PowerPoint 2008 for the Mac: Give a Presentation From Your iPod

by AJ George

You want to pitch a sale to the CEO of a large company, Billy Bigshot. Problem is, Mr. Bigshot is, well, a bigshot. He has no time to meet with you or see your meticulous PowerPoint presentation projected up on a wall in his conference room.

But, if you just so happen to know that Mr. Bigshot leaves his building everyday at 1:07 p.m. for lunch and walks 3 blocks to that great little sub shop on the corner of 3rd and Main, perhaps you could "accidentally on purpose" run in to him and show him your sales presentation... that just so happens to be conveniently located on your iPod/iPod touch/iPhone.

Let's step back a bit... here is how you managed to get the PowerPoint Presentation onto your mobile device:

1. Open a completed PowerPoint 2008 presentation.
   
   
2. Import slides to iPhoto by choosing File> Send to > iPhoto.
   
   Note: In addition to an an iPod/iPod Touch/iPhone, you will also need  iPhoto version 6 or later to complete this activity.
   
   
3. When the Send to iPhoto dialog box opens, ensure your options match the picture below.
   
   
   
   Note: You have a choice of either JPEG or PNG from the Format drop-down menu. In this instance you are choosing JPEG because of its relatively small file sizes. If you were posting images to the internet it might be in your best interest to choose PNG.
   
   
4. Click Send to iPhoto.
   
   The iPhoto window opens with your imported slides.
   
   
   
   
5. Quit iPhoto.
   
   
6. Open iTunes and connect your iPod to your computer.
   
   
7. Click the iPod icon under the Devices category at the left of
   the window.
   
   
8. Select the Photos tab at the right of the iTunes window.
   
   
9. Select Sync photos (put a check mark next to the option).
   
   
10. Choose iPhoto from the pop-up menu.
    
    
11. Select Selected Albums and then select your PowerPoint presentation.
    
    
12. If you have the option to do so, select Include full-resolution photos.
    
    
    
    
13. Click the Sync button (if there is no Sync button, click the Apply button instead).
    
    If you were to navigate to the Photos folder of your iPod you could now view your presentation on your iPod. You will notice, however, that your slides are not visible on your device using iTunes.
    
    
14. Select the Summary tab in iTunes and ensure Enable disk use is selected from the Options area.
    
    
15. Navigate to your desktop and double-click the iPod icon.
    
    
16. Open the Photos folder and locate your slides.
    
    
17. Select the slides you would like to use.
    
    
18. Right-click (or [Ctrl]-click) any of the files and choose Open with > Preview.
    
    The selected slides appear in the Preview application as photos.
    
    
    
    
19. Use the down arrow key on your keyboard to navigate through the slides.
    
    Note: Because the PowerPoint slides were exported as graphic files, any transitions, builds, animations, and/or sounds you added have been removed.
    
    
20. Quit Preview when finished and close the iPod folder.
    
    Note: When disconnecting the iPod from your computer, remember to eject the device in iTunes first.
    
    
21. Quit iTunes.
    
    For this and other skills and drills, check out my Microsoft PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials book.

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About the author: AJ George, a cum laude graduate of Towson University, is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of the book "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and the just-released "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." You can follow AJ on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andrayajgeorge.