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Using Excel as presenting tool - question

K

Knisse

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 9, 2012
67
0
Hi,

I am teaching a course. I am using excel as my presenting tool with a projector.

I would like to ask, is it possible with some feature to hide certain text from what the students are able to view on projector, and to what i can see at my computer infront of me. If i need certain text just for myself to remember?

Thank you very much.
 
gavinstubbs09 said:
I don't know if it would work out well, but isn't there a way to use the notes section or is it actual data in the cells you want to block out?
Click to expand...

Perhaps the note section in excel would work, i have not tried.. I really doubt it, as it is my entire screen that is shown with the projector.

My intention was actual data in the cells, since that would make it easier for myself.
 
I have found that there is an option in powerpoint where you "hide slide", but so far no luck in Excel :(
 
I don't think you can....You'd be better of pre-recording the presentation and then giving the students exercises to do.

I did this a long way back...I had 12 or so people and I had pre-prepared an idea. It was a simple grocery spreadsheet with items such as vegetables, etc. I got them to create their own spreadsheet with a little handout I'd given them in advance...Then used the presentation to show them how it should look, going around each student to see where ( if any ) mistakes had been made....Pretty simple stuff...autosum, totals, percentages for profit etc.
 
Macman45 said:
I don't think you can....You'd be better of pre-recording the presentation and then giving the students exercises to do.
Click to expand...

It seem stranges as i would imagine that alot uses Excel as some sort of presentation tool. Perhaps you are right :(
 
dan1eln1el5en said:
how about powerpoint and copy/paste the excel part thats of interest into the slides, supposign thats you teach about cell data and not excel functionality.
Click to expand...

That is a possibility, but unfortunately i sometimes need to show the function in Excel, and it would require extra work to get it into powerpoint. I still have a shed of hope that one here at Macrumors will know a solution to my problem :)
 
Here's what I do...

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, however, the following works for me when I use Excel to get my point across, using PowerPoint and Excel:
  • Open PowerPoint and set up my presentation with the slide master format I want.
  • Open the Excel workbook (one or multiple sheets, it doesn't matter) I want to use; I usually have multiple sheets in my workbooks.
  • Switch to PPT and create a slide that suits your needs - I'll generally create a blank slide and append it with other data for notes. I want my audience to focus on the data, and the sheet usually carries the data I want - if I distribute the data they're looking at then there's no surprises and no questions that follow about "that's not all of what was on the slide...".
  • Use the "Insert>Object>Create From File" Command, and choose the source Excel file I'm working with. The active sheet in the workbook is embedded in the PPT slide. Repeat this step, switching to Excel to activate each workbook sheet that will be embedded in my PPT slideshow.
  • Continue on with formatting my slideshow, and save at appropriate intervals.

I use Presenter mode during playback, so my audience sees the slideshow and I can see the slideshow and the notes I've prepared for myself.

During the slideshow, I can pan around a data set on a slide and - importantly - by using the above PPT Command, double-clicking on an embedded spreadsheet will launch Excel (which I often load before starting my slideshow so the audience doesn't need to see the splash screen, opening my subject Excel files as well) and select the specific workbook sheet I chose in PPT. I switch back to PPT and continue with my presentation in PPT as before. THis works in both Macs and Windows applications, though the exact commands are worded slightly differently with different versions of Office over the years (I'm using Mac Office 2011). QED - I hope this helps.
 
Thank for your suggestion! Apologize for late reply.

The problem is that my excel files are quite long, i have 3-4 assignments and each take up perhaps 3-4 pages in powerpoint, so it would be quite a bit of work to short them, fit them to excel and those sort of things. Also, i need to show them excel calculations (done while they watch) and i have some other programs which i need once in a while to use while i show them.

I think your suggestion is great if i didnt have to use other programs and excel while.
 
Thank you for your next suggestion, that is definitely an option.

I must admit what i am really seeking is still the hide slide option in powerpoint converted to Excel. A simple feature of hide text similar to powerpoints hide slide, i reckon i am out of luck in that regard.
 
Have to admit this isn't my thing but isn't it possible to set the projector up as a secondary display (rather than mirroring your main display)

you could then run two copies of the worksheet - one with the text you want to refer to on your macbooks display, and a second one with the not to be seen by the students data slid over onto the secondary (projector display)?

I suppose you could then take it further and make the relevant cells on that second version of the worksheet white text on white background and then just select the cells and set their text colour to black when you want the students to see the contents?
 
Now that sounds like a solution! Great idea!

Unfortunately the projector is at my university so i do not have the possibility of attempting right away. I have bought a VGA to lightning adapter and then the computer automatically mirrors my screen.

According to some video if found on youtube the setup seems kind of straight forward. To go from mirror to second display.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKKb6vJaz7s

Will let you know if it works as planned, but i am positive right now :)
 
Fingers crossed :) If it works like I hope it would then yes you'ld just need to go into display preferences and set the machine to have two seperate displays rather than one display mirrored to both.

One thing I would say is have both screens set at same vertical resolution - it'll make it easier to slide the mouse cursor over from one screen to the other


That said something else struck me, if it turns out you have no other option but to carry on mirroring as you're currently doing:

Most projectors won't have the colour gamut/brightness contrast of the computers own display. Normally that's a pain but you could exploit that to your advantage in this situation.

e.g. if you make the text you don't want the students to see a very pale grey against white cell background, and crank the brightness/contrast of the projector then you might well hit a sweet spot where you can still see that pale grey text on your computers display ..but on the projector the pale grey text gets washed out and blends into white cell background so its effectively invisible on the projector..

Then you just do same as in the first 2-worksheet suggestion above - setting the text colour to black whenever you want to reveal cell contents of those cells to the students on the projector :)
 
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It works like a charm, only thing is i need to look at the projector and try to manage both screens, but that shouldnt be any issue. Still curious why didnt microsoft incorporated such an importent feature as hide text in projector(show mode), perhaps you need some VBA to make that happen.

Thanks snorkel! :)

/EDIT if someone has something breaking to contribute then please PM me, i am terrible at looking at this page unless i get some mail about it (which i do by PMs)
 
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Knisse said:
It works like a charm, only thing is i need to look at the projector and try to manage both screens, but that shouldnt be any issue.

Thanks snorkel! :)
Click to expand...

you're welcome glad to hear it worked out OK :)

By sounds of it you went with 'projector as a second screen approach'

If you haven't done so already might be worth give the 'mirroring using really light coloured text' option a try If that gave the desired result on your projector that would let you go back to looking solely at the macbook display..

Stevie
 
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