Equipment
Each room used at this year's competition will be equipped with a PC computer, digital projector and large screen. The system has high speed access to the World wide web and sound capabilities. These computers are equipped with USB ports (that accommodate USB memory sticks) and CD/DVD-ROMs. The remote control unit for each system has an integrated laser pointer and the capability to advance to the next slide with the push of a button.
Presentation Software
Our expectation is that presentations will be based om Microsoft Power Point software and run using the PC-based workstation. The workstation has Adobe Reader loaded and this may be used as well. No other presentation software is resident on the workstations provided. Web-based programs may be used, however, we take no responsibility for use of these options. The preferred method is to have presenters send us their completed presentations on CD-ROM disks in advance of the competition (by the Wednesday before the state fair) so that they can be preloaded to the desktop of the computer and accessed immediately by each presenter. If your presentation employs movie clips, care should be exercised to save the clips with the presentation files and not to a linked file elsewhere on the drive. We are unaware of issues related to showing presentations on these PCs that were prepared on an Apple computer, however, it would be prudent to test such files on a PC before submission. The preferred method is to have presenters send us their completed presentations in advance of the competition (on CD-ROM disks or electronically as email attachments) so that they can be preloaded to the desktop of the computer and accessed immediately by each presenter. If your presentation employs movie clips, care should be exercised to save the clips with the presentation files and not to a linked file elsewhere on the drive. We are unaware of issues related to showing presentations on these PCs that were prepared on an Apple computer, however, it would be prudent to test such files on a PC before submission. Presenters may wish to experiment with saving their Power Point presentations as presentation (.pps) files so that presentations begin immediately on opening.
Power Point Presentations
All submitted PowerPoint presentations prepared on an Apple-based computer should be pretested on a PC-based computer to assure that it runs as expected. Your graphics files must be reduced to an appropriate size to reduce file size. One discussion of appropriate file size strategies may be found at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/what-resolution-should-i-make-my-images-for-powerpoint-slide-shows-HA001116355.aspx. There is an easier way to adjust file size in your Power Point presentation.
- After assembling your presentation, select (click on) any picture on any page.
- Click on the "Compress Picture" icon in the Picture Toolbar.
- In the box that is opened, select the radio buttons "All pictures in document", "Web/screen", "Compress pictures" and "Delete cropped areas of pictures".
- Click "OK".
- Save the file.
Presenters are strongly encouraged to bring backup copies of their presentations on either USB memory sticks or burned to a CD-ROM. We strongly discourage the use of personal computers (PCs or Apple) since their connection to the projection system will require a nontrivial and time-consuming reconfiguration of the system. If you must use a personal computer, please inform us well in advance so that we can organize presentations to minimize reconfigurations.
Presenters are also encouraged to attend an orientation for the projection equipment that will be held in MSEC 101 in the 15 minutes prior to the start of the competition. This orientation will include information on inserting USB devices, loading CD-ROMs, DVDs and how to access files on these media once loaded; operation of the projector and remote (including use of the remote for advancing slides and as a laser pointer).
Send your presentation electronically Lynn Brandvold. If you have any questions about AV facilities please contact David Johnson or phone (575) 835-1432.
Updated: 02/06/12
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