How to Present from a PDF in a Lecture or College Presentation (iPad and Android)

Open your slides and reading PDFs together, mark only the points you will actually say, put those marks in the order you will say them, and present from that running order rather than from the page order. Each point should stay tied to the page it came from, so you can show the source in one tap.

1. Collect everything in one place: your slides exported as a PDF, the readings, and any data sheets or scans you will refer to.
2. Read once and mark only what you will use: a highlight for a quote, a short handwritten note for a point you want to make, a snipped picture for a chart or table.
3. Put the marks in speaking order. The order of your talk is rarely the order of the documents, so reorder the marks, not the files.
4. Rehearse with a timer. If a point takes longer than you planned, cut a mark rather than talking faster.

• It opens several PDFs at once, so slides and readings are not in separate apps.
• Your marks are kept as a list you can reorder, not only as colour on a page.
• Every mark remembers its file and page, so you can jump back to the source.
• Search covers your own notes, including handwriting, as well as the text of the PDFs.
• A timer and simple Next and Previous controls, so your hands are free.
• It works without an internet connection once the files are on the tablet, and it never changes the original PDF.

ArguLinx is a native app for iPad and Android tablets built around exactly this. You add the PDFs to a case, highlight, write or snip, and every mark becomes a card in a running-order index. Switch to Speak mode and Next and Previous walk you through your points, the right page opens with each one, and a timer sits at the bottom of the screen. It can also read each note out loud in your tablet’s own voice, which is useful for rehearsing while you walk around.

Handwritten notes are read into text, so a note you scribbled in the margin turns up when you search for it later, next to the text of the PDFs. If part of your material is on paper, you can scan it with the camera and it becomes a searchable PDF in the same case.

• One idea per card. If a card needs two breaths, split it.
• Keep the source on the card. Examiners and classmates ask “where is that from?” more often than you expect.
• Rehearse the transitions between cards, not just the cards.
• If you will use a projector or a screen share, test the connection on the actual device before the day.