Dual Monitors / Powerpoint Presentation

Can you clarify what you're trying to do?

Are you trying to run the presentation on one screen while doing something else on the other? I ask because you mention "suspends when another application is used".

Regards

We had the same problem before with a prior Trade show. The only way we could do it is have a video card that is dual display capable and a software called Dualpoint. It allows you to have two powerpoint presentations running on two different displays. Here's the link to their site:

http://dualpoint.net/

The whole idea is to run the PowerPoint Presentation on one screen while running another application on the main monitor. The software is a proprietary insurance one used by data entry workers. This software is in constant use during the day.

You'll need a video card with 2 heads one for each monitor or run two Video Cards the first is the easier as the software for the dual displays comes with the Card.

Now for potential problems you'll have to setup the display well before you even start to consider the presentation as you need to drag different displays to the second screen for them to run so you need to be able to see both monitors as you setup the presentation. This is quite a common thing with the latter generation Dual Head Video Cards and if you do not have space problems by the computer itself it is easy to do.

The second option is to add another Video Card but generally it will display the same as the first Video Card so you'll need extra software to split the viewing area which I haven't seen available for a long time now since the Dual Head Video Cards became so prevalent. Currently I can pick up a Dual Head ATI Radeon for about $65.00 AU and that has 128 MEG of RAM on it but just a word of warning here make sure that the card will actually fit on your M'Board as some of the new 8X AGP cards will not fit in a 4X socket. You can get the same results with a PCI Video Card but they are a little harder to find now days since the introduction of PCI Express which you can not use in a normal PCI socket.

Col

To fcervantes@...
I'm trying out your idea but I'm using one presentation and the other monitor will have an application running...

To Hal 9000....
That's the easy bit, I'm past that stage, but thanks..

OK in that case what is the propriety software being used by the insurance company?

Is it windows based?

If it is can you multi task with it or is it a dedicated one use only per workstation application?

The hardware seems powerful enough as it's about as new as it comes so I'm thinking that it is the software that is causing the problem not being as well written as it could be and using most of Windows resources.

Col

Hi Hal, the softwares are sql and one other database software based programs. They run fine along with all office products. The issue with using powerpoint is that when the "focus" is no longer on powerpoint, the slideshow suspends and will not work until it is "resumed". Alternatives so far will not me display the show on the second monitor. I need the show to display merrily while the first monitor is free to carry on with it's normal daily duties.

When you create your powerpoint presentation, you can set each slide up to advance afer a certain amount of time. Under "slide show", "set up show", you can set "browsed by an individual(window) and "Loop continuously until 'Esc' ". You then set up your timings under "Slide Show", "Slide Transition", "advance slide" by selecting "automatically after" and "seconds" - however many seconds you would like. Then save the file as a PPS, it will continue to run merrily no matter what else you are doing on the other monitor. If you don't like the window option, right click on it and there is an option to go full screen (after you've dragged it over to the second monitor). This is also a good way to pause it if you want to pause on the first slide. Hope this is what you were talking about.

you must have some reason for not just using another computer - ?

I have a mirror situation running Geovision Surveillence on the one monitor in the office and Powerpoint in the showroom. It does run but is not stable and any mouse or keyboard input stops the PPS show. Suggestion answer 5 does not work. Have tried every permutation. System WindowsXP, Office 2003 New PCI Mboard 3.2 Mhz MSI 6600GT Graphics, 1.5 Gig Ram - 17" and 19" LCD Monitors. Alomost same application as question Pleeese Help!

I realize this is an old posting but I was wondering if anyone was able to find a fix for this issue. I know this doesn't happen on Vista but we all know how loved Vista is so I was hoping to find a fix for XP.

need to select presenters view, and the monitor you want it to show on in the set up section of the powerpoint. complete details were found at http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20040712/techspace01.shtml

hope this helps, very happy it all working well for me now!!