Using PowerPoint in Dual Monitor Projector

by Paul Iordanides

Need to display your presentations on multiple screens in two different views? Check out this guest article by Paul Iordanides on doing this native in PowerPoint or with iosysoft's PowerPoint Controllers.

You've been there before. You're giving a presentation to an important group of clients, and while addressing a particular slide, you suddenly forget what you were going to say. You look at your laptop and you see the same display that the projector is showing. You wrote these great notes in PowerPoint, but in "Slide Show" mode you can't see them. This presentation is important to your company and your career. What can you do? You can run PowerPoint in "Dual Monitor" mode. Let me show you how.

New in PowerPoint(TM) 2000 and included in PowerPoint(TM) XP is support for the dual-monitor capabilities that are built into Windows(TM) 98, Windows(TM) Me, Windows(TM) 2000 and Windows(TM) XP (also called "multimonitor support"). If you have a computer with two monitors (or a monitor and a projector), you can run a slide show and edit your presentation at the same time. You can see your whole presentation, including speaker notes, while your audience sees only the slides - and you can make changes to your presentation on the fly, without ever exiting the slide show. PowerPoint(TM) 97 users can also have dual monitor capabilities with iosysoft's PPC-97, ( Link Needs To Be fixed ).

Hardware: What you need

You'll need either a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) or AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) video card for each monitor in order to be able to use the dual-monitor features of Windows. Another option is multi-port video boards that give you the ability to use dual monitor mode, but use only one PCI or AGP slot. A good source for multi-port boards is Appian Graphics, ( http://www.appian.com). I have used several of their boards with good success. If you are using a laptop, it must have a video chipset that handles dual monitors. Be aware that a "monitor out port" does not indicate that your laptop is configured with the dual monitor feature. Check with your laptop vendor to see if your particular laptop has this capability. If not, you can use a PCMCIA video board. Appian's Traveler works nicely.

Run a Slideshow and Edit a Presentation at the Same Time

By using the dual-monitor feature, you can set up one monitor to display the main PowerPoint window and the second monitor (or projector) to display a full-screen slide show. Once you've configured this, you can run the slide show on one monitor, and view or edit the presentation on the other. Each screen behaves as it normally would. You move from one monitor to the other by moving the mouse.

The dual-monitor feature lets you do the following:

View your outline, slides, and speaker notes in normal view while the audience sees only slides Normal view is the default view for editing presentations in PowerPoint 2000/Xp. This view let you see your slides, outline, and notes at the same time. When you display your presentation in normal view on one monitor, you can see the slide that your audience sees, as well as your notes to remind you what you what it is you wanted to say.

View upcoming slides and speaker notes without advancing the slide show In normal view, you can move around in the presentation to see upcoming slides and speaker notes without advancing the slide show on the second monitor. When you do advance the slide show, the presentation in normal view on the first monitor matches up to the slide shown on the second monitor.

Step-by-Step Procedures

You must be running the Microsoft Windows(TM) 98, Windows(TM) Me, Microsoft Windows(TM) 2000, or Windows(TM) Xp operating system and have either a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) or AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) video card for each monitor in order to use these procedures.

Configure the system to recognize two monitors

If you are using Windows 98 or Windows Me do this:

On the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
Double-click the Display icon.
On the Settings tab, click the image of the second monitor, and then select the Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor check box.

If you are using Windows 2000 or Windows Xp do this:

On the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

Double-click the Display icon.
On the Settings tab, click the image of the monitor you want to use as the primary monitor.
Select the Use this device as the primary monitor check box.
This automatically selects the Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor check box for this monitor.
Click the image of the second monitor and then select the Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor check box.

Set up PowerPoint to run on two monitors

On the Slide Show menu, click Set Up Show.
In the Show on list, click the monitor you want the slide show to appear on.
The slide show will run in full screen on the monitor you choose in step 2. The presentation will appear in normal view on the other monitor.

Using iosysoft's PowerPoint Controllers

Iosysoft produces multi-monitor PowerPoint Controllers. Listed below are the individual products.

PPCwin

PPCwin is used with Powerpoint 2000/Xp to control PowerPoint in dual monitor mode. You can load the slideshow directly and go backward and forward and jump around in the slideshow, without having to click in the show display. PPCwin tells you what slide you are on and how many slides are in the slideshow. You can read your notes, make notes with meeting minder, or edit your slides. If you use Powerpoint XP, your audience never sees that "Starting Slide Show" screen. Works with Win98, Win Me, Win2000 and Win Xp.
PPC-97

Same as PPCwin, but for PowerPoint 97 that has no options for dual monitors.
PPCKiosk

Same as PPCwin but has a built in timer. You set the timer and run the slide show in a continuous loop. While the slide show is running, you can run other software (even the Command Prompt) while not disturbing the show. Used in a single monitor kiosk with PowerPoint.
MultiShow

MultiShow allows the showing of three PowerPoint shows at the same time. A four port video board is required (or two, two port boards). Take a look at http://www.appian.com. The show is script driven. A script generator is also included. You are also able to control the shows with input to the serial port from another computer or other controllers.
MultiShow Kiosk

Same as MultiShow, but with three individual timers.
MultiShow Plus

Same as MultiShow, but allows up to eight shows at once. Requires multiple multi port boards.
MultiShow Plus Kiosk

Same as MultiShow Plus, but with eight individual timers. Requires multiple multi port boards.

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