Pocket PC Presentations

[mchait]

As I get older, notebooks get heavier, so I need to replace the notebook by a pocket pc, just to make presentations (mainly Powerpoint). I have not seen in the resent models like HP's Ipaq 110 or DELL's Pharos the capability for producing a VGA output to drive a standard projector.

Does somebody in this forum have experience in pocket pc presentations?

Thank You

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I haven't done any presentations, but I have tested the capability. I use a Dopod U1000 (HTC Advantage), which does have VGA-out albeit with a fairly bulky cable. For the most part, Powerpoint presentations work just fine, if you don't get too fancy with animations and such. I can't vouch for Office 2007 compatibility though.

[Russ Smith]

I actually left PPC-dom for a while because I wanted to do presentations and the former state of the art was dismal. Now that VGA-out is becoming more common, I too would like to leave the laptop at home.

What are the limitations? I'd assume you can't do imbedded video, since you mentioned animation, which is less involved. What about transitions and audio?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Russ, I haven't done anything more than W?BIC testing due to lack of time. Let me come up with a presentation with all those elements, and I'll get back to you - hopefully before the weekend.

[dafuse]

is there a solution (ie. adapter) for PPCs that don't have built-in VGA out? My last search for that revealed only really old products that aren't being sold anymore...

thanks!

PS. I have an iPAQ211

[Russ Smith]

NH: Thanks. I'm looking forward to your results. Many of my presentations are quite a bit different from the traditional bullet-point approach. They involve a lot less text. (I really don't like presentations that involve reading slides to people who are all literate themselves :)) I like doing imbedded video clips to make my points but I have other ways to do that.

dafuse: I've had the same results. The "solution" I tried years ago is still pretty much what's being offered. The one I tried was call the Pitch Duo. It's a small embedded processor machine that you download the presentation to via Bluetooth or USB. The presentations are extremely limited. I had to eliminate the backgrounds and transitions just so that it plays at normal pace. The only other option is something like Salling Clicker (http://www.salling.com/Clicker/windows/) which allows you to remote-control a Windows machine (thus providing full PowerPoint capabilities) with your Pocket PC. Of course that means you're back to carrying a laptop or such to the presentations :( I've been tempted to pick up a microATX (VIA processor) box, load it up with Linux and Open Office Presenter and go with that. It would cost about the same as the Pitch Duo did :roll:

[Brad Adrian]

...W?BIC testing...
Wow! What a blast from the past (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7144&start=0)!

Anyway, I'm still a big fan of PocketSlides (http://www.conduits.com/products/slides/). I find its handling of things like builds (which I use a lot for bullet lists) and especially transitions to be more reliable than MS's PowerPoint viewer.

[Russ Smith]

is there a solution (ie. adapter) for PPCs that don't have built-in VGA out? My last search for that revealed only really old products that aren't being sold anymore...

Also, which WM devices have VGA out (and which have digital vs which have analog)?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I've done some preliminary testing - links do work, as does gif animations. Most transitions/custom animations also seem to work. Just don't get carried away with graphics and stuff - I came across the wait symbol quite a few times. The test file was 15MB file that my father uses for his university course, so large files aren't an issue per se.

[palur]

I did not see this posting earlier. I am sorry.
I have been using pocket pcs exclusively for powerpoint presentations since 2001. I have IA presenter's VGA card and it worked very well. Now I have been using XDA Flame with VGA output. I am very impressed with it. It can output audio also. I understand that Imate 8000 and 9000 series also have higher resolution than VGA.

There is also a SD card/microSd VGA output, I believe.