Best way to add a timer in your PowerPoint presentation

Whether you’re leading a meeting, facilitating a workshop, or giving a presentation, a skilled presenter knows the value of timing. It’s all about keeping the audience engaged and managing the rhythm of your presentation. A silent ally in helping you achieve this is a timer in your PowerPoint presentation. In this post, we’ll delve into the nuances of adding a timer to your PowerPoint slides, different reasons why you might want to add a timer, and how to manipulate it to your advantage.

Why Include a Timer in Your PowerPoint Presentation

Among the multitude of functionalities that PowerPoint offers, the ability to add a timer can be a game-changer for presenters. Here are some reasons why you might want to consider this:

1. Time management: With a timer, you can stay in command of your presentation’s pace and cover all the planned topics within your allocated slot.
2. Audience acknowledgement: The audience appreciates a clear structure — a visible timer lets them know what to expect and keeps them hooked.
3. Interactive activities: In a workshop or training session, a timer is ideal to provide a clear time frame for group activities or exercises.

Step-by-Step: How to Add a Timer in PowerPoint

While PowerPoint does not have a built-in timer feature, there are a couple of ways you can add a timer to your slides:

• Using YouTube Videos: Search for “Countdown Timer” on YouTube, select a video, click on ‘Share’, and ‘Copy Embed Code’. Then, go to the PowerPoint Slide where you want to add the timer, click on ‘Insert’, select ‘Video’, and then ‘Online Video’. Paste the embed code in the box that appears.
• Creating a Timer Manually: Create a series of slides each with a number decreasing in order to simulate a countdown. This method is definitely time-consuming and lacks precision but can be used if the timer duration is small.
• Using ClassPoint: An insightful tool developed to enrich PowerPoint presentations, ClassPoint offers a much simpler and more reliable way to add a timer in PowerPoint. It’s intuitive and user-friendly, giving you more control over your presentations.

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” — Stephen Covey

Covey’s timeless advice is apt for managing presentations. By scheduling a timer in your PowerPoint presentation, you ensure that your priorities get the attention they deserve — and ClassPoint helps you do just that.

Spice Up Your Presentation with ClassPoint

Let’s take a practical example of a business training session. Here, a compere is using a PowerPoint presentation for an educational game. They use ClassPoint to add a timer in PowerPoint, making the game more exciting and keeping everyone on their toes. By simply clicking on the built-in stopwatch or timer function in ClassPoint, presenters can manipulate the timing to suit the activity — thus keeping the audience engaged and entertained.

Master the Art of Timed Presentations

Adding a timer to your PowerPoint might seem like a trivial detail, but it can make a huge difference in how your presentation is received. It’s a silent cue that guides the flow of your presentation, keeps you organized, and respects your audience’s time.

“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” — Sam Levenson

Indeed, timers in presentations encourage you to keep moving forward. With tools like ClassPoint, adding a timer to your PowerPoint presentations has never been easier. With a bit of practice, you too can master the art of timed presentations and become a more effective communicator.

So, the next time you prepare a PowerPoint presentation, consider using a timer — it could be the tool that takes your presentation to the next level. Dive in, and add a new dynamic to your presentation today!