Timer during presentation

Question

I am required to make a presentation for a class. I am given 30 minutes give this presentation. I need to give my approximate timings to my instructors prior to beginning the class. If I go over time, I will be cut off and lose marks.

For my layout, I will have two screens - one with the presentation and one with my notes. I would like to set up a timer on my notes screen, large enough that I will be able to see it by only glancing at the screen.

Bonus points if the timer can give me an indication if I am going too fast or too slow (based on my time per slide)

EDIT

I forgot to mention that this is an issued computer; I am not able to install software. I may be able to run plugins (I haven't tried) or a VBA script.

Answer 1

When I used to deliver training courses in a previous job, I used to run Clockx (http://www.clocx.net/) in the bottom right of the screen with the transparency set so it was barely visible. I found that I could see the clock on my laptop screen, but it was too faint to appear on the projected image - no dual screen luxury at the time!

The app's a bit old now so I'm not sure how well it runs on current OSes but you might find it sits well on your notes screen.

Answer 2

I haven't used powerpoint 2003 in years, but if I recall correctly, you can set each slide to switch after a period of time and display the timer for each slide on your screen (but not the big screen you're presenting on).

Answer 3

For my layout, I will have two screens - one with the presentation and one with my notes. I would like to set up a timer on my notes screen, large enough that I will be able to see it by only glancing at the screen.

It sounds like you intend to use Presenter view. One of the things that appears on the notes screen in presenter view is a timer.

It won't tell you how far off your "target" time you are but if you put the target time in your notes -- ie, you should be done with this slide by no later than XXX elapsed time -- that'll give you the info you need.

It's probably possible, with a lot of flailing about in VBA, to add a feature that checks the target time against the actual time that you land on a given slide and adds some kind of cue to the notes text, but with the top line of the speaker notes and the existing timer right next to one another, there doesn't seem to be any need for this.