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Feature: Presentations, Hotspots, Shortcuts

What an accommodating group of people you are. In my previous columns, I've asked you to send me tips on all sorts of things. And lo and behold, you've sent me tips--on giving presentations, finding hotspots, and so on. So this week, we're all about tips, courtesy of Mobile Computing's great readers.

Putting on a Show

Presenting on a Palm: Nick Caruso of Bloomfield, Connecticut, often projects his PowerPoint presentations from a Palm Tungsten T3 using Margi Presenter-to-Go ($199), an XGA-resolution projector that connects to Palm OS and Pocket PC devices. Though the setup works fine and often impresses his audience, Microsoft PowerPoint can offer only static presentations, Nick reports.

Nick's solution is to create a PowerPoint presentation with semi-animated bulleted entries.

Start by creating your last PowerPoint slide, which contains all the bullet points you'll be discussing during your presentation. Use a copy of the last slide for all the other slides that will go before it in your presentation. Then, for your presentation's first slide, delete all the bullet points from the slide except for the first one. In the second slide, delete everything but the first two points, and so on. The result: Each slide will add a new bullet point to the ones you've already discussed, giving your presentation the appearance of animation.

Pass It Around: With a PDA, you don't have to be in a darkened conference room to give a presentation, notes Joe Ballenger, Jr., of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Have a new product or service to sell? Keep a brief PowerPoint presentation on your Palm OS device or on a Pocket PC. Then, when someone asks about your business, you've got a quick presentation to show them. "The sale might be made on the spot," Joe writes. "Or you might get an appointment to give the full presentation later."

True, but there are a couple of caveats.

First, not all Palm OS devices come with DataViz Documents To Go, which allows you to view PowerPoint presentations. Pocket PCs don't include a Pocket version of PowerPoint, so you'll need a third-party application such as Pocket SlideShow 1.30 ($20) by CNetX.

Second, make sure your audience is truly interested in your product or service before you shove a PDA presentation in their face. Otherwise, you could lose a potential customer rather than gain one.

Take a Picture--It Lasts Longer: When you hold a meeting, do you write key points down on a flipchart or dry-erase whiteboard? If so, Gary Kustis of Lakewood, Ohio, has a hot tip for you. When the meeting's over, use a digital camera to take pictures of the flipchart pages or the whiteboard. Then e-mail the images to the meeting participants, so everyone will have a record. Better yet, Gary suggests importing the image files into a PowerPoint presentation and adding your comments and any resulting to-do items. You could also import the pictures into Word and add captions.

I live with a flipchart freak and tested Gary's tip by using my Minolta Dimage Xi camera. It worked beautifully. And the Flipchart Freak was thrilled--finally, a way to get rid of all those huge notepads stacked up in the closet.

Finding Hotspots

Use Your IPod to Find a Hotspot: If you live in or frequently travel to the San Francisco Bay Area, you can turn your IPod into a free hotspot finder.

Here's how: Go to the Bay Area Free Wi-Fi page. Download the free zipped WiPod utility and uncompress it. If you haven't already enabled disk use for your IPod (meaning your computer recognizes it as a hard drive), do so from within the IPod Preferences menu in ITunes. Then, copy the desired folders, such as San Francisco or San Jose, into the IPod's Notes folder. Done.

Thanks to Simon Blackstein of San Francisco for this tip.

Go to the Library: Bill Drew of Morrisville, New York, wrote to remind me that public libraries are great places to find free hotspots. His Web site, The Wireless Librarian, will help you find one in your area.

Check Out the Top 10: I stumbled upon a handy list of the "Top 10 Ways to Find Public Hotspots," featuring links for free and commercial hotspot locators.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Kathleen Derrick of El Paso, Texas, reminds me that hitting F10 usually sends you automatically to your application's menu bar. Use the Left Arrow and Right Arrow keys to move among menu items. When you land on the desired menu, press Down Arrow to pop it open.

Also, you can move among worksheets in an Excel file with Ctrl-Page Up and Ctrl-Page Down.

For more tips, read "Essential Keyboard Shortcuts."

Keep 'Em Coming

Got tips on ways to get the most out of your notebook, PDA, or smart phone? Keep them coming.