Do you know this: suddenly PowerPoint crashes, you last saved half an hour ago – was your work for nothing? Not necessarily. Because PowerPoint 2010 almost always has some aces hidden up its sleeve. Or rather, in the backstage area.
Find out here how to activate not only automatic saving in PowerPoint, but also more info here where to find your files. Also read how to save your work if you close a presentation and accidentally forget to save it.
The basis for everything: Enable the AutoRestore feature
Regular buffering is the best way to prevent data loss. The key combination Ctrl + S is best suited for this purpose.But PowerPoint itself also offers one option: the AutoRestore function.
If you activate this function, PowerPoint automatically saves a version of your presentation every 10 minutes or at the interval you specify, for example. If your computer crashes or you accidentally close without saving, you can use this cached version. However, the AutoRestore function must be activated for this to work.
This allows you to check or set this:
On the File tab, click Options.
In the dialog box on the left, select Save, and on the right, select the Save auto-recovery information every xx minutes check box.
The fewer minutes you specify, the more often the auto-save will occur.
Case 1: Accidentally saved even though the change should not be applied
If you often work with presentations, you might already save them without thinking about it. But sometimes you get angry afterwards because you’d like to undo the change and keep the original instead. PowerPoint 2010 offers a solution in the form of automatically saved versions. To undo unwanted changes, simply restore one of the earlier versions of your file.
To do this, click the File tab, and then click Information.
For automatically saved versions, see Versions.
Now select the version for which the unwanted changes do not yet exist.
Make sure that the version you selected is what you want.
Click Restore at the top of the yellow status bar, and then click OK to overwrite your current presentation with the previous version.
IMPORTANT: The automatically saved versions will be kept for four days after the creation date.
Case 2: Newly created presentation closed and forgotten to save
That happens too: You’re pressed for time and accidentally click Don’t save when you close PowerPoint. Now the work of the last minutes is irrevocably deleted. Not at all, because in PowerPoint 2010 there is a new “rescue” function for exactly such cases. How to use it:
Open PowerPoint.
Click on the File tab.
Select Recently Used on the left, then click Restore Unsaved Presentation – you will find the button at the bottom of the screen.
A folder will open that displays all unsaved files. Select your file and click Open.
Save the file.
IMPORTANT: This option is only available if you have worked long enough on the presentation so that PowerPoint has already saved it automatically. This means that if you have specified 10 minutes for AutoRestore, you must also have worked on your new presentation for at least 10 minutes.
Case 3: Editing an existing presentation and forgetting to save it
Open the presentation you edited.
Click the File tab and choose Information. Under Versions, select the version with the extension (if you close without saving).
Click Restore at the top of the yellow status bar to overwrite the previously saved file with the last automatically saved version.
PowerPoint is the default program. But very few people know these two very helpful functions for a good presentation.
1st screen black
During a presentation there are always phases in which the slides do not match what you are currently saying. For example, if a discussion has arisen, if you want to go a little further with an example, or if a question goes in a different direction. Or if you have switched to the flipchart. Most of the time, the slide from the last topic is still standing alone on the wall. Not very useful.
There’s a simple solution, a button that, in my experience, doesn’t even use one percent of the presenters: It’s the B key on the keyboard. By the way, this applies to the Mac and Windows worlds as well as PowerPoint, Keynote and most other presentation applications. They just press the B key (without the additional key) and have a black screen. B like “Black”. You can get back by pressing almost any key.
With the .key (dot) the screen also becomes black. Some remote controls offer the same function via a separate key. By the way, the W button stands for White, should you need a lot of light. Attention: the N-key (right next to the B-key!) stands for “Next Slide” and switches to the next slide or animation phase just like the right and lower arrow as well as the space bar, Enter-key or Return-key.
Notes for the presenter
Many films are therefore so full – much too full! – because the presenter uses them as his own notes. He may then read the text first, in the erroneous assumption that this double input reinforces the message.
It has been proven that participants cannot read and listen at the same time. Long texts therefore make little sense, especially as there is a much better method. Few also know them.