Introduction

Below you will discover some tips on presenting a slideshow and the keystrokes required to show the slideshow.

You will also learn some useful SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader commands to help you complete this task.

Reading time: 10 minutes approx.

Delivering a presentation

With your slides created, organised, and notes added, it’s time to focus on presenting your slideshow. As with any performance, it is recommended you do several rehearsals to ensure you are confident, polished, and able to meet the time constraints imposed on the presentation.

You will find online many videos and webpages providing helpful advice on delivering effective presentations. Spending some time reviewing this information prior to delivering your presentation is well worth while.

Tips include: 

• Ensure your technology such as programs, files, camera, microphone, Internet connection, are all working correctly prior to the presentation.
• Pace your presentation to ensure you are not speaking to fast or slow. Correctly pacing your presentation ensures your audience stay engaged and are able to better comprehend the subject matter.
• Avoid the use of filler words such as "um," "ah," "hmm," "like," "you know," and "alright" that give you time to think. Such hesitations can quickly become a distraction to the audience when overused. Consider pausing, taking a deep breath, and a moment of silence to gather your thoughts.
• Ensure your delivery sounds natural. You should vary your volume and pitch to help emphasise important points and avoid sounding monotone.
• Ensure you are able to pronounce words clear and precise. If there are words you struggle to pronounce, try practicing or find similar words to use in your presentation.
• Ensure your presentation is inclusive. Avoid using outdated images and wording for disability, age, race, gender, and sexual orientation. Avoid sensitive geopolitical topics, and profanity.
• Do not repeat exactly what is shown on the slides. Allow your audience to read through each slide while you emphasise the important facts. Ensure alternative formats are available for members of the audience who require them.

It is important to remember that practice, practice, practice, will ensure you deliver a seamless presentation. It is also worth remembering that the audience are there because they are interested in the subject and what they can learn. They are on your side.

Keyboard commands to start and move through a slideshow

You can choose to start a slideshow from the beginning or from the current slide. When the slideshow is playing, you can move between slides and jump to specific slides using keyboard commands.

You can:

• Start slide show from beginning: F5.
• Start slide show from current slide: SHIFT + F5.
• Perform the next animation or go to the next slide: N, ENTER, PAGE DOWN, RIGHT ARROW, DOWN ARROW or SPACEBAR.
• Perform the previous animation or go to the previous slide: P, PAGE UP, LEFT ARROW, UP ARROW or BACKSPACE.
• Go to the first slide: 1 + ENTER. 
• Go to a slide number: n + ENTER (where n is the slide number).
• Stop or restart an automatic slideshow: S or SHIFT + EQUALS.
• Display a black screen in a slideshow: B or FULL STOP.
• Display a white screen in a slideshow: W or COMMA.
• Exit a slide show: ESCAPE.

Presenting a slideshow with a single monitor

If you are using a single monitor to present your slideshow, you will need to consider whether you want to speak the screen, magnify the screen, and apply colour, highlighting, and mouse pointer effects as they will be seen and heard by your audience. You should consider turning off the features you do not require.

If you use speech, SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader will automatically read the content of each slide as it appears.

You can use a variety of Speak keys to repeat the slide’s content.

You can inspect the slide in more detail by turning on the Dolphin Cursor and using the Arrow Keys to explore the slide.

To do this:

1. On the slide you want to review, toggle on the Dolphin Cursor. You can do this by pressing NUMPAD MINUS or, if you are using the Laptop Universal Hotkey Set, press CAPS LOCK + Z. Speech will announce "Dolphin Cursor restricted to area".
   If it does not state "… restricted to area", ensure the "Restrict Dolphin cursor to current area" check box is selected in the "Speech Advanced Options" dialog box of the SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader Control Panel (ALT + S, A).
2. Use the Arrow Keys to review the text.
3. When done, toggle off the Dolphin Cursor. You can do this by pressing NUMPAD MINUS or, if you are using the Laptop Universal Hotkey Set, press CAPS LOCK + Z.
4. Press SPACEBAR to perform the next animation or move onto the next slide. Speech will automatically read out the content of the slide.

Reading your speaker notes when using Slideshow View

Speaker notes provide a reminder of important points you may wish to discuss whilst the slide is visible. Your speaker notes are not visible to the audience during the slideshow. See the previous page to learn more about creating speaker notes.

To review your speaker notes during a presentation:

1. On the slide where you want to review your notes, toggle on the Dolphin Cursor. You can do this by pressing NUMPAD MINUS or, if you are using the Laptop Universal Hotkey Set, press CAPS LOCK + Z. Speech will announce "Dolphin Cursor restricted to area".
2. Press N to move the Dolphin Cursor to the notes area and use the Arrow Keys to review the text.
3. When done, do one of the following:
   • Press S to move the Dolphin Cursor back to the slide area. Here, you can continue to use the Dolphin cursor to explore the slide content, or you can press SPACEBAR to move onto the next slide. The Dolphin Cursor remains on and only the current line containing the focus is read in the new slide.
   • Press SPACEBAR to move onto the next slide. The Dolphin Cursor remains on and only the current line containing the focus is read out in the new slide. If the slide has notes, you can press N to move focus to the notes area again.
   • Toggle off the Dolphin Cursor by pressing NUMPAD MINUS or, if you are using the Laptop Universal Hotkey Set, press CAPS LOCK + Z, and then press SPACEBAR to move onto the next slide. Speech will automatically read out the content of the slide.

Tip: When exploring a slide and notes during a presentation with the Dolphin cursor, you can use the BACKSPACE key to go to the previous slide and SPACEBAR to go to the next slide. You should avoid using the other available PowerPoint slideshow navigation keys as they may conflict with Dolphin cursor commands.

Presenting using Presenter View

PowerPoint includes a Presenter View. Presenter View enables you to view your slide and notes on one monitor, typically your laptop, while the second larger monitor viewed by the audience shows only the slide.

In Presenter view, text and buttons are larger to make them easier to view and select. You can also increase the size of the text showing your speaker notes by using the related buttons. If you are using magnification, you may prefer to reduce the size of magnification and simply increase the size of the text.

The information available in Presenter View includes:

• The current slide number.
• The slide you are currently showing to the audience.
• Your speaker's notes.
• Previous and next slide buttons (but you can continue to use BACKSPACE and SPACEBAR to progress through your slideshow).
• Timer showing elapsed time in hours and minutes
• Option to view all slides as thumbnails.
• Option to use the pen, laser pointer, or highlighter tool.

The following video provides an introduction on how to setup Presenter View with SuperNova.

As explained, to setup Presenter View, do the following:

1. When you plug-in your second monitor, ensure Windows detects and configures it to use the extended desktop mode. You can press WINDOWS KEY + P to select your multiple monitor mode in Windows.
2. In the SuperNova Control Panel, open the "Visual" menu and select "Multiple Monitors" (ALT + V, U). The "Multiple Monitors" dialog box opens.
3. In the "Display mode for extended desktop" group, select "Side by side applications".
4. If you require magnification to view your notes, select the "Allow different magnification levels on each monitor" check box to enable you to turn off magnification on the second monitor.
5. If you require a Colour Scheme, select the "Independent colours" check box to enable you to turn off your Colour Scheme on the second monitor.
6. Select "OK" to confirm your changes.
7. Open your presentation in PowerPoint, and press ALT + F5 to begin your slideshow using Presentation View.
8. Press CAPS LOCK + MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON to move focus from the main monitor to the second monitor, turn off magnification and the Colour Scheme, and press CAPS LOCK + MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON again to return the mouse pointer to your main screen.

Tip: If you want to swap the display of your notes and slides, you can do so by selecting 'Swap Displays' in the task bar at the top left of Presenter View. This allows you to manually determine which screen shows your notes in Presenter View and which shows only the slides themselves.

Summary

In this section you learnt about the art of presenting a slideshow, the keyboard commands to control a slideshow, and the way to configure SuperNova to work with Presenter View.

If you find it difficult to track your notes using Presenter View, then consider alternatives such as printouts, keeping notes in a text editor, or storing notes on your smartphone. When it comes to presenting, it is whatever works best for you.

Quiz

1. During a slideshow presentation, pressing BACKSPACE moves you to the previous slide in your presentation. Is this statement true?
2. During a slideshow presentation, pressing SPACEBAR moves you forward in your presentation. Is this statement true?
3. Pressing ALT + F5 starts your slideshow presentation using Presenter View. Is this statement true?

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