​Presenter View: The Presenter's Secret Weapon!

Presentations are canvases that narrate rich stories. The presenter now resembles a story teller with a script or a broader idea from which a captivating story is told. Unlike a narrator holding a book though, presenters have traditionally relied on slides projected on the screen to guide the audience. Unfortunately, there is very little access to content beyond the brief script on the slide – a major headache for presenters who deliver long presentations.

This is where the Presenter View benefits speakers. Presenter view enables you to see what the audience is viewing on the screen, while also having an extended version of the presentation open on your laptop. This means, as a presenter you no longer have to depend on the same slides duplicated on two screens. You also have access to elaborate slide content and a set of other tools that makes presentations effortless.

All that needs to be done is to configure the laptop to run two screen simultaneously – the laptop screen for you (the presenter) and the projector screen for your audience.

Here is a quick guide on how you can deliver better presentations using the Presenter View:

1. View notes privately

The Presenter View gives you access to the slide notes you had made while preparing the presentation. You can have detailed reference notes for each slide and use the same during the presentation. This can only be viewed on your monitor while the audience gets to see a ‘notes-free’ view of the slide. 

Slide notes completely eliminates the need to carry hand held notes or the embarrassment of running out of words or relevant ideas while delivering a lecture.

2. Keep track of presentation time

Every presenter is notified of the time available to deliver a talk before they begin their presentation session. However, we frequently end up spending more time on each slide or wind up sessions faster than we are required to. This can be avoided if the presenter has a detailed view of the elapsed time in minutes/hours since the start of the presentation.

The Presenter View lets you do just that. It helps keep a detailed track of the time consumed per slide so that you know when to speed up or slow down the presentation delivery.

3. Use slide pen to highlight content 

Presenters can now use a slide pen to highlight content on their laptop during the presentation. The slide pen can be used by the speaker to mark or highlight content on any relevant slide.The highlighted content is reflected in real time on the screen displayed to the audience.

This makes life easy for presenters who often struggle with pocket lasers to point out peaks or troughs in graphs or any content that had key takeaways.

4. Zoom in to convey ideas better

With the zoom in feature, a presenter can now provide a bird’s eye view of any topic and then zoom into a particular point in the slide to elaborate the idea. Such a presentation follows a non-linear format where each relevant point on the slide is clickable and lets you zoom in further, unraveling a story step by step.

If your text-rich presentations with bullet points get monotonous, ‘Zoom’ is the perfect feature to bring back your audience’s attention.

5. Blacken screen during presentation

The blackout button in the Presenter View helps you darken the audience screen and the slide being displayed, while maintaining your view of the presentation on your monitor. With the slide blackened, the focus is completely on the presenter and the talk given than on the content or visuals displayed on the slide. This typically works best when you wish to refocus the audience’s attention on you or address their questions.

The Presenter View is any presenter’s best friend. If the art of presentation is story telling at its core, then the Presenter View is the perspective that helps you craft engaging stories beyond what’s seen on a slide.

Click here to view other exciting features in Zoho Show that will help you deliver smarter presentations.