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Equipment Checks
Here's a list of equipment checks to make.
Check Your Batteries. Use your batteries once in a while, even if you have an AC power cord. Replace your batteries if you notice that one that used to last three hours now lasts only forty minutes. Remember that batteries have a shelf life. They don't work forever. Regularly drain your laptop battery (at least once a month) until it totally runs out and then recharge.
Check the Presentation Links. Rehearse with the laptop and projector you will be using to be sure it can smoothly and quickly handle all the graphics, video, and sound. When you are giving a presentation with hyperlinks someone else put together, it is imperative to practice so you can easily navigate through all the different forms of media. Make sure you have practiced using the links before you attempt to give the presentation in front of a live audience. Also, check your links just before giving the talk. You want to be sure that all the links go to the appropriate slide. If you plan to set up a link to a Website or Intranet and then give the presentation while connected to the Internet, also copy and put the most important Website documents in a file. That way, if the Internet connection does not work, you will still have some documents to show. Here are some hints about making sure your presentation links will work. If you are linking between files, put all those files in one folder. Then all you have to do is copy the folder to your laptop or on a CD and the links will be there.
Check Your Projector and Screen. Try the presentation on the same size screen you will be using. Colors look different on small to large screens. Images look different and can change clarity on different size screens. The most common mistake people make is to believe that what is readable on the laptop computer screen will be readable on a seven-foot screen by an audience member in the last row. Fonts have to be twenty-four points or bigger just to be sure the text will be readable by everyone in the audience.
You may think that your slides will look fine with the LCD projector the hotel has given you. But then you see that your watermarked slides and certain colors look terrible. Be sure to look at those slides with the large screen. You may want to have a test file of all the slides you are concerned about. Then you only have to look at those. You could even send the test file to the person who is in charge of getting you a good LCD projector and have him or her test the file to be sure the slide colors look good.
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Video can sometimes be a problem. You must know how to switch CRT/LCD laptop settings so the video will show when running it from PowerPoint. You may see the video on the laptop screen, but not on the big screen. Some laptops work with video better than others do. Said one presenter: "I've used Gateways that run video with no hitch, while the Dell Latitudes that I'm using now, I have to switch the CRT/LCD setting every time I run a slide with a video, which is always a hassle and throws off my momentum when presenting." The only real fail-safe way to ensure that the video always works is to blank out the laptop screen. Use the function keys to do this so the computer is set to connect to the external port only. Then close the laptop screen down onto the laptop. This means you'll need a remote mouse, as you won't be able to press the arrow key on the keyboard. Be sure your power cord is connected.
Always use a projector whose native resolution matches the native resolution of the laptop screen. In other words, if the laptop screen is XGA (or 1024 3 768), then use a projector with a native resolution that is also XGA. If the resolutions are not the same, it will still work, but the audience may see jagged edges around the characters.
Another reason to rehearse with a projector is that many projectors don't support the same number of colors as your laptop. Consequently, watermarked photos and pastel colors tend to disappear. If you have to depend on other projectors, then you may not want to watermark photos.
Question Compatibility Resolution and Software Program. If you are not bringing your own LCD projector, make sure that your laptop resolution will be compatible with the projector. If you are using someone else's equipment, be sure the software is compatible with yours. Ask very specific questions to be sure you can use the other person's equipment. For example, you may bring your presentation on disk only to find that the software program on-site is not a version you can use or that the equipment doesn't have enough memory to run your presentation. You may have to save your presentation in several different software versions. Leave yourself adequate time for rehearsing, to be sure all of the versions and equipment work together. One presenter related this: "After a horrendous experience, I never leave anything AV up to the organizers of any show. I now directly confirm our needs with the technical professionals, regardless of the organizers."
Practice Using a Remote Mouse. This is essential. No one should stand by a laptop and push the page-down keys when presenting. And don't have someone else push the keys for you. You ought to be able to give your presentation by yourself and easily change your slides. Watching a presenter tell someone else when to push the page-down key or, worse yet, hearing the presenter say, "next slide please," is totally unnecessary with the available technology. Buy a remote mouse and practice with it. This way you can seamlessly and unobtrusively advance to the next slide without stopping your presentation, breaking eye contact with the audience, walking up to the computer, and looking for the right button to press.
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