Power Point® All?in?One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 3. Creating a Self‐Running Presentation

In This Chapter

• Examining when to use self‐running presentations

• Designing a self‐running presentation

• Telling PowerPoint how long to display slides

• Declaring that a presentation is “self‐running”

• Starting a self‐running presentation

This short chapter delves into self‐playing, kiosk‐style presentations. This type of presentation doesn't require anyone to deliver it. You can make it play from a kiosk or simply send the presentation to co‐workers so that they can play it themselves. In a self‐running presentation, slides appear on‐screen one after the other without you or anyone else having to advance the presentation from slide to slide. When the presentation finishes, it starts all over again from Slide 1.

Read on to discover the pitfalls of self‐playing presentations and the uses for these presentations. You also find out how to tell PowerPoint how long to keep each slide on‐screen and how to start a self‐running presentation.

Good Uses for Self‐Running Presentations

Self‐running, kiosk‐style presentations usually fall into the “show and tell” category. These presentations can't go into very much depth because, without a narrator, all descriptions must be done on the slides, and slides don't have any room for lengthy descriptions. Usually, a self‐running presentation is no more than a dozen slides long because people can't sit through more than a dozen slides unless a speaker is there to explain each one.

A self‐running, kiosk‐style presentation ...