Rapid Recall of Slides

  • Thread starter Thread starter M
  • Start date Start date
M

M

Greetings, all.
I'm working on a PowerPoint presentation that gets presented to a committee
on December 1. We just ran our mock presentation session, and I realize
that we're in serious trouble when we're trying to find a specific backup
slide out of a deck of 200+ during the Q&A session.


Does anyone know of any software that could tie into PowerPoint and generate
some sort of an index that would allow for the rapid recall of a particular
slide? Key words aren't too effective, as they can appear dozens of times
across multiple slides.

We have tried sorting them into six primary categories, but we still end up
with 20-30 slides in each category. That really slows searching for the
appropriate slide. The CEO is asking for the correct slide in three seconds
or less.

I appreciate any help!

Michael
 
What if you placed a link on each page to the backup slide? The link doesn't
even have to be visible on the slide. You could use a small square in one
corner of each slide (same corner on each) and give it "no fill" and "no line".

The backup slides can be at the end of the presentation and set to "hidden".
Each of them can have a link to "last viewed slide" so that you can return
easily.
 
Greetings, all.
I'm working on a PowerPoint presentation that gets presented to a committee
on December 1. We just ran our mock presentation session, and I realize
that we're in serious trouble when we're trying to find a specific backup
slide out of a deck of 200+ during the Q&A session.

Does anyone know of any software that could tie into PowerPoint and generate
some sort of an index that would allow for the rapid recall of a particular
slide? Key words aren't too effective, as they can appear dozens of times
across multiple slides.
Click to expand...

If you can find indexing software you like, it's a fairly simple matter to
extract most of the text out of a PPT presentation, probably not too much more
difficult to do it in a way that points back to the specific slide.

Perhaps the best thing would be to have the index and so on running on a
different computer that somebody can plug search terms into; it comes back
with a slide number, the slide show operator types that in and hits Enter.

Possibly an indexed Acrobat PDF of the presentation would be sufficient.
 
Probably the easiest way is to create your own INDEX (in Word) using the
slide titles, have it near you, and when asked for a topic, find the slide
number, type that number and press ENTER and you go directly to that slide.

One of our MVPs has some code that does just that:

http://www.mvps.org/skp/ppt00037.htm#export

--
Bill Foley, Microsoft MVP (PowerPoint)
Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor
www.pttinc.com
Check out PPT FAQs at: http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/
"Success, something you measure when you are through succeeding."
 
I'll toss my suggestion in as well.

At the beginning of each section/category of your presentation, add a hidden
slides with miniatures of each of the slides in that section with hyperlinks
to each. Then at the beginning of the show, add a hidden slide with links
to the sections.

So, when you want to find a slide, type 1 <enter> to get to the section
directory, then click the slide miniature within that section to get to the
slide. If you find a section has too many slides, you can add a
sub-category level and screens. Because the slides that do this indexing
are all hidden, they do not interfere with the presentation.

With 2 or three clicks to get to a slide, you should be able to come in
under the 3 second rule. And because they are all included in the
presentation, there is no separate program, file, or printout to misplace.


--
Bill Dilworth
Microsoft PPT MVP Team
===============
Please spend a few minutes checking vestprog2@
out www.pptfaq.com This link will yahoo.
answer most of our questions, before com
you think to ask them.

Change org to com to defuse anti-spam,
ant-virus, anti-nuisance misdirection.
..
..
 
Some very creative suggestions. Thank you all!

I should have indicated that the Q&A session will follow the primary
presentation, so linking a primary slide to a backup slide as Sonia
suggested won't work in this case.

I'll pursue some of the good ideas presented. New suggestions are still
welcome!

Michael
 
I should have indicated that the Q&A session will follow the primary
presentation, so linking a primary slide to a backup slide as Sonia
suggested won't work in this case.
Click to expand...

That was my guess: you get to the end of the formal presentation and once the
floor's opened to Q/A, you might have to find any of your 200 slides, not just
the ones that relate to a particular section, right?

A lot will depend on how familiar the operator is with the presentation (or the
person behind the operator calling the shots ... this definitely sounds like a
two-person play to me; one to find the slide in a panic, the other to drive the
show there).

Hmm. So what if you used one of these or a combo.

Export Slide Number and Title Text to a text file
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00332.htm

Export Text to a text file (Mac or PC)
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00274.htm

Export slide numbers, titles and text to a text file.
Open the file in Word, use Word's find feature to locate the text you're after,
yell out the slide number and the operator punches it in.
 
[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the Critical
Update or Service Pack 1 for Office 2003 as soon as possible. From
PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for Updates".]

[TOP ISSUE - Are you having difficulty opening presentations in PowerPoint
that you just created (you can save, but not open)? -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329820]

Hello,

It sounds that, although there are workarounds, you might like this to be a
lot easier to do in PowerPoint.

If you (or anyone else reading this message) have suggestions for features
which might make it easier to accomplish this kind of ad hoc navigation
during slide show, don't forget to send your feedback (in YOUR OWN WORDS,
please) to Microsoft by either:

PREFERRED METHOD:

A) If you are using Microsoft's web-based, online newsreader for Office
communities
(http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.p
ublic.powerpoint), check to see whether or not the suggestion has been
submitted before (Show -> Suggestions for Microsoft) and, if so, add your
vote to the suggestion submission. If the suggestion has not been submitted
before, click on the "New" drop-down menu and choose "Suggestion for
Microsoft" from directly within the newsreader web page.

OR, NEXT BEST METHOD:

B) If you are using another newsreader (such as Microsoft Outlook Express),
submit your suggestion using your web browser at the following address:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

It's VERY important that, for EACH wish, you describe in detail, WHY it is
important TO YOU that your product suggestion be implemented. A good wish
submssion includes WHAT scenario, work-flow, or end-result is blocked by
not having a specific feature, HOW MUCH time and effort ($$$) is spent
working around a specific limitation of the current product, etc. Remember
that Microsoft receives THOUSANDS of product suggestions every day and we
read each one but, in any given product development cycle, there are ONLY
sufficient resources to address the ones that are MOST IMPORTANT to our
customers so take the extra time to state your case as CLEARLY and
COMPLETELY as possible so that we can FEEL YOUR PAIN.

IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions).

John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
Back
Top