How to Create the Perfect Presentation on the Go with OneDrive and PowerPoint
We have all been in a position where we want to be productive, but cannot because we do not have our desktop or laptop. Instead, we have to rely on our smartphone or tablet if we want to do anything.
Another situation is getting a call from your boss who wants you to create a PowerPoint presentation yesterday. The challenge is that you are busy outside of the office or you only have a hundred other tasks to do when you are in front of your computer.
Luckily, if you are in one of those situations, you don't have to worry about getting the presentation done. You have other opportunities to create the perfect presentation now. You have Office Mobile.
In this article we show you how to create the perfect presentation with PowerPoint and OneDrive. Then we go through how you can benefit from the combination of these two powerful productivity tools.
First: Understanding the new Office Mobile
Are you excited? You should be. Microsoft released a new Office Mobile for smartphones and tablets. It includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The PowerPoint portion of the suite will enable you to create a professional looking slideshow from start to finish.
The first thing you need to do is download PowerPoint from your Google Play or Apple Store. It’s free with your subscription to Office 365. Once you have it downloaded and installed, just click on the PowerPoint app.
When you click on the app, you will receive this screen:
Tap on New at the top to get to this screen:
As you can see, you have a few templates to choose from. For this article, we will choose the first one ‘Ion.’
Now you can add at a title by simply following the direction on the slide.
You can also add a subtitle:
To add the next slide, go ahead and tap on + on the bottom right of the screen. You will see a blank screen with the same template as you chose when you first started.
To make further edits to the slideshow, go to the top and press on the font symbol (The A with a pencil). This brings up all of the options you need to change the fonts on your slides.
Also on the top you see a symbol that looks like a sheet of paper. This enables you to make notes on a slide. This is great if you want to remember something about the slide.
The next symbol on the top looks like a little television. This symbol plays your slideshow. Yes, you can play it before you decide to save it. This is a great way to preview the slideshow.
The final symbol is one you are probably familiar with – it is the disk symbol that you use to save your work. Click on that and you will get to this screen:
As you can see, the first option is OneDrive. Tap on it and you will see a list of folders in your OneDrive to save the presentation to for easy access later.
At the bottom of the screen, you see where you can name your presentation. After you pick the folder and type in the filename, you can tap save.
The next symbol is a little person with a +. When you tap on this one, you have the option to share your slideshow with others by email. You can send a link to it if the person you are sending it to does not have PowerPoint or you can email the attachment to be opened by the person in his/her PowerPoint.
You can set permissions for the share. You can let the recipient only view the slideshow or edit it.
Presenting Your Slideshow
When it is time to present your slideshow, all you have to do is open the PowerPoint app by clicking on it in your app’s list.
When the app opens, it may show you your slideshow right away. All you have to do is tap the play symbol to play it.
Other Options for PowerPoint
In the top left corner, there are three bars. Tap on that and you will be presented with some options that may useful to you.
New – Create a new slideshow.
Open – Open an existing slideshow from your OneDrive.
Save – This is another way to save the slideshow you are working on.
Save As – This is when you want to save a slideshow under a different name. Sometimes you want to use the same slideshow for a presentation with some changes made to it.
Share – This is another way to share your slideshow as an attachment in email, text message, on Facebook, etc.
Print – Yes, you can print your slideshow!
Close – This will close the slideshow you are working on at the moment.
Feedback – If you have some words of wisdom to offer the people at Microsoft, go ahead and provide feedback.
How Many Slideshows Can You Save in OneDrive?
When you first start using OneDrive (Free Version), you have 15 GB of free space. This is a lot of space, and much more than most other cloud storage services. If you do use up all of that space, you can pay a low fee to get 100GB, 200GB, or 1TB of extra space.
OneDrive also has two promotions:
1. You can get an extra 15 GB of space if you backup your camera roll with them.
2. You can get an extra 500 MB if you refer a friend. You can refer up to 10 friends for as much as 5 GBs.
Tips for Using Mobile PowerPoint
- You can send your slideshow presentation to a display or projector easily with Apple’s AirPlay technology or with the more generic Miracast system. You can then use your smartphone or tablet to flick through each of the slides. No need for remotes anymore.
- Learning gestures will help you be more efficient with mobile PowerPoint. For example, if you are previewing your slide in full-screen, you can simply perform a closed pinch gesture to go back to the editing view. This is much faster than tapping on the top of the screen and then tapping on End Slide Show.
- Since the mobile version of PowerPoint does not have all of the features the desktop one does, consider tweaking it when you get back to your PC or Mac. You can put the finishing touches on it, which should not take very long.
One last tip: Save your work often. It is technology and things can happen. You do not want all of your work to go to waste, so hit that save button multiple times. It will update on the OneDrive server so you can be sure that no matter what happens to your mobile device or its connection, you will have your presentation safely stored online.
How It Can Save Your Life…Or at Least Make You Feel That Way
First, PowerPoint mobility can save your life when you are in a bind. There have been stories of people losing their presentations just an hour before a meeting, and then they recover because they are able to recreate their slides on the way to it.
This even happens to the experts among us. PowerPoint Ninja discussed how they accidentally closed their PowerPoint presentation in the middle of creating the deck. It happens, which is why mobility and online access are lifesavers.
Second, some people have problems with their laptop during a meeting. Because of that, they are unable to show the presentation to their clients. With PowerPoint on a mobile device, a meeting can be saved by playing it off the device.
What’s wonderful about OneDrive is that even if you do not have a laptop, smartphone or tablet with you. If you need, you can even access the presentation using someone else’s device.
How good does that feel? You are always able to access your PowerPoint presentation by going on the OneDrive website, logging in, and then finding the presentation on there. You can open it, edit it, and play it. Isn’t the world of technology grand?
Third, do not count on an Internet connection when you go to a meeting. Just be sure you are safe from the possible death of your internet server, and use One Note to create screenshots of any internet content you want to share.
For example, Betsy Weber from Techsmith mentioned how a presenter at O’Reilly’s Velocity Conference in London had a challenging presentation, because the keynote presenter didn't have a good Internet connection.
These apps will create a screencast that can be played without an Internet connection. Just be sure all of your devices are charged beforehand, so you do not have to deal with that problem. Actually, make sure they are charged AND bring your charging cords. It’s always better to be safe than sorry!
You Are Now Free to Create PowerPoint Presentation on the Go
Now that you have the ability to create slideshows on the go, you can be much more productive. Play around with it right now to see how powerful and helpful it can be for you as you are trying to get one of the many tasks you have on your to-do list done on the go.
