2-Minute Tip: Play Your Videos Full Screen
Including short videos in your presentation can be a great way to illustrate your points. They can be videos you shot of people, stock video, animations, or illustrations. If it’s valuable enough to include, make sure your audience can see it. Play it in full screen.
The default for PowerPoint when you embed a video is for it to appear in the middle of your slide. You end up with the title bar of your slide still showing and blank space around your video. That’s a waste. Instead, play your video full screen to make it bigger and more visible. Here’s how.
When you create your slide and embed your video, click on the video to activate the “Playback” tab in the menu bar. Then, check the box next to “Play Full Screen.”
When you conduct your presentation and run your slideshow, you’ll get to the slide with the video. When you click that slide, the video will expand to take up the whole screen and play. When the video ends, it will shrink back down and return you to standard slideshow mode.
Give it a try and practice with this feature. It can make everyone’s presentation experience better.
Post Tip Discussion: 10 Steps to Presenting Someone Else’s Material
Sometimes an organization needs to replace a speaker. It could be due to poor performance, illness, personal emergency, a change of business priorities, or any number of other reasons. At some point, they may ask you to step up and take over that speaking slot and use the original speaker’s content. How do you do that? Here are 10 steps to use someone else’s material. Not all of them will be relevant in every situation, but they do give you general guidance.
- Talk with the original presenter.
- Identify the goal, theme, objective, or call to action of the original speaker.
- Review the speaker notes.
- Determine how much freedom you have.
- Recognize your limitations.
- Tell your story.
- Make analogies to your own expertise
- Rely on your audience.
- Use an assistant with a back channel.
- Remember, there’s a reason they picked you.
Call To Action:
- Share this episode with a friend, colleague, or relative.
- Have you had to step in for another speaker? Tell us about it in the comments below.
- Run your videos in full screen mode.
- Don’t get best…get better.