PDF Presentations

Presentations are not limited to PowerPoint. I love using Acrobat for a slide-show presentation. You even get to use fancy transitions between the slides!

One really nice perk of using Acrobat to create a slide show is that you can send the file to anyone, and that person can view it. You need only Adobe Reader (available free online at www.adobe.com) to view the slide show.

Did you Know?

To create a slide-show presentation with Acrobat, first pick the files you want to be in the slide show. Make sure that all the files are PDFs. In fact, you can use the Create PDF from Multiple Files function to convert the files and open them together as one bound PDF file.

To create a multiple-page PDF, choose From Multiple Files from the Create PDF submenu of the File menu. Select the files you want by clicking the Choose button in the Add Files area. You can pick more than one file at a time by holding the Shift key while selecting the first and last files of a string of contiguous files, or by holding the Command (Ctrl) key while selecting noncontiguous files.

Arrange the files in the order in which you want them to appear in the Files to Combine area. When you have all the files arranged, click OK.

To make the slide show appear as a slide show, first go to the preferences to set your Full Screen preferences. Choose Full Screen Navigation options and click OK. In Full Screen Navigation Preferences, set the Advance time, Loop options, and any transitions you might want. To run the slide show (see Figure 10.26), choose Full Screen from the Window menu or press Command+L (Ctrl+L). This command toggles between running the slide show and stopping the slide show.

Figure 10.26. A full-screen slide show in Acrobat.

Full Screen Preferences

Creating a slide show is pretty easy. Now let's clean it up by editing the Full Screen preferences. Choose File, Preferences (Windows) or Acrobat, Preferences (Macintosh), or press Command+K (Ctrl+K). Choose Full Screen from the choices on the left. Here is where you can set how the slide show functions:

• Full Screen Navigation Enter a value in seconds for how quickly or slowly the slides automatically advance. Check the Loop After Last Page box to have the slide show run continually. Keep the Escape Key Exits box checked so that you can quickly get out if you forget the keyboard shortcut. The last option in this area is Left-Click to Go Forward One Page; Right-Click to Go Back. These are just nice keyboard commands to navigate your slide show manually.

• Full Screen Appearance Under this Full Screen preference, you can specify to Ignore All Transitions. Set the default transition, mouse cursor function, and background color.

Transitions

Transitions are a wonderful way to advance from one page of your slide show to the next. Use transitions to enhance your presentation. When choosing a transition, keep in mind what your slides look like. For example, if you have mostly text or tables, using a dissolve transition looks rather sloppy and confusing. When you choose a transition, it will be used between all slide transitions; you can't choose a different one for each slide. If you are looking for variety, choose the Random transition. This option randomly uses the various transitions (there are 50) between slides (see Figure 10.27).

Figure 10.27. A transition between slides. In this case, Uncover Right Up was used.

If some day you decide you don't want the transitions anymore, go to Full Screen Preferences and check the Ignore All Transitions option, or choose No Transition from the Default Transition pop-up menu. Remember that you can also change the background color from the default black to any color you want.