Rehearsed Timings All Wrong?

Did you make a presentation with rehearsed timings only to find out that the rehearsed timings don't work too well in another computer which had another version of PowerPoint?

Yes, that happens -- sometimes, the rehearsal timings may be different even if you use the same version of PowerPoint. There's not much you can do -- but do follow these guidelines:

1. Keep a gap of two to three seconds after each slide to compensate for change in timings.
2. For slides that are full of custom animations, keep a gap of 5 seconds before the next slide plays.
3. Test the rehearsed presentations on several versions of PowerPoint to make sure that the timings work well.
4. Test the rehearsed presentation on both Windows and Mac versions of PowerPoint if you work in a cross platform environment.

These tips won't really work in a presentation with photos and music since adding a gap of a few seconds won't be possible when the music is spanning across slides. Do remember that PowerPoint was designed as a presentation software to accompany talks. Microsoft provides two free products that can combine photographs with music:

1. Windows Movie Maker
2. Photo Story

Search on the Microsoft site for a download link to these products. And the first one (Windows Movie Maker) may already be installed on your system.

You may also use the best of both worlds -- create a presentation in PowerPoint, and then create a movie from that presentation with added music in Windows Movie Maker. You can find a tutorial on creating such a Windows Movie Maker movie file from existing PowerPoint content here...

Mac users can use iMovie (included with most Macs) to achieve the same purpose although PowerPoint:mac allows direct movie export.