Back in November when I was preparing to speak at a conference in Boston, I started wondering if anyone had come up with a way to use the Apple Remote as a device to advance slides in a PowerPoint presentation. I didn’t have time to get one of those USB presenters, but I also wanted to be free to roam away from my laptop while speaking.
What I found was a free program called iRed Lite that did exactly what I wanted it to. I’ve been meaning to write about since then, but LifeHacker beat me to it on Wednesday.
In any case, it’ s a nice little program with settings pre-programmed for various applications that you can customize however you want. The user manual is a little intimidating, but I found the presets for PowerPoint and Keynote to be more than adequate. As long as you don’t mind the clicking sound of the remote, this program transforms an accessory most Mac users probably toss in a drawer into a pretty functional tool for public speakers.
Even if you prefer using a bona fide presenter with built-in timer, vibration, and laser pointer, you can always keep the Apple Remote around as a backup.
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9 comments ↓
Thanks Jim! i’ve been wondering for a while why that wasn’t automatically set up to work. Now i will have to try to find mine before i head out to give a talk next week.
So THAT’S what you can do with that thing!!! Mine is still wrapped in the plastic..I had no idea!
Cool stuff.Didnt knew it was so handy
Super handy article! Thanks.
Glad you all find this helpful!
Exactly what I was after. I didn’t even have to Google, you wrote it into my RSS reader!
Glad to hear it, Benjamin!
GREAT PROGRAM… I had never used powerpoint before and had to do a presentation for school, i started a slide show and though it was common sence to have the remote work with PP this was not the case. i quickly googled my problem and found this, brilliant invention thanks so much you are a life saver, this program is super easy to figure out
Thanks for the comment, jbradburne! Glad this helped you out.
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