The rectangle behind you

A remote is your biggest smallest friend

Get yourself a remote. No, really. It will change your life. You might have given a talk while changing slides from your computer, sure. But the first moment when you can step away from that computer, and manipulate that massive rectangle behind you with a touch of your finger — is nothing short of magical.

And it won’t just feel magical to you. I still remember the first moment when I saw someone looking at the audience, talking, and their slide changing behind them in the middle of the sentence.

It’s amazing how much that little remote will empower you.

I’ve personally had good experiences with Logitech R400 — nice shape, nice materials, built-in radio receiver. It’s not perfect¹, but it’s not too pricey, and the best I found so far.

There is a more expensive version with an integrated vibrating timer, a small display, and a green laser pointer, but it seems a bit extreme.

Actually, let me rephrase it. There’s nothing wrong with extreme… but if you want to go extreme, you should just build your own doggone thing.

¹ The On/Off switch in particular is always in the other position, as you can imagine, and there are extra buttons that exit the presentation if you press them by accident (although that doesn’t apply to HTML presentations).

The rectangle behind you, a series of articles about interactive presentations.

By Marcin Wichary (@mwichary)