After measurable success using Keynote as our primary platform for our most important presentations, the rest of the team here at the Luis Palau Association is starting to get Macs for their presentations to get all that buttery Keynote goodness for their presentations. I wrote this up to help the non-techies get their Macs set up for solid, reliable presentations every time. I’m sharing it with you here, in case you’d like to learn more about making Keynote sing.
In part one here, we’ll configure the Mac for presentations. You should only have to do this part once for a given machine or user on that machine. It must be done [again, only once] before the trip or presentation – not when it’s time for the show. Plan smartly!
Download the Presentation setup files (info below). Zip, 2mb.
Initial Mac setup
We need to do a little setup in general before doing presentations. A few quick setting adjustments will make future presentations go smoothly. Run through these steps at least once before doing anything. In fact, since we’re gettin’ all tweaky here, consider creating a “Presentation” user in Preferences > Accounts and just using that user for presentations. Putting the presentations (Keynote files, etc.) in the /Users/Shared directory makes sense for that use.
Display Prefs
First, open up the System Preferences Pane. It’s under Apple > System Preferences. Select “Display Preferences”.
Check “Show displays in Menu Bar”.
This makes it easy to switch resolutions:
Here you can see my two displays connected, which is like having the Mac and a projector
Trackpad Prefs
Go to System Prefs > Keyboard & Mouse > Trackpad. Select the two Trackpad Options at bottom:
Important: If you use a remote “clicker” like our presenter remote, you must plug in a USB mouse in order to use the Mac while the remote is plugged in. The remote acts like a 4-button keyboard, and with no trackpad you can’t do much without a mouse. Run with both during a presentation.
Energy Saver Settings
In the menu bar, where the power indicator is, select “Better Performance”. This will keep the lazy Mac from sleeping on the job during your fabulous presentation.
Okay – you’re ready to hook up that projector!
Plug in to the projector (or second display)
If you’re at a facility, they may just have the VGA cable to plug into, but it’s the same. You need your VGA adapter:
If it’s one of our projectors, you can use a DVI cable (no dongle needed), but it’s more common to use the VGA.
When you plug in, the screen will flash to blue and back. Go check your resolution with the Display Menu you set up earlier:
Check the arrangement
The Mac “knows” where the other screen is. In Displays > Arrangement you can select the second display and move it to the side you want. I like mine on the right; just be consistent. If you have to use the mouse on the second display, you’ll know where to head.
See that “mirror displays” item? Don’t do it, it’s evil. Don’t be evil. If your display is all “huge” and the same image appears on both, this is why.
Note: if you like the Dock on the sides (like me) you’ll need to set it to the opposite side, or else it will appear on the second screen, which you don’t want.
Set screen background
This is sort of a setup step, but you have to have a second display connected to do it. We need to set a black background (or logo) to the second desktop screen, so when switching programs, setting up, or if a crash happens (to the best of us!), it’s not disruptive to the show.
First, download a black swatch. These are a part of the Setup Files zip if you haven’t downloaded them yet.
I prefer setting the screen to black. It’s simplest, and least disruptive if there’s a problem. For some reason, it’s not default with the Mac. You’d think, with Apple’s Presenter-in-chief and all.
Put the black image in /Library/Desktop Pictures/Solid Colors (’/’ is the hard drive root).
Since the second display is now connected, the Desktop Picture pane appears on each screen. On the second screen, go Solid Colors > the black one.
Setting up Keynote
Before we get further, we need to set up Keynote properly. The default settings may work fine, but check against the following screens. Application preferences are in the Keynote menu > Preferences.
Slideshow:
Presenter Display (what shows on your screen when the show is running. Great for solo presentations):
The Mac is now ready for the next step: the actual presentation! Look for part two soon.
Posted in Art of Presenting
