By Jacob Walker

We’ve all seen it happen; the presentation looked great at home, it worked fine when you practiced it, but when it’s you in front of forty people your laptop goes on the fritz and PowerPoint on vacation.

Let’s look at a few tech tips to help minimize the hair-pulling frustration of PowerPoint.

Tip 1 – Minimal

Wherever you’re going to speak, check to see if they already have a projector and laptop ready to display your PowerPoint. Ask if there will be a “tech” guy around to get your presentation set up and handle any tech problems. If it’s not needed don’t haul your own laptop around; simply bring your PowerPoint to the engagement and any “tech” guy worth his salt can get you set up. This lets you focus on speaking, not training to become a computer technician.

Tip 2 – Media

In order to appease PowerPoint and coax it into always playing your audio and video files correctly, place all media content in the same folder you saved the PowerPoint.

If the PowerPoint file is in a folder called “Presentation” and the video file you want to use is on the desktop, copy the video file to the folder “Presentation” and then add the video into PowerPoint.

Audio and video are not embedded into the PowerPoint file, they’re linked. If any files move, the link between PowerPoint and that video is broken and the video won’t play.

Tip 3 – Transferring PowerPoint

Going to move your presentation from computer to computer? In PowerPoint 2007 click the Office Button – Publish – Package for CD.

In pre 2007 click File – Package for CD.

I always click Options and check the box that says, “Embed TrueType Fonts.” This helps ensure (but doesn’t always guarantee) that the fonts you used in your presentation will display regardless of what computer the presentation is played on.

After you name your presentation, click “Copy to CD” to burn to a CD, or “Copy to Folder” to copy it to a USB flash drive or portable hard drive.

Jacob Walker is a multimedia designer at WinePress. He manages all stages of production, from shooting to editing. Although still a “young pup” by most standards, Jacob says he enjoys taking an author’s message to a new level through sight and sound.