For a small presentation, showing the PowerPoint slide show on your laptop screen and sitting at the end of a table is perfectly fine. Most of the time, however, you want to connect your laptop to a video projector. The video projector works like a giant monitor, displaying its image on a large screen at the end of a meeting room or convention hall.
The hook-up process is easier than it seems. In the best-case scenario, a helpful technician is there to assist you, and the connection is made and confirmed in advance. But even when no technician is available, you can generally figure things out.
To connect your laptop to a video projector, just follow these steps:
1. Connect your laptop's external video connector to the video projector.
You can use either the S-Video or external monitor port. You can do this with the laptop on or off, though eventually you do need to turn it on. Oh, what the heck: Turn on the laptop now!
2. Connect the laptop's audio-out port to the projector or to the location's sound system.
3. As long as you're connecting things, see whether you can plug the laptop into an AC socket.
No sense in wasting battery power for a presentation - or running out of battery juice in the middle of that presentation!
If your laptop has Windows Vista, go on to Step 4a. If you have Windows XP, skip to Step 4b.
4. a. In Windows Vista, open the Personalization icon in the Control Panel and then click Display Settings.
4. b. In Windows XP, open the Display icon in the Control Panel and then click the Settings tab.
The job of the Settings tab, shown in Figure 1, is to confirm that your laptop's hardware is working and that it recognizes the video projector as the external monitor. For most modern laptops, this happens automatically; the only time you really need to use the Settings dialog box is when things are hinkey.
5. Check the image; preview the slide show.
At first, the projector may just show your laptop's Windows desktop. That's not why people are coming to the meeting, though. Take your presentation for a "pre-run." Load that main slide and ensure that it shows up on the screen. If so, you're ready to go.
If the slide show has sound effects, preview them, as well, to ensure that the sound system is working.
6. Close the laptop's lid and wait to be introduced.
You can just leave your laptop at the podium, lid closed, ready to go. When you open the lid, the presentation is ready to run. If there are too many people around and security is a concern, you may want to take the laptop with you.
At other times, the video projector acts as the laptop's second monitor. The laptop shows the regular laptop screen, but the presentation appears on the video projector. (That's just PowerPoint being smart.)
Here are a few tips about making your laptop/projector connection a smooth one:
- Be sure to pack an extra bulb when you're using your own video projector. You want to be able to replace a burned-out bulb quickly, and they usually don't sell those bulbs in the hotel's sundry store.
- Some laptops sport a special function (Fn) key on the keyboard that you can use to activate the external video port. You may need to press this key to switch the display over to the video projector.
- Some laptops may have dual video built in, allowing you to use the video projector as a second monitor. To confirm this, open the Display Properties dialog box and click the Settings tab. A second monitor should already be configured (refer to Figure 1). If so, you're set and ready to go!
