• Beware of Counterfeit Woodturning Tools (click here for details)
  • Johnathan Silwones is starting a new AAW chapter, Southern Alleghenies Woodturners, in Johnstown, PA. (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Paul May for "Checkerboard (ver 3.0)" being selected as Turning of the Week for March 25, 2024 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Presentation

Joined
Jul 24, 2008
Messages
712
Likes
187
Location
Montfort, Wisconsin
Al's recent thread on green wood mentioned using his iPad with a power point presentation. I'd like to ask how that's done all the way from development on the iPad through to the final transfer to a large screen or TV for the audience.

What other processes do demonstrators use? My club meets at an education institution so we put our power point ,that we developed at home on our PC, on a thumb drive and use the schools computers and projection system. I'm not sure what we'd do if we didn't have that capability.
 

AlanZ

Resident Techno Geek
Joined
Mar 15, 2009
Messages
533
Likes
228
Location
Oradell, NJ
I will address the output side. There are adapters for iOS devices that send video to external monitors and projectors. For example the Lightning to HDMI cable, or the older 30 pin to HDMI adapters that predate the Lightning port. There are similar adapters for VGA and component output, but HDMI is preferred.
 
Joined
Jul 24, 2008
Messages
712
Likes
187
Location
Montfort, Wisconsin
Thank you Alan. I know you're doing some amazing things with demo transmission.

I do have the adapter to watch you tube etc. on my HD TV. I didn't realize video projectors had HDMI inputs. I'll have to take a look at those.
 

hockenbery

Forum MVP
Beta Tester
TOTW Team
Joined
Apr 27, 2004
Messages
8,592
Likes
4,888
Location
Lakeland, Florida
Website
www.hockenberywoodturning.com
I get this question a lot from other demonstrators.
A lot easier to carry an iPad than it is to bring boxes of stuff to show.
And everyone is looking at the slide at the same time instead of asking their neighbor "what did he say about this thing he passed around"

I have hdmi & VGA adapters but mostly use the vga adapter because those are more commonly found when I do demos. The future is hdmi until something replaces it.
I also have some RCA cables.
Your large screen tv it likely takes hdmi.
A 20 or 30 foot cable comes in handy since you won't want to be tethered to the tv.

If your eyes are lot better than mine you can show PowerPoint from an iPhone.
I like the iPad everything is big enough to see easily when using the presentation screen I see the current audience slide, notes panel for that slide, and five slides along the bottom. Touching the audience slide creates a pointer dot that moves with the finger, there are a couple of drawing tools I use sort of like a super pointer that persist when I circle or underline something on the slide. I have used it to draw semi-recognizable bowl profiles on photos of log sections.

Building the PowerPoint can be done on the ipad or a PC. I build a set of slides with text, photos, and videos, then add my speaker notes, and finally export a PDF to post on the web as a handout.
Then I edit, reorder, add, subtract.........
I always try to play my PowerPoint on a big screen tv before I give it to an audience.
Gives me a better feeling for how thing look and sometimes see a typo that has defied every other proofing technique.

I have a subscription to Microsoft around $100 a year for the office suite it lets us put PowerPoint on 2 PCs and 2 IPads. I think the limit is 5 devices. The PowerPoint app has most of the functionality of the windows version but it doesn't have the albums. One shortcut I use frequently to put a lot of photos in into a presentation is to make an album. A few button clicks can put every photo in a folder into a its own slide in the order you specify.
 
Last edited:

Bill Boehme

Administrator
Staff member
Beta Tester
TOTW Team
Joined
Jan 27, 2005
Messages
12,886
Likes
5,169
Location
Dalworthington Gardens, TX
Website
pbase.com
AI, when you were at SWAT two or three years ago you gave a web link to your presentation. I had my iPad with me so I was following along with your PowerPoint slides displayed on the iPad. This also allowed me to be able to back up when you referred to something earlier. The guys sitting next to me were wondering how I was able to do that without wires. For anybody who hasn't attended a demonstration by Al, he does a great job of holding the attention of his audience. And, people ask questions which is always a good sign.
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2015
Messages
347
Likes
149
Location
Aurora, Ont, CA
Website
www.revolvingarts.ca
I have hdmi & VGA adapters but mostly use the vga adapter because those are more commonly found when I do demos. The future is hdmi until something replaces it.
I also have some RCA cables.
Your large screen tv it likely takes hdmi.
A 20 or 30 foot cable comes in handy since you won't want to be tethered to the tv.

Building the PowerPoint can be done on the ipad or a PC. I build a set of slides with text, photos, and videos, then add my speaker notes, and finally export a PDF to post on the web as a handout.
Then I edit, reorder, add, subtract.........
I always try to play my PowerPoint on a big screen tv before I give it to an audience.
Gives me a better feeling for how thing look and sometimes see a typo that has defied every other proofing technique.

I have a subscription to Microsoft around $100 a year for the office suite it lets us put PowerPoint on 2 PCs and 2 IPads. I think the limit is 5 devices. The PowerPoint app has most of the functionality of the windows version but it doesn't have the albums. One shortcut I use frequently to put a lot of photos in into a presentation is to make an album. A few button clicks can put every photo in a folder into a its own slide in the order you specify.

Hi Al,

For that last 9 months, I've been setting up a new business, and hence been presenting to investors continuously.
This can be pretty stressful, since I have about 20-30 min to convince 5-10 people why they should give me money... :)
So tech failures are not appreciated.

As a life long Microsoft user, I've always used Powerpoint and PC's. And have given up.

Google Slides offers most, if not all of the same functionality, some features are much better
Its FREE for most uses. As a business we pay $5/mth/user for the entire Google suite.
No usage limitations. I find it a far superior product.
https://www.google.ca/slides/about/

The presentation is stored in the cloud, so its accessible anywhere via the net.
The three of us partners use Slides collaboratively, often working on the same presentation concurrently.

(you may not care about that, but...you can share is with your wife, friend etc, to get feedback in real time, and that helps test / polish the presentation)

Build your presentation, from anywhere, on a laptop/desktop, Apple/Windows - it doesn't matter.

I use Apple Airplay to show my presentations on a big screen. No RCA cables or adapters - its wireless.
(but of course assumes that the TV is set up with AirPlay - they mostly have been). This has been very reliable so far.
I can walk into a meeting, with the presentation already loaded on my MacBook or iPad, connect to Airplay from outside the conference room, and then just start my presentation.
That removes most of the concern about tech failures.

The other likeable feature of Google Slides is that I can share it easily after the meeting.
Make the presentation public, send out the link (or tell people where to find it - ex. on your site (it also directs people to your site and helps SEO).

Despite my 25 (ish) years of experience on Powerpoint, I've totally given up on it.
Just my 2c.

Olaf
 
Last edited:
Joined
Nov 24, 2010
Messages
419
Likes
317
Location
Lexington, KY
Sounds good -- but
The last place I did a demo did not have internet access in the room. My next demo likewise will not have internet access. Probably there is a wifi that could be hijacked, but I'm not sure I want the risk. And, no, they are neither out in the country. If you put together a presentation with Google Slides, can it be exported in some format which would not depend on cloud access?
 

hockenbery

Forum MVP
Beta Tester
TOTW Team
Joined
Apr 27, 2004
Messages
8,592
Likes
4,888
Location
Lakeland, Florida
Website
www.hockenberywoodturning.com
Olaf, I don't think google would work for us. Sounds like it is working great for you.
We have a metered internet service. We live in the swamp miles from the nearest cable or fiber service so our internet is through a cell tower.
We avoid doing data transfers to the cloud whenever we can.

Also most of the demo venues don't have wifi. Florida Symposium does....
For Kansas City AAW is planning to be internet service to one room to support a video linked participant.

Al
 

Bill Boehme

Administrator
Staff member
Beta Tester
TOTW Team
Joined
Jan 27, 2005
Messages
12,886
Likes
5,169
Location
Dalworthington Gardens, TX
Website
pbase.com
Our club tried using a wireless A/V configuration for our demonstrations to reduce the tangle of cables on the floor between the control console, demonstrator, large screen displays, and speakers. It was a horrible disaster. The delay between live and transmitted output drove demonstrators crazy and they refused to use it. It was hardly any better if you were in the audience watching. Things improved immensely when we switched to cables and speed-bump type cable tunnels to protect both the cables and people who might trip over them.

There's still a barely noticeable delay in video, but if you pretend that you're watching a foreign film then everything's fine. :D
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2015
Messages
347
Likes
149
Location
Aurora, Ont, CA
Website
www.revolvingarts.ca
We have a metered internet service. We live in the swamp miles from the nearest cable or fiber service so our internet is through a cell tower.
We avoid doing data transfers to the cloud whenever we can.
Al

Ok, admittedly, I'm a geek, in Financial Technology as a day job.
Well, an unemployed FinTech Geek, trying to build a company so I can make some money again. :)

If not, I'll have to do woodturning full time to pay the bills.
Heck, who am I kidding?

Olaf
 
Back
Top