Dual monitors and PowerPoint (by Paul Iordanides) (and others)
How can I display slides on a PC connected to a projector but still view my notes (and control the slide show)?
Paul Iordanides has kindly given us permission to post his essay.
For more detailed information on the subject, please also see A Multiple Monitor Tutorial by PowerPoint MVP Chirag Dalal or A Multiple Monitor Tutorial by PowerPoint MVP Chirag Dalal (in a new window)
To do this in PowerPoint, your system must support dual monitors.
Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows 2000 and Windows Xp all support Dual monitors.
Win 98 supports a max of 9, and I have personally set up 8 monitors in Windows 2000 and Xp
Since there seems to be a lot of confusion about dual monitors, let me define what dual monitors means:
Dual Monitors, Dual Displays, Multi-Monitor -- all of these terms refer to HARDWARE configurations.
For HARDWARE dual monitor support, your computer must be equipped with two or more video boards OR it must have a single multi-port video board.
If you have a laptop, you must either have a chipset that supports Dual monitors or you must use an external PCMCIA video board. Some laptop brands that have models with the dual monitor chipset are IBM, Toshiba, Dell. I'm sure there are others.
One of the most popular "dual monitor" chipsets is the ATI Rage mobility, but again, there are others.
Most laptops have an external 15 pin video connector, but this does not indicate that you have dual monitor support.
Simply put: Check your manual or the company support website to see if your laptop supports Dual Monitors.
I recommend the Appian traveler video board that you can use for dual monitor support with laptops.
Paul Iordanides
Note: your SOFTWARE must also support dual monitors. PowerPoint 2000 and up allows you to choose which HARDWARE monitor you want to display the slide show on (and which to display your notes, etc. on)
You need to set this up each time you run the show, because PowerPoint doesn't save the information. There's a hotfix available from Microsoft that will help with this.
Other Multi-monitor resources
Multi-Monitor Resources at www.realtimesoft.com
Addins from Chirag Dalal
Shortcuts for PowerPoint has a multiscreen presentation feature. It adds two new menu items under the "Slide Show" menu - "Wide Show" and "Wide Show From Present Slide".
Chirag's new PowerShow addin enhances the PowerPoint environment to enable you to
- View different presentations on different monitors simultaneously
- View shows in Wide Format - Slide Shows can span across multiple monitors all the way up to all available monitors
- View presentation and notes on separate monitors - keep notes in sync with the slide show
- Support any number of monitors
- Control multiple shows from a single terminal
PowerShow works with Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 and XP on Windows 98, Me, 2000 and XP. Visit http://www.officeoneonline.com/powershow/powershow.html for more information.
New from Chirag Dalal - Multiple Monitors for PowerPoint 97
The new PowerKiosk addin enables you to:
- View different presentations on different monitors simultaneously
- View shows in Wide Format - shows can span across multiple monitors all the way up to all available monitors
- Support any number of monitors
PowerKiosk works on Microsoft Windows 98, Me, 2000 and XP.
Learn more about PowerKiosk