As a presenter, I like to face my audience while speaking and be able to see my notes in front of me for reference. This is especially helpful while doing a Keynote (Powerpoint) slide show. It’s very useful to be able to see what slide I’m on without having to turn around and look at the screen.
While some meeting rooms make this easy with a wired podium or lectern, most do not. You’ll find that you have to place your laptop off stage or at the back of the room to hook it up to the projector. This makes it impossible to see your laptop screen and see what slide you are on resulting in having to turn your back on your audience and look at the screen. This breaks your concentration and you’ll soon find yourself reading your slides to your audience. This can turn the best prepared presentation into a bore-fest quickly.
With the advent of iOS5, you can now do a Keynote presentation wirelessly using an iPad 2 and a Apple TV. I wrote about this in a previous post. Unfortunately, many rooms are not equipped to make this work yet. However, with a simple download of the Keynote Remote program from the app store, you can synchronize a MacBook(Pro) with your iPad as a remote and be able to see your slides in presenter view on the iPad’s screen. Here is what it looks like.
The way this works is to load your Keynote presentation on your MacBook and then control it from your iPad or your standard Apple remote. With the iPad set in landscape mode, you’ll see your presentation in “presenter mode,” with the current slide to the left and the next slide to the right. You can place your iPad on the podium, lectern, or even a small table or tray. Since this works wirelessly, you have a lot of freedom to place this where you can see it without being obtrusive to the audience.
The really cool thing with this setup is the standard Apple remote that comes with the MacBook will still control your slides. You can hold this unobtrusively in your hand and view the slides in front of you on the iPad.
Using a remote with iPad Keynote and other apps
- Macbook including Pro and Air models
- iPad 1, 2 or 3
- Keynote Program (Part of iWork suite) on the MacBook
- Keynote Remote App on the iPad
- Standard Apple Remote (that comes with the MacBook)
- Wireless network access for both the Macbook and iPad
- Purchase Keynote Remote from the App Store on your iPad
- On your iPad, choose Settings \ Wi-Fi to verify it is currently on the same wireless network as your computer.
- On your MacBook, open your presentation in Keynote (Ver 09 Reqd).
- Choose Preferences from the Keynote menu and select Remote.
- Check the box next to Enable iPhone and iPod touch Remotes. This enables the iPad remote.
- On your iPad, open the Keynote Remote app and then click the “Link to Keynote” button.
- On your iPad, tap “New Keynote Link” to display a 4-digit passcode.
- You should now see your iPad name in the Preferences pane on your MacBook. Click the Link button to the right of your iPad name.
- Enter the passcode displayed on your iOS device. This may take a few seconds.
- Once the connection is established, tap the Done button on your iPad.
- You can now control the slideshow on the MacBook from the iPad by clicking Play Slideshow on the iPad.