If you have participated in PowerPoint presentations, whether for business and marketing purposes or in an educational context, you will be well aware of the importance of good communication with your audience. Having to stand by the computer to move the slides can really make this difficult, and you may have often wished someone would invent a wireless clicker for presentations. Now someone has done exactly that and in fact there are now several of these devices on the market.

A wireless or remote PowerPoint clicker has the power to transform your presentations. Now you can move around the room and interact with your audience in a much more personal way and there is no need to worry about tripping over cables. This allows you to convey your message in a much more direct and effective way, as well as being able to judge whether or not you are attracting the attention of your audience.

So what kind of features do you need to look for in a presentation clicker? This depends on how you are most likely to use it. Clickers vary in their distance capabilities from about 30 feet to about 100 feet. If your presentations are primarily internal for your own office staff, or for teaching a class of students in a full-size classroom, the basic model should suffice. However, if you are presenting in a large auditorium, for example at a public trade show presentation, it is desirable to be able to move up to 100 feet from the front, and you will need a more powerful model. You can also find clickers that are compatible with technologies on multiple continents, in case you are making international presentations on behalf of your company.

PowerPoint clickers differ greatly in size, depending on how many features they have. Some are small enough to hide in the palm of your hand. This is useful for connecting with your audience as they don’t know the device you are using, so it is a good idea to look at all the available features and consider if you really need them. However, one feature that presenters find very useful, enabled on some clickers, is the feature of silent weather alerts at preset intervals. This lets you know how you are doing over time and make sure you have finished your presentation before time runs out.

People who have used these clickers advise that it is a good idea to rehearse before your presentation, to make sure you know exactly how to use the device. It is also a good idea to bring spare batteries or put new ones before each presentation, or both, there are few things worse than having the batteries half dead. However, almost without exception, those who have used a PowerPoint clicker are immensely excited. It works wonders for your presentation style, and whether in teaching or business, it dramatically improves your results.