Don White asked:
QUESTION: Hi,
I teach French scientists to give talks in English. My training supports are all in PowerPoint and I also help the speakers to prepare their visuals in PowerPoint for their presentations.
Problem situation:
during my lessons and meetings people often ask me to write out words (normal, because I'm using what is for them a foreign language).
I sometimes use a Wacom tablet to be able to write directly to the screen during a training presentation, but such an approach is not very attractive for professional presentations.
When I use the "speaker's comments" ('commentaires du présentateur' in French) or the 'aide- mémoires' (I suppose it's 'reminders' or 'notes' in the English version - the on-screen aid for adding ideas to add to Outlook or print up) during the presentations my clients complain that the text is too small - they can't read what I'm typing.
Question 1:
How can I control the size of the characters in these text blocks so that people sitting 5 or 6 meters away can read them?
Is there a panel somewhere in PowerPoint that makes it possible to change the size of such characters?
Question 2:
Do you know where I could find a simple add-on function to handle such work: I'd like to be able to click on a function key or Ctrl&fnct key and be able to type text at the place of the cursor during a presentation (in large, bold print). A second click of the same key or 'escape' would turn the function off, and the typed text would disappear or simply be retained as with 'speaker's comments'.
Do you know of anything like this out there somewhere? Thanks for any information. Don White
ANSWER:
Hi Don,
I have good news for you.
There is a software which will help you resolve your problem.
I have been using this software for a while, and it works perfectly. It has many different functions and capabilities.
You can try an evaluation version for free at www.milori.com, and if you like it you can buy the licence.
As far as I know, it's quite cheap, and it's a great tool.
The tool you need is called "PC Chalkboard". Once you run it, you can right click on the screen and choose the tool you need. There's one called "Text". You will get a box on the screen, similar to the default one in PowerPoint. But you can format the text you enter: Font style, size, color, bold, underlined, italic. Exactly what you wanted.
The good thing is that you can also create a keyboard shortcut to run this tool, and you can do it also when you are running your presentation full screen mode.
Check it out, it's a valid help for trainers. Download it here.
Luigi Canali De Rossi
