I Can’t Read Your Screen, Mr. Presenter

We’ve all been there, at the code camp/user group meeting/conference/etc where we CANNOT read the screen. Even though your code is projected onto a gigantic screen I cannot see you 10pt Courier Font, Mr Presenter, from 50 feet away in the back row. The audience faces contort and become scrunched up to the point of looking like the human version of a pug.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves during a presentation – the presenter may know the content like no other, but they don’t have the skills to present their content properly. What’s even more amazing is that that 9/10 presenters (in my personal experience) do not attempt to adjust the font on their screen to increase content readability. Aren’t you trying to teach me something Mr. Presenter? I can’t learn what I can’t read. :\ As said before by many others, if you, as the presenter say "You know, you probably can’t see this…" – you’re right, and you’re wasting my time. You’ve got a gazillion pixels on the screen, make them work for you. 😛

What if the presenter bumps up the font to 18pt? That’s all well and fine, and I can see the content, but I still have NO IDEA what the heck that 8pt menu font says, nor what menu you clicked on to get to that magical wizard that writes N-Layer architecture systems with a click of a button (sorry, got side tracked).

Gimme Da’ Big Font’s and ZoomIt Buddy!

Here’s what I do when I’m giving a presentation…

1. Use ZoomIt. I’m utterly baffled by how many presenters do not know about this tool. It’s been around for quite awhile too! This tool allows you to zoom into a certain part of your screen with variable magnification. Once zoomed in, you can draw on your screen with multiple colors, write text on the screen and even change the color. You can also draw shapes as well (ellipse, rect, straight line). To view the options, double click the ZoomIt  icon (shown here to the left).
• How does it work? Simple, fire up the app. It will run in the background. When you hit the CTRL + 1 key combo, the screen is now magnified. Use your mouse to browse the the area where you want to display additional info.
• I’ve created a simple screen cast, which is below. Click to watch. (there is no sound in this, it’s just here to demonstrate what can be done).
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2. Create an Account that has Big Fonts. I prefer to set up an additional account on my machine that has all of my tools set up. I mean, everything has big fonts. From the command line to Visual Studio, to Notepad++. These are nice, big ol’ fatty fonts. Trust me, its not pretty to look at, but for presentations it does well. You can adjust the font size of your machine by setting the font size in the control panel as seen below:
• Note: This will REQUIRE a restart.
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Next time you’re presenting, don’t forget the reason you’re there – to present FOR AN AUDIENCE. Be kind to their eyes! Let them see what you’re doing. Trust me, you’ll get higher scores on your review sheets.