also some Tips 'n'
Tricks listed that will apply to almost any presentation
situation. Typically, a presenter will bring their
material on a laptop computer and have to connect to a projector
so it may be seen by a large audience. Unless you are
properly prepared, you may find that connectors don't match and
your carefully designed material is not visible on the screen.
Video Connector Requirements
Almost all PC computers (either laptops
or desktops) have VGA (video) outputs which are directly connectable
to today's projectors which sport a male VGA input connector. If you are presenting for PCS, we will provide a suitable
VGA connection cord for your use. Typically, the VGA video
output from your computer will be a 15-pin female D-connector
which is blue in color.
Sometimes there is a DVI video output
either instead of or in combination with the VGA output. The
two connectors may be seen in the picture. There are a few
variations of the DVI connector, so it may not look exactly as
shown. The VGA and DVI video outputs are interchangeable
electrically and adapters are readily available.
Exceptions to the above are Mac computers which have
several different types of video outputs - five or six at last
count. If you obtain a proper adapter
for your Mac video output that converts it to a female VGA
connector, you should be able to present almost anywhere without
a problem.
There are also some newer PC netbooks which require a
proprietary cable to convert to typical the VGA video output.
Again, if you obtain the proper cable from the manufacturer and
end up with a female VGA connector you'll be just fine.
Video Display Requirements
The Prescott Public Library projector seems to prefer a video signal with
a resolution of 1024 x 768 at 16-bit color. Using 32-bit color
often causes part of the screen to be clipped on the sides. While this is not a hard and fast rule, you
may need
to change your Desktop settings accordingly.
Presenters often have difficulty switching their computers to
output video to their computer's external connection. The best way to
check this is at home with a spare VGA monitor. Plug it into
your computer's external video connection and confirm that you
can change the video output to activate the secondary display. I'll refer to this as the "secondary
display" from now on; the
monitor is acting as a projector for testing purposes. This
process is also called "cloning the display on the Desktop" or
"display mirroring." Every computer is different in this
respect. More often than not, on PC laptops this can be
done by cycling through the various Function Key-F7 settings.
Playing Video Files
It is also important to make sure that your material is
completely viewable on the secondary display. Many people have
run into trouble while trying to play video files. To
avoid this problem, you should check to see that the video
actually plays on the secondary display. This
problem shows up by the video playing fine on the
laptop screen but not on the secondary display. You should do a
test run for each kind of file you plan on showing at the
presentation (DVD, MPG, WMV, AVI, etc.)
The first step to fixing this problem is to check for and
install a new driver for your video card.
If that fails, you should determine if a new, improved or
replacement codec is available for your video player and if so,
install it.
If that doesn't solve the problem, your video card may not have
the resources to play both the file on the laptop screen
and the secondary monitor at the same time. Accordingly, you
should change your video settings to blank out the laptop screen
and send the video only to the secondary monitor. If it's
important for you to see your display at a later time, you will
have to return everything back to the previous settings after
the video plays. You should keep in mind that this may be
difficult to do while you're "up front."
Presentation Material Run-Through
It is important to test your presentation on the computer which
you will be bringing to the presentation. For instance, you can
easily imagine what is going to happen if you create your
PowerPoint presentation on one computer and then transfer it to
another which doesn't have a PowerPoint viewer.
It is strongly suggested that you run through your
presentation at home with a secondary monitor attached to your
computer's video output connection and make sure that the
secondary monitor accurately duplicates what is on your laptop
screen, especially when playing video files.
As an added safety measure, it is suggested that you get to your
presentation early and have one of the staff or responsible
people help you connect your computer to the equipment that's
going to be used and do a brief run-through. That way if
things don't play well together, you can address the problem
before you start your presentation. Nothing clouds your
mind more than having a problem in front of your expectant
audience. We've all "been there - done that!"
Conclusion
If you are presenting to PCS, our members will assist you in any way possible to make sure
everything goes well. However, some problems simply
can't be fixed on the spur of the moment. Many
difficulties can be
avoided by prior testing at home and again before you are
scheduled to start your presentation. Typically, there are computer geeks
available at our meetings to help you do a quick run-through of your material.
In this way we can
see if there are any glitches that need to be dealt with BEFORE
the show starts.
Our own Andy Reti has written a fine article entitled "Setting
up Library Projector and PCS Laptop for Projecting Pictures or
Videos." While some of the material is specific to our own
equipment, there are many tips and tricks included which should
be of interest to anyone planning to present at the Prescott
Public Library or elsewhere. You may read Andy's article
here.
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