Annotating slides during presentations

September 12, 2014 2:37 AM

I'm teaching in large classrooms where the blackboard isn't visible from the back rows. I'd like to draw and write on slides while they are being projected. Saving the annotated slides for later distribution would be nice. I'm using a macbook and am thinking about buying a Wacom tablet. What hardware/software/technique combination works for this?

What I've found out so far:
- One can use a pen in PowerPoint, but on a Mac one cannot save the annotated slides, not even for the duration of the presentation.
- Preview doesn't seem to allow free-hand drawing.
- Keynote doesn't seem to have anything like the pen in PowerPoint slideshow mode.

posted by meijusa to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

If your slideshows are mostly linear, you could import the slides into Onenote and write from there. The file will "print" inside of your notebook, preserving formatting. OneNote has the best pen support I've found of the Office apps, and has OneDrive syncing - any notes you make in a shared notebook go immediately to the web for viewing (if you so choose.) I use this in my (HS) classroom frequently, and it saves me ever having to think if I've uploaded notes or not.
posted by Wulfhere at 4:49 AM on September 12, 2014

I did a quick search on Google, this page is #4. Doceri was the first result but the page is a couple of years old and it runs on iPad. There is also this which seems to save PNGs.
posted by epo at 5:44 AM on September 12, 2014

If you have an iPhone (or iPad, I think) and set it up as the remote for a Keynote presentation, you can definitely draw on the screen.
posted by cushie at 7:46 AM on September 12, 2014

My husband uses NoteShelf on the iPad to write/project his lecture notes. I don't know if you can import prenare slides in there and then write on them.
posted by leahwrenn at 8:54 AM on September 12, 2014

Came here to say doceri too.
posted by rossination at 9:58 AM on September 12, 2014