Pen size when presenting in Powerpoint 2007

[Karsten@UMassAmherst]

We are using Powerpoint 2007 and tablet PCs teaching large science classes.
It is great to ink directly on the presented slides, but the cursor in pen
mode is so tiny that our students can't see it. We could switch back and
forth between pointer and pen, but that wastes a lot of lecture time. Is
there a way to increase the size of the cursor in pen mode, or to change it
from a moving dot to an icon like a pen?
--
Karsten Theis
Biochemistry Dept
University of Massachusetts Amherst

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...0-2ae19d9c66b5&dg=microsoft.public.powerpoint

 

[spudmachine]

Hi Karsten,
If you hover your cursor over the pen during the slideshow and click it,
you'll see you can change it to "felt tip pen" or "highlighter", instead of
the default "ballpoint pen".

Felt tip pen is a little wider than ballpoint, but the highlighter is really
wide. By default the highlighter colour is yellow, but you can alter that
to whatever you like on the same popup menu.

Does that solve your problem?

Cheers,
Geoff

 

[Karsten@UMassAmherst]

Hi Geoff,
no, unfortunately it doesn't solve our problem. We would like to use the pen
to write a fair amount of text (so the line width has to be fairly small),
but then also use the pen cursor to point out locations on the slide (like a
laser pointer). We often take a recording of the lecture and audio for later
posting on the web. The recording software allows us to increase the pointer
size after the fact, but this does not affect what students see in class.

We do figured out a workaround by having some action buttons right on the
slides allowing for fast switching between the arrow and the pen.

Thanks,
Karsten