Some Pragmatic Marketing instructors use a cool feature of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft PowerPoint to see notes on our laptop display while showing the slides on the data projector. This feature is available on most laptops under all versions of Windows. You need to update some Windows display settings plus specify the monitor to use in your PowerPoint presentation settings. Here's how to do it:

Windows Settings

From Control Panels, select Display Properties and click on the Settings tab.

If your hardware and drivers already have this capability, you'll see two squares (labeled 1 and 2) that represent your two monitors. Otherwise see "My Settings look different."

With your data projector connected, click on the 2nd monitor (the square with the "2" in it) and then check "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor." You may also need to change the screen resolution of the secondary monitor to 800x600 (or lower) as many older data projectors cannot display the higher resolutions.  Click OK and you're done with the Windows settings.

You now have the ability to move the mouse from monitor 1 to monitor 2, as if you have a very wide monitor. You can drag windows from one display to the other, which is handy for having email in one window and a browser in the other, or for having your presentation notes on one display with the slide presentation on the other.

Presentation Settings

Load a PowerPoint presentation and go to "Set Up Show..." on the Slide Show menu.

If you have your external monitor connected correctly, you can click on the second monitor under the "Show On:" drop down. This will now show the presentation slides on the secondary monitor instead of the primary monitor. Your primary monitor can display whatever you want. Some instructors have their PowerPoint notes plus an on-screen clock, and perhaps a browser window. If you want to show the rest of your group something on the web, just move the window from the laptop display to the external monitor.

My Settings look different

If your Display Settings dialog doesn't have two monitors, the dialog box will only show one window, as shown in this Display Settings dialog.

If so, you either don't have the hardware or your PC's display drivers don't support dual video. You can try updating your device drivers by working with your tech support organization or going to the PC vendor's support site.