03-17-2012, 05:52 AM

I'm coming up on a year into switching and can now say I'm switched. One of the last things I had to work out was giving PowerPoints on my iPad. I resisted because there were so many negative posts, but it turned out to be drop dead easy once I got around to trying. A friend had a great experience so I thought I'd invest in the necessary software and hardware. Turned out to be cheap and easy. The last reason for lugging my old Windows laptop is gone.

I bought Keynote for my iPad for $10. It automatically also installed on my iPhone.
I bought the Keynote remote for my iPhone for $1.
I bought the VGA adapter dongle for my iPad (or iPhone) for the going rate.

I uploaded a few PowerPoints to my iPhone using iTunes (they automatically uploaded to my iPhone too, presumably through my iCloud account). There are other ways to get presentations onto the iPad.

I opened the PowerPoints on the iPad in Keynote and made a few edits to some slides. Had to adjust a few slides a bit, but surprisingly few. Even for a very complicated teaching PowerPoint full of animations, boxes and arrows.

I've given presentations in two different offices now. Simply plugged their projector's VGA cable into the iPad's VGA dongle. That's it. Nothing more to it. Instant on.

I did one very formal presentation using my iPhone as a remote controlling the iPad (personal hotspot/Bluetooth). Worked very well. I could see my speaker notes on the iPhone and face the audience the whole time. Very unobtrusive. Other times I use the iPad directly, passing it to other speakers across the table. The touchscreen "laser" feature is great. I could face the audience the whole time.

Last time I did a PowerPoint there was time at the end of the meeting. I was asked to demonstrate an online web service I use that the group thought might be of interest to them. I simply exited Keynote and launched Safari on my iPad. Went online with my cellular account since they did not have a wireless access. Demonstrated the website live on the big screen. (They bought the service same day).

I used the iPad continuously for nearly three hours and went from 100% battery charge to the mid-70s.

I can't believe how easy all this was. Thought I would post this positive experience to counter some of the negative stuff I'd been reading online.

This was my last reason for lugging the old Windows laptop around. I guess I am now switched.

03-17-2012, 06:04 PM

Bravo! I too have been slowly transitioning my presentations from a laptop to an iPad. Now that I have the latest iPad, I suspect this transition will start speeding up.

03-17-2012, 08:50 PM

@chas_m

If you don't mind chas, could you give us a quick run down on hooking up your new iPad to a projector and let us know how well it works. We are considering getting one (iPad) and using it that way.

Thanks.

03-17-2012, 11:48 PM

There's two main ways to do this:

1. Buy a 30-pin to VGA, DVI or HDMI adapter from Apple, connect it to a cable that is connected to the projector. Alternatively:

2. Connect an AppleTV unit to the projector and use AirPlay to mirror the iPad.

The first-gen iPad can't do this at all unless you have jailbroken it and are running a program from Cydia called Display Out using method 1 above. The second and third-gen iPads do not require any modifications, just plug in and you're good to go.

It should go without saying (but I think I'll mention it anyway) that best results suggest that you leave the iPad in landscape orientation when working with a projector.

03-17-2012, 11:54 PM

Thanks chas. Got to take care of my wife's dental bill first, but we are definitely going to get the new iPad. We also need a new projector, our Dell is aging.