Introduction

Presenter's Edge for the BlackBerry PlayBook helps you give your presentations better. Present with confidence using your PlayBook as a PowerPoint remote control, cue cards, timer, and alarm clock all in one.

There are three ways to use Presenter's Edge:

1. PowerPoint remote control
   Don't stay chained to your computer while presenting – with Presenter's Edge, your BlackBerry PlayBook becomes a supercharged remote control. Presenter's Edge displays your own crib notes for each slide, and shows the elapsed or remaining time with color-coded silent alarms.


2. PowerPoint-controlled cue cards
   Prefer to use your computer to control your presentation? Prop your PlayBook nearby and Presenter's Edge will display all the same notes, timing, alarms, and progress info – updated automatically as you present.
   
   You can fluidly switch between the two PowerPoint modes. If you're controlling a presentation with your laptop, you're free to pick up your PlayBook and start using it as a remote control at any time – or vice versa.


3. Stand-alone cue cards
   You don't need PowerPoint, or even a computer, to get a high-tech helping hand. Enter notes directly into Presenter's Edge, and then flip through them as a reference while you talk. All the same timing and alarms are still available.

Overview

How to use Presenter's Edge

The basic steps to using Presenter's Edge are: create your presenter settings, move to the Green Room screen, connect to your PC if needed, and then begin presenting.

Tap New Presentation to get started. The presentation file on your PlayBook stores your timing settings, preferences for connecting to PowerPoint, and any presenter notes you have saved. If you are using PowerPoint, the actual presentation slides remain on your computer. Notes can be saved either directly in the PowerPoint file, or separately on your PlayBook.

Once you've chosen the desired settings, tap Green Room in the upper right. The Green Room screen is essentially a "waiting room" while you make any final preparations before you begin presenting. Once you are ready to present, tap the large "play" button to move to the presentation view and start the presentation timer.

If you are presenting in concert with PowerPoint, the Green Room is also where you connect to your PC. Presenter's Edge connects to PowerPoint using wi-fi and a free companion app that you install on your PC. See details below.

Read below about how to...

• Edit your presentation settings
• Create and edit presenter notes
• Connect to PowerPoint
• Use the "Green Room" screen
• Using Presenter's Edge during your presentation

Detailed Help

Presentation Settings

Presentation name

To rename a presentation, tap the name displayed in the header.

Notes

The Notes setting allows you to display either no notes, the notes saved in your PowerPoint slides, or private notes stored only on your PlayBook.

• None – don't show any notes. You can use this setting with or without PowerPoint.
• Slide notes – show the notes saved in your PowerPoint slides. Enter notes for each slide using PowerPoint .
• Enter manually – show private notes stored only on your PlayBook. (See below for information on entering the notes). You can use this setting with or without PowerPoint.

To present in concert with PowerPoint when the setting is not Slide notes, make sure you tick the Remote connection to PowerPoint checkbox on the far right.

End time goal

There are two options for presentation timing:

• Duration since start – the end is based on whenever the presentation was begun. If the presentation starts late, the end time will be later also.
  During the presentation, Presenter's Edge will show the elapsed time since the start in large text, and the current time of day in smaller text.
• Specific time of day – the end is a specific preset time, regardless of when the presentation begins.
  During the presentation, Presenter's Edge will show the time of day in large text, and the time remaining before the end in smaller text.

End time warnings

Presenter's Edge displays color-coded "silent alarms" onscreen to warn you when your presentation is nearing its end. Warnings appear in timing display area. There are three warnings to indicate increasing urgency: yellow, orange and red.

Use the sliders to adjust when each warning occurs. Negative numbers mean before the presentation's end time; e.g. -5 min will show the warning 5 minutes before the end time, while +5 min won't show the warning until 5 minutes after the planned end time.

If you set two sliders to the same setting, the more-urgent warning color will appear at that time, and the less-urgent color will never appear.

Deleting a presentation

You can delete a presentation from your PlayBook using the settings screen. Swipe down from the top bezel and choose Delete Presenter Settings from the menu.

Editing Presenter Notes

To edit private presenter notes stored on your PlayBook, tap the Edit button next to the Notes dropdown to switch to the notes editing view. (When you initially change the dropdown to Enter manually, you will be brought to this view automatically).

Your notes are organized into "slides." If you are using private notes in concert with PowerPoint, these correspond to your actual PowerPoint slides. If not, you can think of them as cue cards or separate pages of notes. The lines of text will be turned into a bullet list

To rearrange the order of notes "slides," select the slide you want to move and tap the up or down arrow in the upper-right corner.

If you have prepared notes in a different app, you can copy and paste the text into Presenter's Edge: press and hold on the notes-editing text field until the popup appears, then choose Paste.

When you are done editing notes, swipe down from the top bezel and choose Back from the menu.

The "Green Room"

Once you've chosen your desired settings, tap Green Room in the upper right. The Green Room screen is essentially a "waiting room" while you make any final preparations before you begin presenting.

If you are presenting in concert with PowerPoint, the Green Room is also where you connect Presenter's Edge to PowerPoint. The "play" button will be disabled until you do. Follow the steps in the next section to connect Presenter's Edge to your computer.

Once you are ready to present, tap the large "play" button to move to the presentation view and start the presentation timer.

To leave the Green Room, swipe down from the top bezel and choose Back from the menu.

Connecting to PowerPoint

To connect to PowerPoint, first install the free Presenter's Edge PowerPoint Connector app on your computer.

If you are experiencing difficulties getting your PlayBook to connect, please see our connection troubleshooting guide.

The Connector app is compatible with:

• Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 or newer

Use the Green Room screen to sign into the Connector app from your PlayBook before you begin presenting. The Connector app walks you through the following steps:

1. Launch PowerPoint and open your presentation (you can also do this before starting the Connector app).
2. Verify that:
   • Your PlayBook and PC are connected to the same wi-fi network. (Otherwise the connection may not succeed).
   • You are not sharing your screen with viewers yet. (The connection code used in the next step should be kept private).
3. The Connector app will now show you a Connection Code. Enter this code on the Green Room screen Presenter's Edge to complete the connection.

During Your Presentation

While you are presenting, Presenter's Edge displays a series of panels containing useful information:

	Notes – your notes from PowerPoint or the private notes stored on your PlayBook. If the notes don't entirely fit on screen, a triangle icon ( ) appears in the corner. Swipe with your finger anywhere in the notes panel to scroll.
	Time remaining – counts down time remaining until the presentation is supposed to end. Shown if your presentation end time is a fixed time of day. After the end time, shows elapsed time past the end. This panel will have a blue background through most of the presentation, then change color to indicate timing warnings near the end.
	Elapsed time – elapsed time since the presentation started. Shown if your presentation end time is based on duration. This panel will have a blue background through most of the presentation, then change color to indicate timing warnings near the end.
	Time of day – the current "wall clock" time. Always shown. This panel will have a black background through most of the presentation, then change color to indicate timing warnings near the end.
	Slide control – displays which slide you are currently on. Tap the arrows to change slides. (If you are using PowerPoint this will change slides in your PowerPoint presentation; if you are using private notes without PowerPoint, it will change which cue card "slide" is currently shown in the notes display).

You can pause the presentation timer if your end time is based on duration (not a fixed time of day). Swipe down from the top bezel and choose Pause Timer from the menu. A pause indicator will appear; to resume the duration timer, just tap the indicator.

When you are done presenting, swipe down from the top bezel and choose Exit presenting from the menu to return to the Green Room.

Problems? Suggestions?

Stormfront Software would love to hear your feedback. If you are having any problems with Presenter's Edge, we will do our very best to help you.

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