PowerPoint 2013: 3 Tips For a Better Presentation

what's new in office 2013

In the right hands, PowerPoint can be an extremely useful presentation tool. However, much like Excel, the low barrier to entry for PowerPoint means that anyone can get their hands on the software and that’s where the problems begin. Cue poor presentations and cringe moments. These three tips twinned with our other bite-sized tips will help you on your way to becoming a PowerPoint 2013 pro.

Zoom, Drag & Drop

Zoom in on an image, photograph, table, text and more with the new magnifying glass tool. Great for emphasising important parts of a slide, it’s reminiscent of the pinch and slide function on the iPhone / iPad. Simply click on the magnifying glass and select the area in which you’d like to zoom by hovering your cursor and right clicking. Added to this, you can also move the zoom area by holding down your left mouse button and dragging the highlighted area to another spot.

Magnify

Jump to a slide

Another great feature of the acclaimed Presenter View, the Slide Navigator allows you to switch seamlessly between slides without the kitchen sink being displayed to the audience. Useful for all types of presentations, you’ll never be left flustered again when asked to jump to a slide. Just select the navigator icon and click on the slide you wish to open.

POWERPOINT SLIDE

Laser Pointer

Merging the offline and online, the laser pen tool is a great way to highlight key areas of your presentation that you’re talking about. Particularly handy when talking an audience through a table of data, the pen has an endless number of uses. Simply select the laser tool icon (select cursor colour) and begin using your highlighter.

LASER

Want to use PowerPoint  like a pro? Attend one of Best STL’s PowerPoint courses available London and UK wide.

PowerPoint 2013: See What’s Coming with Presenter View

new feature for microsoft office 2013One of the most common questions in PowerPoint training is “how can I see something different on my screen to the audience?” The answer is complicated and involves multiple graphics card outputs. The Presenter View was added in 2010 but has really come into it’s own in PowerPoint 2013.

In Presenter View you can see the current slide as well as the next slide and your notes on your monitor whilst the audience only sees the current slide. This is one of my favourite additions to PowerPoint as you are certain what is coming next, avoiding that embarrassing flicking between slides as you work out where that topic is.

presenter view in powerpoint 2013

There’s a whole bunch of other tools underneath the main thumbnail, such as being able to zoom into slides to add emphasis, display a laser pointer to draw attention, and jump around the presentation without the delegates seeing what you’re doing.

How to: The Presenter View will be used by default. If you want to enable or disable it go to SLIDE SHOW > Use Presenter View.