This is a 'feature' to let presenters know that they are starting a slide
show.
The problem is that any presenter who has clicked the little icon to start a
slide show, is already pretty sure that that is indeed what is happening.
The larger the presentation file is, the longer the informative declaration
is shown to the audience. Therefore, the more experienced presenters, who
usually put together the more complicated shows, have the message displayed
to the audience for a longer period of time. I'd have thought that it might
be better to tell the presenter on his screen, rather than tell the audience
on theirs, but .... This, by the way, is my fault. I did not take part in
the beta trials for 2002 or 2003 or I would have set MS straight on this.
I'm very sorry. Oh well.
I hope that MS allows this very helpful feature to be deactivated in one of
the upgrades/SP's.
Now, how do we get around this? There are three methods.
One -- use the projector's abilities
Some projectors will enable you to select a blank source (DVD, VCR,
Null) or freeze on a blank screen, until after the message has passed. This
is usually fine until you get busy and forget the VCR is still playing your
vacation movies instead of being blank.
Two -- minimize the effect using presentation chaining.
A very small PowerPoint presentation can be made that will load in an
eighth of a second, or so. It, in turn, can be set-up to run your main
presentation. This chained (linked) presentation does not display the
helpful text.
Three -- Using group abilities
All the experts are saying, "yeah, yeah, I know those. What's the
third?" It's simple, really. Just yell, very loud from the back of the
room, for everyone to close their eyes for a minute.
Hope this helped or, at least, made you smile,
B
