Speaking Prompter

Rather than fumbling with file cards, you can make your next speech more polished by keeping your prompting cards on your PocketPC. Last minute changes can be easily made, without resorting to scribbles and scrawls on well-thumbed pages.

There already exist some programs that purport to offer this service on Palm OS devices. However, most of this can be done with tools that are already included in the standard setup of your PocketPC. This whole concept works best when your text is viewed in landscape mode, that is, with the device turned sideways. For this, on the iPaq, you need a small utility called JS Landscape (only $10 from Jimmy Software).

Otherwise this can all be done using Pocket Word. However, it is a bit tedious preparing your entire speech on the PocketPC. It is much easier to create your document on the desktop computer and transfer it to your device. But how do you know what it will look like on the device.

The files here do two things with your desktop version of Microsoft Word. The template PPCspkrNotes.dot provides some simple formatting control. It makes the default font into Tahoma 14pt - this is the best compromise for readability. There is also a small document called HowTo.doc -- this contains a macro called ConvertToPktPCSpkrNotes that reformats your text and adjusts page and screen sizes so that what you see on the desktop screen is what you get in landscape mode on your device. If you find the macro useful, you can copy it over to your main Normal.dot template so that you can access it at any time. If you leave the macro in HowTo.doc, then you need to have this document loaded in Word in order to run the macro.

Instructions:

1. Copy PPCspkrNotes.dot to your User templates folder, as specified in Tools | Options, under the File Locations tab.
2. Open HowTo.doc in MS Word.
3. Open the document that you wish to convert.
4. Run the macro (Alt-F8) called  ConvertToPktPCSpkrNotes
5. Use ActiveSync to copy the newly created document to your device.

You will see that the MS Word window will shrink considerably in size. But it now behaves the same way as Pocket Word does in response to PgDn or to pressing the cursor control downwards.

Formatting Tips:

1. There are 8 lines per page when you use Tahoma 14pt in landscape mode.
2. Pressing PgDn or rocking the joystick downwards will move down a screenful, with one line of overlap from the previous screen (ie 7 lines).
3. You can use this one line overlap to your advantage, to remind you as to what is coming up on the next screen.
4. Use Carriage Returns to space your text vertically. Inserting hard page breaks makes no difference when you are working in Pocket Word. (Similarly ignore the markers for soft page breaks.)

You can still use Bold, Underline and Italic to emphasise text in your speech. If you get more fancy than this, it is quite likely that things will not appear the same on your device.

Files needed:

Page last modified on October 31, 2005