MultiPresenter is a presentation system built to work on multiple screens. It currently supports two external screens. This manual is a simple how-to-use manual which describes the different functions and features that MultiPresenter has. It does not describe how MultiPresenter can be best utilized, which is mainly dependent on the user.

1. Technical Requirements

In order to run MultiPresenter, all that is required in the lecture hall or conference rooms are two projectors or displays that can be accessed via two VGA (or DVI) cables. To connect to two projectors from a single laptop, a simple USB to VGA adapter is needed. One that I recommend is the UV Plus 16 by EVGA.

Currently, MultiPresenter only runs on Windows XP or Vista operating systems. Before running MultiPresenter, you have to set-up the external screens to be in extended desktop mode, so your display settings window should look something like this:

Please notice: in order for MultiPresenter to work, the laptop or primary display (the one the instructor is using) must be number one, and must be the left most display in the display settings dialog window.

2. Loading a presentation

After you start MultiPresenter, you get an empty application. First thing that is needed to do is to load a presentation. To load a presentation, press the following icon: . This will open a regular windows file open dialog. The default file type to open is a PowerPoint file. Opening a PowerPoint file will load the PowerPoint slides as a single stream of slides. It is also possible to open an .mpr file which is a saved MultiPresenter two-screen presentation file. To open an .mpr file, the file type should be changed to .mpr MultiPresenter file. The third possibility is to open image file/s. One or more image files (by pressing cntl it is possible to select more than one file) can be selected and loaded to MultiPresenter as a single stream of slides by selecting the file type to be image files and choosing one or more image files.

3. Running a Presentation

After loading a presentation, you can either build a readymade dual-screen presentation (see section 4), or immediately run the existing presentation on the two screens. When running the presentation, there is a primary screen and a secondary screen. The primary screen is used to show the regular stream of slides, and the secondary screen is used to show different stuff that is decided either ahead of time or during the presentation to be useful for the audience and presented on the second display.

Starting a presentation

To start the presentation press: .

The dropdown beside the icon has the following possibilities for running the presentation:

Interactive: run an interactive presentation in which the presenter controls what appears on screen at any given time.

One slide back: The previous slide from the stream of slides is displayed at all times on the secondary screen.

Two slides back: The two previous slides are displayed on the secondary screen.

Four slides back: The four previous slides are displayed on the secondary screen.

During the presentation

The following is an example of the presentation control window:

The left pane shows what is currently shown on the primary screen. The right pane (empty in this screen shot) shows what is currently shown on the secondary screen. The bottom pane shows the stream of slides. The current position in the bottom pane is shown with a blue rectangle. (See image)

Progressing through the slide deck: to go to the next slide/s, it is possible to press the right arrow key, or the pgDn key on the keyboard, or press the yellow right arrow icon on the top left of the screen. To go to the previous slide, press the left arrow or the pgUp key on the keyboard, or the yellow left arrow icon on the top left of the screen. To go to any slide (or two slides set together) in the deck, it is possible to find the slide in the bottom pane, and double click on it to jump to it.

Putting a slide on the secondary screen: To put a slide on the secondary screen, simply drag any slide from the bottom pane to the right pane. If the right pane is empty, the slide will fill the entire screen. If there is already one or more slides on the secondary screen, the system will automatically position the slides on the screen so all slides can be seen. If you want the dragged slide to appear on the entire screen, you first need to erase what is on there, and then drag the slide to the screen.

Exchanging between the screens: Pressing the icon, will exchange between the two screens seen by the audience. Nothing will be seen in the presenter’s interface, since the primary screen is always shown on the left pane of the interface regardless of which screen it is shown on to the audience.

Finishing the presentation: Pressing the icon, or just closing the presentation window, will finish the presentation and return to the presentation-building window.

Clipping

At any time during the presentation, it is possible to select any part of primary screen and “clip” it to the secondary screen. You are in clipping mode if the icon is greyed out. The following image shows the first part in which the presenter has selected the graph on the primary screen to be clipped:

The user then drags the clip to the secondary screen:

The clip is then positioned, and can be resized on the secondary screen:

At any time, any clip can be resized by clicking on it and using the dark dots to resize it. Any clip can be deleted by selecting it and pressing the delete button on the keyboard.

Using Electronic ink:

Presenters with tabletPC using their tablet’s pen or presenters with regular laptops using the mouse (mainly for highlighting slides), can use electronic ink with MultiPresenter. To use ink, press the icon. This will change the cursor to indicate that you are in pen mode. Any touch on the slides either with the mouse or the tabletPC’s pen on either screen will draw ink strokes. To use the secondary screen as an empty whiteboard, erase whatever is there and then use the pen mode to write on it. Pen can also be used to annotate on existing slides. To erase existing strokes, either use the icon and draw over any stroke, or use the back of the tabletPC’s pen if your pen supports erasing.

Using the color and size icons: , the presenter is able to choose the color and size for the ink. These icons are only active in pen mode.

Only one of the , or icons can be selected at a single time. The one that is greyed out indicates which mode the presenter is currently using. After using ink, if the presenter wants to change to the clip mode, the clipboard icon should be pressed.

Screen toolbars

Both screens have a toolbar associated with them on the side of the screens. The primary screen has less functionality and is a subset of the secondary screen toolbar. The following toolbar is the secondary screen toolbar. Pressing any icon here will perform an action that only applies to the secondary screen:

The top eraser icon , erases the entire secondary screen.

Underneath it, the eraser with the words ink on it , erases only the ink from the screen.

The minus and plus icons , , make the slide appear smaller or larger, to allow more space on the screen usually for either ink or for clips. Remember to make the slide bigger, if you made it smaller. The application will remember the previous size when you bring another slide, even if the slide is erased.

The most bottom icon (the writing icon) , will open a writing screen for the pressed screen. (the icon appears both on the secondary screen and the primary screen toolbar)

Writing screen

The writing screen is used to allow higher resolution writing for electronic ink. Using the writing screen, instructors can write on the empty screen or on a slide with higher resolution. (Since it covers the entire screen of the presenter’s computer). On the top of the screen, the presenter can select the ink color and size, flip between the eraser and pen, or progress the primary screen slide (if this is the secondary screen), without leaving the writing screen. Pressing the close icon will go back to the presentation view window.

Changing modes during a presentation

It is possible to change modes during the presentation. Using the following dropdown menu: , the user can change between the interactive mode, and the slide-back mode in which one or four slides back are displayed on the secondary screen. For example, if the presenter is in slide-back mode, showing four slides back and wishes to use the secondary screen as a whiteboard for a while, the presenter needs during the presentation to change the drop-down to be interactive, then erase the screen and use it as a whiteboard. When the presenter finishes using the screen as a writing space, he or she can then revert back to the slide-back mode, again using this drop-down.

4. Building a premade dual-screen presentation

It is possible to decide ahead of time, which slides should appear on the secondary screen. This can be done using the presentation-building window:

After loading a regular PowerPoint presentation, all slides will appear on the left side of the two streams. The left side shows what will be displayed on the primary screen, and the right side, shows what will be displayed on the secondary screen.

Moving a slide: It is possible to drag any slide to any position (on either side) to be displayed at that position. Two slides that are put one beside the other would be shown together during the presentation. If a slide is dragged to a position where a slide already exists, the two slides will be exchanged. If a slide will be dragged to the space between two slides, it will push the other slides downwards, and enter between the two slides.

Copying a slides: It is also possible to copy a slide by right clicking on the slide, then selecting copy. Then by clicking on an empty spot, right-clicking, and selecting paste, the copied slide would be copied to the empty spot.

To select a single slide to appear on multiple positions (if the presenter wants a certain slide to be persistent on the secondary display alongside more than one slide on the primary display during a presentation), the presenter can copy the slide to the first position on the secondary stream. Then the presenter should select the slide, and drag the blue edge of the slide downwards (or upwards) till the place to copy. The presenter should then press the copy slides button that appears. Another way to do this, is to choose the copy icon . This icon will open a dialog window asking to what range of slide places to copy the selected slide. After copying some slides to the secondary screen, it might look something like this:

Deleting a slide: Deleting a slide can be done either by right-clicking on it and selecting delete, or by selecting the slide and pressing the delete icon: .

Adding a new slide: To add a new slide to the presentation press the following icon: and select any image file. The image file will be added to the end of the presentation. This can be useful if a single slide needs to be updated, or some slides need to be added to an existing MultiPresenter presentation.