Just print out a thumbnail view with numbers of all of your slides for a quick reference guide, and you’ll be moving through your presentation pretty seamlessly.Īnother nice bonus about the keyboard is that it essentially gives you full control over your computer. This freedom of movement means that you can quickly respond to your audience and get to the content that’s useful.Īs I mentioned, when you flip over these presentation remotes you get a full keyboard, so even if you’ve not put hyperlinks into your deck, you can use the number keys to type in the slide number you want and press enter to jump straight to that slide. So it becomes very easy to navigate around your slide, and if you use hyperlinks or triggers, you can seamlessly move through your entire slide deck. The shape of these devices, the way you hold them in your hand, and the positioning of the buttons makes it feel pretty natural to move the remote around and control the cursor position. The Wii Remote-style functionality that controls the cursor is somewhat easier to use and a little more intuitive than a traditional air mouse. They usually have quite a few function keys available, so you can not only go forwards, backwards, and blank the screen, but also control the volume of media, and even flip over the presentation remote for a full keyboard. They don’t work as a desktop mouse, but they do control your mouse cursor and, as you move the remote around, the cursor moves as you direct it. With the rise of Smart TVs and app-enabled media boxes, there have been a number of TV remote-style controllers released that are essentially air mice too. But, can you do more with the other options? Smart TV remote Given it’s dual purpose as a desktop mouse and a wireless presentation remote with cursor control, it’s pretty good. It also positions your hand around the remote so it’s easier to move around and control your cursor. In its favour, rather than trying to awkwardly use the regular mouse buttons on top of the device, there is a trigger button underneath which you can click easily with your forefinger. It’s a decent enough mouse and comfortable on a table, but when you pick it up, it feels a little odd as the shape doesn’t fit in your hand in the way most people are used to, with things like TV remotes or phones, so it can take some getting used to. It’s plug and play, wireless, and uses a 2.4GHz radio antenna USB dongle to connect, so all pretty simple. It looks like a normal mouse and works pretty well. My preference was for their smallest mouse, the Gyration Wireless Air Mouse Mobile. Gyration seems to be the leader in this category of presentation remote, with several models available. You aren’t constrained by the order of the slides, so you can make your story come to life, respond to your audience, and have a conversation with them – all in a pretty natural way without having to escape out of show mode, or pull up the thumbnail view (G key in PowerPoint 20) thanks to your presentation remote. It means that now you can not only control the clicks in your presentation, but also control the cursor, opening up the ability to annotate on your slides using the pen function in PowerPoint show mode, or use hyperlinked or trigger menus to navigate around a slide deck, or open a webpage or another file. Think of a Wii Remote, and you’ll get the idea. However, when you pick them up, the cursor moves in line with your movement of the mouse in space – up, down, left, and right. They tend to look like normal computer mice, and work in the same way. Air mice have been around for a while, but always remained fairly niche. Interactivity is one reason you might want to switch. Well, the best presentation remotes bring more to the table than simply advancing your slides. Why would you need anything else? Air mouse Two AAA batteries provide power, it has a range of 60 feet, and it works anywhere. It’s plug and play through USB, with no software to install. It’s small, simple, comfortable, and lets you go forward, backward, and blank the screen. There are many presentation remote options, but the most popular of the standard clickers is the Kensington Wireless Presenter. There are quite a few alternatives available now, so are any of them worth using over the standard clicker? We investigate to find the best presentation remotes. Presentations are moving on, becoming more visual, animated, and interactive, but most of us are still stuck with using the same presentation remote that we’ve had for years.
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