.KEYWORD presenter
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE Mobilize your PowerPoint presentations with Presenter-to-Go
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY If you give a lot of PowerPoint presentations on-the-go, you might be tired of lugging around your laptop to do so. If you’ve got a Handspring Visor, there’s a solution. Craig Bobchin reviews Presenter-to-Go, a new Springboard module that lets you run a PowerPoint presentation right from your handheld.
.AUTHOR Craig Bobchin
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 It’s not deja vu all over again
If you read PalmPower’s Enteprise Edition as well as PalmPower, it might seem like you’re experiencing deja vu. In the July issue of PalmPower’s Enterprise Edition, we ran "Take PowerPoint presentations on-the-go with powerViewer" at http://www.palmpowerenterprise.com/issues/issue200107/powerviewer001.html. That article was about getting PowerPoint down into your Palm OS device. This one’s about how to get your presentation out of your Palm OS device and onto the big screen.
.END_SIDEBAR
When Handspring first announced the Visor line of PDAs, people got very excited about the possibilities of the Springboard modules. It’s been almost two years now since the Visor was introduced, and the modules are really starting to show up — admittedly, after a bit of a delay.
One of the most exciting of these modules is one that I never even considered, and I’m sure that the idea took everyone else by surprise as well. If two years ago I had told you that you would be able to use your Visor to give a PowerPoint presentation to an audience, you’d probably have laughed at me and tried to have me committed.
Well, guess what? I’d have the last laugh. You see there’s now a Springboard module that lets you do just that. It’s called Presenter-to-Go from Margi (at http://www.presenter-to-go.com), and it’s one of the coolest modules I’ve had a chance to play with. The module is pictured in Figure A.
.FIG A Presenter-to-Go let’s you use your Visor to run PowerPoint presentations.
.H1 Setup
Setup was supposed to be easy. Just load the CD and run the setup program. However this is where I ran into my first and only problem with the system. It seems that the version of the software I was using didn’t include support for Windows 2000. Instead, the software required either Windows 98 or Windows ME. Neither of these was on my laptop. I had to go to the Presenter-to-Go Web site to download the newest version of the driver. Once I had this, things went a lot more smoothly.
Installation takes about five-minutes, and installs two pieces on the PC. One is a printer driver that will allow you to create presentations from Word, Excel, Adobe .PDF, and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) files, as well as PowerPoint presentations. In fact, you can create a presentation from virtually any Windows application by printing to this printer driver. For PowerPoint, you get a button that you push that does most of the work for you. Simply name the file and go. The other part of the PC side of the equation lets you move the converted presentation to the Palm HotSync manager system. Once you synchronize the Visor with your PC, you’re ready to go. One caveat you should know about is that Presenter-to-Go doesn’t support PowerPoint slide transitions, animation, or multimedia features. You’ll need to remove these from your presentation before you convert it.
.H1 Running the software
The Presenter-to-Go module slides into the Visor, but before you can use it, you must plug in the monitor adapter cable and then plug a power cord into that. Once this is taken care of, the program starts automatically. I plugged the other end of the cable into a monitor, and voila, I had a full-color presentation running from a monochrome Visor Deluxe. My co-workers were just as impressed as I was.
You can use the scroll buttons on the Visor or the included wireless remote control to advance the slides. You can also set an amount of time that will automatically switch the slides. Each Presenter-to-Go slide takes a few seconds to load, so don’t expect the same speed that you would get from a laptop or desktop driven presentation.
You cannot view the actual slides from the Visor. To view the actual slide, you must use a PC or a projector or monitor connected to the Visor. File editing can also only be done on the PC. The Visor only lets you reorganize the slides via drag and drop and view speaker notes on the screen of your Visor while the Presenter-to-Go module shows the corresponding slide on the monitor.
The module has 2MB of Flash RAM that you can use to store your presentations. The 23-slide 4.5MB presentation I converted shrank by 50% to a little over 2MB in size. At this size, I needed to store it on my Visor, rather than the module. However, I was able to use the included FileMover software to move some of my other files to the module and make room on the Visor.
I have to admit, I’m quite impressed with Presenter-to-Go. It’s quick and easy to use, and it really shows how far you can take a Visor. It also provides another method of giving presentations to a group without having to worry about lugging a laptop. For me, sales people, and other presentation-oriented users, it seems like a very good bargain at around $299. But at that price, it’s a rather expensive Springboard module and I’d assume you’d need to have a pretty serious need to be able to justify the expense.
Presenter-to-Go requires a 486 processor or higher; 32MB of RAM; 50MB of hard drive space; a CD-ROM drive; Windows 2000, 98, 98SE, or ME; a Handspring Visor with 102KB of free RAM; and a monitor or projector.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Presenter-to-Go from Margi, visit http://www.presenter-to-go.com.
For more information about Palm computers, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ee6f666
