Last week’s Tip was one of our most popular ever.
It explained PowerPoint’s best feature – namely, that:
- When you want to blank the screen – so your audience looks at you, and not at your slide…
- … Press the ‘B’ (or ‘W’) keys on the keyboard, to Black (or White) your slides
I know – genius, right?
Since people liked it so much, let’s do another. Here’s PowerPoint’s second best feature…
- When you want to jump to any slide
- Simply press that slide number on your keyboard, followed by the ‘RETURN’ key – and you’ll jump straight to it
- For example, if you’re on slide #1 but want to jump to slide #8, press the ‘8’ key followed by the ‘RETURN’ key. And you go straight to slide #8
Mind.
Blown.
This has two brilliant benefits:
- Follow your audience – if your audience asks a question that relates to slide #8, you can just jump straight there. You don’t need to do the usual “I’ll get to that in seven slides’ time”. And then, after you’ve discussed slide #8’s topic, you’d then just jump back to the slide you were on previously, and then carry on. Easy!
- Finish on time – sometimes, presentation timings can run away with us, meaning we need to rush our ending. Well, not any more. Now, as you come towards the end of your time, simply jump to your final slide and wrap things up. Yes, you’ll have omitted a few slides. But your audience will never know – they’ll think you timed it to perfection!
(Quick note: like the B/W thing, this slide-jump function only works in Presenter Mode)
This Tip is so epic that – as I write it – I’m no longer sure that this is PowerPoint’s second best feature!
It might even be better than the B/W one.
What do you think?
Action Point
For your next presentation:
- Before you start, note down which topic appears on each slide (I always print out all my slides – nine to a page – so I can easily see which slide is which)
- When an audience asks you about a topic relating to a later/earlier slide, use this week’s Tip to jump straight there
- Bask in the glory, as they look amazed at your brilliance!