A top complaint from audience members is that many presenters put too much emphasis on PowerPoint and technology while neglecting the message and interaction with participants. One way to deliver more effective presentations that improve your connection to your audience is to add a remote control to your presentation tools.

Why would one more piece of technology actually switch your focus from PowerPoint to your audience? Have you been distracted (or bored) as a presenter stopped the flow of their talk to pace back to the laptop to change to another slide or as they waited for a partner to move to the next slide? This is one of the 6 reasons why you need a remote for your PowerPoint presentations:

• Break Down the AV Wall. Without a remote, you are limited to the area by your laptop which builds a wall between you and your audience;
• Get Control. You never want someone else to control the computer while you have to keep saying, "next please" or flash hand signals. This approach breaks the flow of the speech, annoys your audience, and risks that your helper moves to the wrong slide;
• Fewer Distractions. Use a remote to stop distracting others who watch you walking back to your computer to move to the next slide. Plus, a remote helps you maintain eye contact with the audience instead of looking at your laptop;
• Smoother Animations. The impact and flow of most animations is lost when you run animations manually from your laptop;
• More Professional. Presenting without a remote takes away from the professionalism of a presenter and directs the focus to the technology (or to the lack of tech-savvy if anything goes wrong);
• Cool Factor. Okay, maybe not a key justification, but a remote is a nifty and useful addition to your technology tools.

With a presentation remote control, you can more effectively and smoothly deliver an electronic presentation and communicate your message. That said, even though I am a huge fan of remotes, you always want to know multiple ways to navigate with the keyboard while delivering a PowerPoint presentation. Keyboard commands may sometimes be faster or at least give you a backup plan.

Dawn Bjork Buzbee

Dawn Bjork Buzbee is The Software Pro and a certified Microsoft Office Expert and Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor. Dawn shares smart and easy ways to effectively use software and technology through her work as a speaker, trainer, and consultant. Discover more tips, tricks, tools, and techniques at http://www.SoftwarePro.com

PowerPoint 2007 contains several built-in themes, which include theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects. Whether you use an existing built-in theme, create a new theme, or modify an existing built-in theme, follow this procedure to apply a theme to your presentation.

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In addition to the dramatically different user interface and new file formats shared with other Microsoft Office 2007 programs, Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 also sports an upgraded look and improved tools:

1. PowerPoint 2007 includes new Themes, Layouts, and Quick Styles which offer you a wide range of options for formatting your presentations. In the past, formatting a presentation was time-consuming because you had to choose the color and style options individually. With one click, the background, text, graphics, charts, and tables all change to reflect the theme you select, ensuring all elements in your presentation complement one another. Select a theme, and the Quick Style galleries change to adapt to that particular theme.
2. When you scroll over the wide variety of presentation themes in PowerPoint, you will see slides and objects display with Real-time Previews that show you what they will look like if you decide to apply the settings.
3. With Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 there are now expanded choices for slide layouts in each slide master. Plus, you can also create your own Custom Slide Layouts.
4. New SmartArt diagrams, a new charting engine, and enhanced graphics help you create professional-looking layouts with 3-D shapes, transparency, drop shadows, and other effects. Slide graphics can look even more impressive with improved text and shape effects including reflections, glows, soft edges, and enhanced 3D controls.
5. Microsoft Chart has been banished! PowerPoint 2007 charts are now automatically created in Excel for ease of use and more professional results.
6. By using two monitors, and the Presenter View, you can run your PowerPoint 2007 presentation from one monitor while your audience views it on the second monitor. With the Presenter View, you can customize which slides to display, see preview text, and use speaker notes as a script for your presentation.
7. With new and improved features that Protect and Manage information, you can find and remove hidden data (sometimes called metadata) and personal information, and prevent changes to a final version of a presentation.

Dawn Bjork Buzbee

Dawn Bjork Buzbee is The Software Pro and a certified Microsoft Office Expert and Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor. Dawn shares smart and easy ways to effectively use software and technology through her work as a software speaker, trainer, and consultant. Discover more tips, tricks, tools, and techniques at http://www.SoftwarePro.com

If you work with layered items on PowerPoint slides, the Selection Pane, new in the 2007 Office release, can make that task easier. The Selection Pane lists each item on your slide so you can apply custom effects to just that item, without having to click through the layers on the slide itself. When you finish, you can preview the effects and unhide all the items and your slide is ready to go. Watch the demo and you'll be a Selection Pane pro in no time.

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