If you want to travel with the least hardware possible, you'll have to create your slides on your desktop computer and then move the files over to your palmtop for the actual presentation. Just make certain you do a spell-check before you leave for your talk, because you won't be able to make corrections once you leave your desktop computer behind. If you're shopping for a laptop or palmtop and plan to use it for presentations, make sure there's a video-out jack for driving an external monitor or, for audiences of more than five or six, an external projector. Electronic projectors Like laptop computers, electronic projectors have become more powerful and more affordable while at the same time becoming smaller and more feature-laden. Advances in electronic-projector technology are the main reason electronic presentations have taken off as fast as they have.
Electronic projectors are still a bit pricey.
However, if you've ever used one of the better projectors, you know that they're worth every penny. We recently bought a unit for our department, to replace the overhead and slide projectors that had been mainstays at our morning rounds for years. Now, residents and staff can create and update their presentations with the latest laboratory and clinical findings minutes before rounds begin. And visiting lecturers are relieved to learn that they can leave their electronic projector at home and travel with only the laptop computer containing their presentation. A typical brightness rating for an electronic projector is about 450 to 500 lumens, but some units go up to 1,200 lumens.