Rehearsing Presentations in PowerPoint 2003

Introduction It's always a good idea to rehearse a presentation before you give it, not only in terms of its content but also the time it takes to give. It's surprising how time flies when you give a talk and most presenters overestimate what they can get through. PowerPoint offers you a very useful facility to check you will be able to finish in good time and that's what's covered in this document. PowerPoint also lets you create a self-running presentation, which loops round and round until someone stops it. This is ideal for Open Days and Exhibitions, where you require information to be presented unattended. This related topic is also covered here.

Timing a Presentation Begin by opening an existing presentation: 1. Start up PowerPoint then click on the [Open] button (or use Open from the File menu) 2. Select one of your own files (or change Look In to User (D:) and use the file training.ppt in the folder Training) 3. [Open] the file then click on the Slide Show menu and choose Rehearse Timings The presentation starts to run, with a stopwatch timing it. This is shown on a special Rehearsal floating toolbar, along with various other buttons:

The buttons perform the following functions: (1) (2) (3) (4)

[Next] - moves you on to the next slide [Pause] - pauses the stopwatch [Slide Time] - the elapsed time for this particular slide [Repeat] - restart the stopwatch for this slide

(5) The final button is the stopwatch itself and shows the total elapsed time for all slides Don't worry that the time is still clicking away, you'll be restarting the clock in a second or two anyway. 4. Click on the [Pause] button to stop the clock 5. Compose yourself, ready to give your talk, then click on [Repeat] to reset the clock to 0:00:00 6. Introduce the first slide, saying whatever you want to say, then move on to slide 2 using whichever method you prefer (eg press or click on the mouse button - you don't have to use the special [Next] button unless you want to) 7. Continue with your talk, moving to the next slide when you've finished what you have to say on this one Remember, if ever you get confused, click on [Pause] to stop the clock. You can then either reset the timing on that slide back to zero (using [Repeat]) or resume your talk by clicking the [Pause] button. You can also type in an estimated or corrected time for the slide (eg to take a few seconds off if you messed up something) - try this next: 8. Immediately before moving to another slide, click on the [Pause] button then click on [Slide Time] - the cursor is placed in the time box 9. Press to move the cursor to the right and correct the time 10. Press to fix the new time and move on to the next slide (the total elapsed time is corrected automatically) When you reach the end of the show, a dialog box appears giving you the total time taken. This is a useful indication of how long your talk will last. It's a good idea to save the timings so that you can then plan any adjustments which need to be made to your talk.

11. Press for [Yes] to save the timings You are now taken to Slide Sorter View, with the individual times showing for the slides below each of them on the left.

Editing the Timings Besides being able to edit the timings while rehearsing (as in steps 8 to 11 above), you can also change the time for a particular slide while in other views: 1. Click on the slide whose timing you wish to change 2. Open the Slide Show menu and choose Slide Transition... - the Slide Transition task pane appears 3. Under the heading Advance slide change Automatically after to the required time 4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 for any other slide timings which need to be changed In fact you can use this method to set the original timings, without having to rehearse the show at all. This somewhat defeats the object of rehearsing your presentation, but it can be useful if you are setting up a continuous show for an Open Day or Exhibition (where you might want to scroll through a series of pictures every few seconds, for example). You can also adjust the timings when rehearsing: 5. Open the Slide Show menu and select Rehearse Timings The stopwatch starts up from afresh, just as if you were starting the whole process over again. You can, of course, record everything again or you have the option to retain the original timings for any slide: 6. Press (for original) to cancel the new time and retain the old one 7. For the next slide, revise your talk (ie let the stopwatch continue to run and record a new time) - make use of [Pause] and [Repeat] if necessary 8. Move to the next slide as normal (eg press ) 9. Repeat either step 7 (to revise a time) or step 6 (to retain the original one) until you reach the end of your presentation 10. Press for [Yes] to save the changes to the timings

Note that the total elapsed time for the show is not given correctly. 11. End by pressing to run your presentation and test out your new timings - if they are not what you want, repeat steps 5 to 10 all over again Note: You can also use the key to set new timings while rehearsing, though this has the same effect as moving through the presentation using the normal keyboard keys or mouse button press.

Removing Timings For some talks, it's useful to have some slides with timed animations while others are moved on manually. You can do this via the Task Pane or when rehearsing your talk: 1. Open the Slide Show menu and select Rehearse Timings 2. Press to keep the original timings for a slide or if you want to move on manually 3. Repeat step 2 until you reach the end of your presentation 4. Press for [Yes] to save the changes to the timings Slide Sorter View now shows timings for certain slides only. 5. Test our your new timings (press to run the show) and note how some slides move on automatically but others wait for you to move on Tip: Don't forget that you can always override automatic timings when giving a presentation anyway by moving on manually. To remove the automatic timing from a particular slide: 6. Click on the slide to select it (in Slide Sorter or Normal view) 7. In the Slide Transition task pane, turn off the Automatically after check box To remove the timings from all your slides: 8. Carry out step 7 for any slide in your show then click on the [Apply to All Slides] button at the foot of the Slide Transition task pane

9. Here, click on the [Undo] button to restore your settings - you need them for the next exercise

Suspending Timings Having run through your presentation several times, checking that what you will be saying will fit the time you have been allocated, it's a good idea to suspend the timings for your actual talk. It's generally not a good idea to leave them running as your show may move on to the next slide before you are ready for it. The only exception to this is where you are giving a talk with a show running independently in the background. For example, you might be giving a lecture on art which is illustrated by a series of paintings. In this case, use a mixture of manual and automatic settings for advancing slides. 1. Open the Slide Show menu and choose Set Up Show... - the following window appears:

2. Under the heading Advance slides on the right, turn on the Manually option 3. Press for [OK] then to run your presentation

You will find that the timings are no longer working - you have to move on manually. If you want to reinstate them: 4. Press to end your presentation 5. Repeat steps 1 to 3, as above, but at step 2 turn on Using timings, if present Continuous Looping

Presentations which loop continuously have been mentioned earlier in this document. To set up your presentation to do this: 1. Open the Slide Show menu and choose Set Up Show... 2. Under Show options on the left of the dialog box, turn on Loop continuously until 'Esc' 3. Press for [OK] Before you test this out, it's worth making sure you have timings on all your slides: 4. Click on any slide in your presentation 5. Under Advance slide in the Slide Transition task pane, set Automatically after to a couple of seconds 6. Click on [Apply to All Slides] to set this timing on them all 7. Now press to run your presentation Let the presentation run to the end and then watch as it is repeated over and over again. Obviously, the timings are not correct for this particular file and would need to be set individually on each slide. To stop the show running: 8. Press to end your presentation