I’ve been preaching, teaching, and presenting from my iPad 2 tablet for well over a year now. Here’s a few tips I’ve learned while using the iPad tablet for public speaking, preaching, and teaching:
1) FIND THE RIGHT APP
Most preachers I know use some sort of word processing app to create their sermons and presentations. QuickOffice and Pages are two of the most popular. I use QuickOffice, because it can support Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel documents. Pages has a few more formatting options, but it only supports Word Documents. Creating any document on a tablet is difficult because it’s tough to hunt and peck a large document. I actually type my rough draft on my laptop in Microsoft Word, then transfer it to the tablet where I tweak it as needed. This saves a lot of time and headache for me.
I have all my lessons and sermons in QuickOffice, but when I speak, I actually use a teleprompter app called PrompterPro. I LOVE this app! I copy the text from my document and paste it into the PrompterPro app. I can then adjust certain font sizes, spacing, and even text color. During the presentation, it gives me a timer at the top of the screen to show me exactly how long I’ve been speaking, AND it will record my presentation in a fairly high quality file. I purchased the app for 3.99 a year or so ago. There are several other teleprompting apps, but this one had the most features at the time. Here’s a shot of what I see when speaking:
2) ADJUST THE SETTINGS PROPERLY
Be sure to always shut off your screen auto lock. If you go into “SETTINGS”, select “GENERAL” then select “AUTO LOCK” you’ll have the option to set it to “NEVER”. Be sure to do that so the screen doesn’t go black on you in the middle of your presentation.
Also, a pet peeve of mine is seeing the white glow of the tablet shining on the face of the speaker, or worse…seeing the reflection of the screen in their glasses. This can be fixed very easily. If you choose to use the PrompterPro app I’ve recommended, the background is automatically black so it’s not an issue. But if you use some sort of word processing app, your background will be white and it will shine like the noonday sun. Although an illuminating glow above your head might seem heavenly, from below your head it just looks creepy. I guess if you include a ghost story in your presentation perhaps it would be a valuable commodity. Here’s how you can fix this:
Enter the SETTINGS screen. Select “GENERAL” then scroll down in the right-hand column. You should see “ACCESIBILITY.” Select it. You should then see an option to “INVERT COLORS.” Turn it to “ON.” You’ll notice everything immediately looks black. Your usual screens will look funny, but, when you open your word processor file to speak from, your background will be black instead of white and you won’t have the distracting glare or, if you wear glasses, that distracting reflection for all to see. Here’s a shot of a Word Document with the inverted colors:
Also, if you have a wi-fi or 3g connected tablet, disconnect the internet connection. This will keep pop-ups from jumping in on you during the presentation. The simplest way to do this is to turn on the AIRPLANE MODE in the SETTINGS screen. Be sure to turn the volume down, as well.
3) APPLE VS. ANDROID—choosing the proper tablet
I am NOT an Apple fanboy. I prefer Android through and through. But, I speak from an iPad (although I cover up the Apple icon on the back just b/c I dislike it). But here’s why I use it: the iPad simply scrolls more smoothly than any current Android tablets.
As I was researching which tablet to buy, this became very apparent. If you scroll an android tablet slowly, you’ll notice a slight jump in the icon or text. When you speed up your swipe, it causes text to blur quite significantly. The iPad has a much smoother movement that doesn’t blur the text as significantly. This is the main reason I went with the iPad.
Although, I recently purchased the Galaxy s3 as my phone, and it is the first Android OS I’ve seen that scrolls as smoothly as the iPad. But the tablets I’ve checked out have yet to reach this capability. I haven’t researched the Windows Surface, so I can’t speak to its scrolling and swiping capabilities. Perhaps someone who owns one might comment.
4) KEEP YOUR FILES IN THE CLOUD
Be sure to open a cloud account to store all your presentations, messages, and lessons. If you only keep them on your tablet and the tablet dies at some point, you run the risk of losing everything. Also, if you have limited storage on your tablet, you can save space by keeping files in the cloud and grabbing them as needed.
Apple now has it’s own free cloud program, and if you have an iPad, it will likely prompt you to set up an account from time to time. I use www.dropbox.com mostly, but www.box.com is also available. All you have to do is head there and open an account. It’s totally free. Then when you create a file, save it to your cloud site, and you can pull it as needed to your tablet when you’re ready.
CONCLUSION
The greatest convenience of a tablet for me is the fact that I can have ALL my messages, lessons, and presentations on one device. A few years ago, I had to carry a large file box with all my handwritten presentations anywhere I went if I were speaking more than a few times. Now, it’s all at my fingertips in a nice compact tablet. And being able to record and time my presentations has become an absolute necessity for me now.
I hope this helps, happy speaking!
Great points. I especially like the one about remembering to turn off autolock. I am an advocate of computer, and device security, but that for another post. so remembering to turn it off, means that you have it on, normally otherwise! yea for you!!
I have written many times about this topic and about various apps and needs. I thing the general gist of your blog here is great, but I have a little pet peeve that I would like to express, more about that later. For now, I will say that your point about using the right applet has much to do with preference. I have not seen QuickOffice on the iPad, so it may actually work, and do what I need, but Pages does not, and it has had several updates and still does not. what is that? you can’t do a simple word/selection and add yellow highlight (or other color). maybe a minor, and there are workarounds, but that is part of the point here – lots of workarounds if you don’t pick the right tablet.
I have been through nearly a dozen different tablet (devices), and have given them all away, because there are always workarounds that need to be applied. They never really do what they should do. What they should do is a paradigm, and not a requirement, it is based on perception. those of us that have “real” computers know exactly what I mean. Our laptop, or desktop does what it is supposed to do. no special workarounds, it just works. Tablet devices, it seems always have to have workarounds – IF you expect it to work like a “real” computer.
So, knowing what you want it to do is a big focus on when I an consulting and assisting someone to decide what they want. You mention that you create your docs on your laptop. that is great. if you wanted to have a workaround for the iPad, you could add a blue tooth keyboard and type just as simply as on the laptop (don’t get me started on Apple keyboards though – I NEED a backspace key!) – which brings me to the other part of the workaround. Nearly any Blue Tooth keyboard will work with the iPad – so be sure to look around for one that is comfortable. 🙂
anyway, before this gets too long, just a couple more things. the cloud. yes, I am an advocate of the cloud. Internet is what we old timers call it. storage on the Internet has always been available and is easier with dropbox. here is my link by the way, if someone clicks this link, I get extra credit and more free space – http://db.tt/iiZTidTo . The challenge is that especially “in the Ministry”, there are too many places that do not have Internet available. so unless you have a smartphone and can provide your own hot spot, other more physical options are needed.
Finally but not leastly (is that even a word?) – my peeve. a tablet device is NOT a personal computer. it is a tablet device. if you know this ahead of time, you will be okay, and understand you will have workarounds. whether iOS or any of the android flavours, or even some of the other hacks and not-so-popular OS’s that are available. Most people don’t even know that you can have an actual tablet computer (tablet PC). They are getting less expensive and more powerful, and consume less battery all the time. The one I have now, is a full Windows 8 PC, 4gig ram, 128gig Solid State hard drive, I have all my licensed software on it, and the applications (not applets), run swiftly and completely. When I use Microsoft Word, I can highlight in lots of colors if I want to! AND this Tablet computer costs about the same (actually a bit less), than a fully loaded iPad. And it comes with a wireless keyboard (not one of those laptops with flipscreen) – oh, and yes, my tablet (computer) does flash – so there.
I do have a bluetooth keyboard, and it works alright, but I still prefer my laptop for long documents.
I totally agree with you on the idea that a tablet is not a PC. Most tablets have been designed for media consumption rather than productivity. This definitely calls for workarounds.
The cloud does require an internet connection, but I meant that more as a backup. At least, that’s how I use it. But for cheaper tablets with less memory it is useful for regular storage.
I hope my in my next laptop purchase to buy one of the upcoming hybrids that function as a full pc but have tablet capabilities with a screen that disconnects. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. This seems like an ideal idea, though.
Hey great article! I’ve been pretty disappointed with the “workarounds” necessary to speak from iPad. Due to an incredible story of meeting a guy on twitter we’ve been working on building iPad tools for communicators. 2 apps so far are Podium Pro for manuscript/ long form outline speakers, and the one I’ve worked on is Podium Cue. It’s all about simple cues to keep you on point but allow you the freedom to walk around and speak naturally. I’d love to hear your feedback.
I just checked out the podium pro lite, and it’s pretty much exactly like the prompter app I use, but it’s actually a bit simpler! PrompterPro makes me work on everything in html format, which can be a bit of a pain. Your app brings all my Word formatting in as is, and that would save me a ton of time. I still see a few shortcomings for me, though…
Looking at the Prompter Cue app, I’d like to see a bit of a mashup between the two. I manuscript my messages, so the cue cards wouldn’t work for me. It does get easy to get lost in the text on the iPad. What I’ve always wanted are cue tabs on a small sidebar that would enable me to bounce around my entire text as needed. Here’s what I see:
The sidebar would enable me to navigate the entire text with a simple touch. I could set specific cue spots within the manuscript, and could then label them on the sidebar (such as point 1, Child Illustration, Wesley Quote, etc.) as I pleased. This way, when I do walk away and come back, instead of trying to scroll endlessly through the text on the iPad, I could simply touch the tab to go to the next point in my message. This would be the best of both worlds for me, and what I’ve wanted to see in a speaking app since I bought the iPad. It might take a half-an-inch or so from the screen, but I’d be more than willing to give that up for the ability to avoid getting lost in my text.
That’s my two cents. Let me know what you think.
Excellent points to using the tablet. I preached and teach as part of my calling. Today I am in the market to find the tablet that will be best for me. I used a NOOK once before and although it went well for the teaching I forgot to turn off the Light saving feature. So each time I went back to the NOOK I had to swipe, enter code, and find the place where I left off. I have since learned a few tricks here and there. The one comment/suggestion I will make is that you need to use whatever works for you. If paper and pen is what works for you then stick to it. As for the documents, I create my documents in MS Word and save them as PDF files. Once saved, I post in the cloud. When I preach I download the document to my NOOK, preach from it, then delete the document. No worries, my cloud copy still there. Today I am debating whether to buy an IPAD, Android, or Surface. The screen of my nook is only 7″ big so it is making it somewhat difficult.
Good insight. I’m sure I would flop if I only had a 7″ screen! I once had to present from my phone and it wasn’t very pleasant!
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Do you recommend any minimum amount of memory on the iPad in order to get the best results (but not the most expensive? I’d like to move this direction but am hesitant because technology is always changing…I like the iPad but the cost for the 128gb (for instance) is almost as much as a laptop!
If you’re using it mainly for presentation purposes, I don’t think it matters all that much. I’ve had my 32gb iPad 2 for about 2 years now, and I don’t have half of it used up. Even if you store all your notes on the iPad itself, text files use very little storage space.
On the other hand, if you plan on doing a lot with images, they tend to take up much more room. If you hope to create power points or keynotes and keep them on the iPad, a larger gb might be advisable.
If you were to go with an Android or Windows tablet, you wouldn’t be so locked down on memory. Many of these tablets come equipped with an SD card option so you can have almost unlimited space with various cards if needed.
Hope that helps!
That helps, thanks! I see that the 16gb iPad 2 is reasonably priced. My main use for it would be note-taking (when I travel) and preaching from week to week. Would that one run the program you use for preaching? I like the one you highlight because it it seems user friendly and allows you to do audio recording at the same time, which would eliminate another device in the pulpit.
Yes, I think you’d be happy with the 16gb iPad 2. It’s simple to use and will do everything I’ve described. You can check out the App I’ve mentioned, and you might also consider checking out the Podium Pro and Podium Cue apps. The Podium Pro does all the same things and the Podium Cue is good for speakers who prefer brief notes/cue cards over manuscripted notes. Any of these 3 apps will work well. Just check them out and see which you prefer.
Alright, quick question…
I put my document into dropbox and synced that to my iPad. I tried to bring it in to the PrompterPro but it doesn’t come in formatted…my indentations and listings, etc are all gone. Do I have to go back and redo that in order to have it formatted? How have you found it easiest to have the least amount of tweeking once you bring it in to the program?
Thanks for your help!
Yes, I should have mentioned that in the blog. Because it converts it to html format, you lose all formatting unfortunately. I’ve learned to work mostly with spacing and two colors to minimize the needed changes.
There is a newer app called podium pro that will bring your formatting in if you save your word file as a .rtf (rich text format). It did simplify the process and the app does most of the same things as prompter pro. I should add this info directly into this post, I suppose.
Good luck!