Computer required for presentations and training.

[Stat Brother]

Wifey is looking to take her qualifications, and years of experience, and move away from doing to teaching.

Naturally the she'll require a better notebook/laptop/tablet for presentations etc.

She is keen to 'just buy an I-pad', but our (mine esp) general ignorance on all things computers, programmes et al, has me rushing to NSC, before we commit.

So do any of you use a specific devise for power point presentations?, and what should we be looking out for?

The budget is less than £500.

 

[Springal]

if you just want it for that purpose, I'd get an ipad I think and a dongle so it can be hooked up to bigger screens. I assume you are making the powerpoints on a desktop or similar ? Our sales guys use them a lot for presenting.

 

[Stat Brother]

I assume you are making the powerpoints on a desktop or similar?

Probably not, more a case of one devise to cover all things, work.

 

[JetsetJimbo]

You could probably get away with the iPad and Apple's Keynote app: it's not quite Powerpoint, but it's sufficient for most users' needs.

 

[Beach Hut]

We have an iMac at home and bought the windows Office Mac package for it that includes word, excel and powerpoint - could solve the problem ?

 

[Aseros]

Don't buy an ipad. Buy a proper laptop. Much better value money, and not so pointless (Ipad can't really do much!)

 

[Mr Smggles]

We have an iMac at home and bought the windows Office Mac package for it that includes word, excel and powerpoint - could solve the problem ?

I would have said this but their budget is under £500

 

[Beach Hut]

I would have said this but their budget is under £500

Definitely a laptop then, pointless iPad etc.

 

[Stat Brother]

Are some more up to the job than others.
Or is what she's after pretty much computer 1.01 basic.

 

[Beach Hut]

Are some more up to the job than others.
Or is what she's after pretty much computer 1.01 basic.

If you look at the usual places - Comet, Currys, Tescos etc you will get a pretty good laptop for around £500 in my view.

 

[Tomnorthi]

Stretch to a Macbook Pro they are insanely good. Or if you cant, get a Mac Mini and hook it up to your existing monitor. This can then be taken and hooked up to projectors etc. Keynote, apples presentation app is very very good.

 

[nomoremithras4me]

Wifey is looking to take her qualifications, and years of experience, and move away from doing to teaching.

Naturally the she'll require a better notebook/laptop/tablet for presentations etc.

She is keen to 'just buy an I-pad', but our (mine esp) general ignorance on all things computers, programmes et al, has me rushing to NSC, before we commit.

So do any of you use a specific devise for power point presentations?, and what should we be looking out for?

The budget is less than £500.

if you want to go down the Apple route, i saw a nice second hand macbook in the shop just up from the albion shop (queens road) £450. I use a mac at work for powerpoint etc and i would highly recommend

 

[beorhthelm]

if goin got present at different locations, would probably want standard output ports to connect to overhead projectors or monitors for wider group viewing. i dont believe you can do this for a ipad, its rather 1-to1 only.

 

[Stat Brother]

if goin got present at different locations, would probably want standard output ports to connect to overhead projectors or monitors for wider group viewing. i dont believe you can do this for a ipad, its rather 1-to1 only.

That's the kind of info we are after, as I'm sure you've all worked out, all ready. I know NOTHING!

 

[perseus]

Wifey is looking to take her qualifications, and years of experience, and move away from doing to teaching.

Naturally the she'll require a better notebook/laptop/tablet for presentations etc.

She is keen to 'just buy an I-pad', but our (mine esp) general ignorance on all things computers, programmes et al, has me rushing to NSC, before we commit.

So do any of you use a specific devise for power point presentations?, and what should we be looking out for?

The budget is less than £500.

I heard yesterday that the 6th form students rent the computers (notepads with software) from the school. Anyrate, I am in the same position as my laptop is out of date (like having one that is not powerful enough) and I need a new one. Ideally, it should be quite powerful to run simultaneous programs which use lots of CPU and resources. I was hoping to get one for about £329 but it might be worth paying a little extra.

 

[JetsetJimbo]

Usually people who say an iPad can't do much don't have one. You can make perfectly professional presentations in Keynote (it doesn't have as many options as powerpoint, but few things make a presentation look less professional than overuse of Powerpoint's functions). You can use it for email and web browsing, including online shopping. You can watch movies and listen to music on it. You can write perfectly good letters using Pages (I wouldn't want to write a novel on it, but add a bluetooth keyboard and you could probably do that if you wanted).

That's probably the extent of 99% of most users' computer usage. Yeah there's stuff the iPad can't do, but it probably does everything you want it to.

 

[JetsetJimbo]

if goin got present at different locations, would probably want standard output ports to connect to overhead projectors or monitors for wider group viewing. i dont believe you can do this for a ipad, its rather 1-to1 only.

Again, not true- although you do need to buy adapters (basically on for HDMI and one for everything else). The iPad 2 even supports mirroring (displaying the same image on the tablet's screen as the external one), many tablet don't have the grunt to do this and will display a blank screen on the device itself when connected to an external display/ projector.

 

[JetsetJimbo]

Oh, and one last thing (promise) for Stat Brother specifically: if she's keen to "just get an iPad" as you say, I suspect it's possible she just wants one cos they're cool and shiny, but she's struggling to justify it. No shame in that. What I will say, having bought one on impulse a few months ago, is that I use it FAR more than I thought I would, to the point where I feel a bit stupid for having bought a brand new laptop at the same time. I could have got away with a much cheaper laptop given how much stuff I use the iPad for nowadays.

It does require a computer of some sort to sync to (at least, until the new version of the iOS operating system is unleashed later this year), but if your Mrs wants one, you can rest assured it's not JUST a cool toy: it will do all the stuff she's been talking about. If you get her an iPad, I expect from reading between the lines that you'll be a very popular Stat Brother indeed. Go for at least the 32gb version though, as tablet apps tend to take up a bit more space than smartphone ones, so the 16gb version will fill up quicker than you probably expect.

 

[beorhthelm]

i love how the answer to every problem with the ipad is to buy an adapter or some other addon. pay £400 on the device then a "smart" cover to place upright for £60, a vga output adapter for another pony....

ive been presented to with an ipad, it was very good but there were only two present so we could see it ok. it wouldnt work for a room, so you'll need extras. would it be used to create the presentations? if so, this isnt a strength of ipad no matter if there is an app for that. its a great personal media tool, but not a good office productivity tool.

 

[JetsetJimbo]

IMO the best all-round solution would be an entry-level Macbook Air, but £850 is clearly way over budget in this instance. I one hundred percent guarantee she'd feel the need to reward you though!