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Provides: Control PowerPoint or Keynote from a distance

Developer: Keyspan

Minimum Requirements: Mac OS 8.6 or Mac OS X v10.2.x, USB port (or two)

Retail Price: $39.99

It's time to unshackle the chains that bind you. Well, at least you can now leave your computer when making a Keynote or PowerPoint presentation. With a stated working distance of 60 feet, the Keyspan Easy Presenter lets you run the controls of your personation and provides a pointing laser. While the new Keyspan Easy Presenter is not perfect, it is inexpensive and it works.

The bubble-pack comes with three things, the hand-held controller, the USB receiver, and a small draw string black bag. The bag has an internal pocket so that the USB receiver can be separated from the controller so that the two are not banging into each other and potentially causing scratches.

The controller itself is obviously made from the same molds of Keyspan's Express Remote (see my review). The buttons of the Easy Controller though have nothing to do with the Express Remote.

The controller provides the following functions from the top (as seen in the image below left):

• Reverse and forward of your presentation slides (similar to pressing the left and right facing arrow keys).
• A "black" button that turns the screen black. Pressing this a 2nd time returns the screen image.
• An F5 button that starts your presentation from within an already started PowerPoint or Keynote presentation. Downloaded software is required to make this feature work.
• An "escape" key that stops the presentation from playing.
• The laser pointer button on the bottom.
• A mute button for any sound playing on your system.
• And the last two button (on the left side) are the volume up and volume down buttons.

On the back is the On/Off switch, a Change ID button and access to replace the battery. I found the On/Off button to be particularly difficult to turn on, as it required me to use my fingernail to get enough force to move the sliding button. Turning off the controller was not as difficult. I could find neither a purpose nor an action associated with the Change ID button.

If you insert this into a Powerbook or iBook, when you insert the receiver you may find that your trackpad becomes inoperable. This is because you have your System Preferences set to turn off your trackpad if another mouse is inserted into the computer. Yes, the receiver is interpreted as a mouse. You can either turn off this preference or add an external mouse whenever you have the Easy Presenter receiver in your laptop.

If you have Mac OS X v10.4 (Tiger), when you first insert the receiver in your computer, the Keyboard Assistant will probably self-start assisting your computer to "learn" this new keyboard. You can close this window as there is no new keyboard to learn. However, if you have your preferences set to turn off the trackpad as mentioned above, you can't close the Keyboard Assistant. Obviously you will need to reset your trackpad preferences before inserting the receiver. The good news is that once you insert the receiver and dismiss the Keyboard Assistant, you never have to dismiss it again.

[In a related issue, as opposed to a USB flash drive (which the receiver looks remarkably like) you can plug and unplug the receiver with no need to unmount before removal. (The receiver doesn't mount.)]

While no software is necessary to run the Easy Presenter, if you want to start a presentation that is already open by clicking on the F5 button, you will have to download and install the Easy Presenter software (version 1.1). The installer is coupled with an uninstaller, so, if you find no value to this, you can easily uninstall the software. The software requires a minimum of Mac OS X v10.3.

Ergonomically, the Easy Presenter's controller leaves a bit to be desired. The physical design is not bad, just not designed to "fall into the hand." What I found uncomfortable was the location of the laser pointer button—it's on the bottom of the device, as far from the forward and backward buttons as can be and still be on the same side. The laser pointer's optimum location would have been where the Keyspan logo is placed.

To use the Easy Presenter, you must already have PowerPoint or Keynote started and ready to go. If you have your presentation open but not Playing, you can press the F5 button and Keynote or PowerPoint goes into play mode. As mentioned, pressing the forward or backwards button acts just like the right and left arrow keys. Thus, when you press the backwards button, you move back a slide, not back a transition. I particularly like the black screen button because there are times where you want to digress a moment during a presentation to explain something on a chalkboard and do not want to compete for attention with what is on the screen.

I did find one unique quirk with the Easy Presenter, and this had to do with the F5 button that is used to start playing a presentation. On a Powerbook, this works just fine. However, on my desktop computer, I did have a conflict: I have my SnapzPro set to use the F5 key. Thus, any time I tried to get the presentation started, I took a screen shot. As there is no software to change what any given button does, there was no way to reset this button to a different operation. Since I've used F5 for years for my SnapzPro, I wasn't keen on resetting this command. Fortunately, if you are on a Powerbook (or iBook) the "f" keys require a modifier key on the keyboard, and this means that if you do have a pre-set option for any of the "f" keys, there is no conflict with the Easy Presenter. If you have (say) a classroom situation where your desktop computer also set up to do presentations and you have a pre-configured F5 key, you cannot start your presentation with the controller. You will have to walk over to the computer and press the Play button in the program.

In short, despite the various limitations mentioned (not all of which were the fault of the Easy Presenter), the Easy Presenter works as advertised. Like all devices that have an On-Off switch, I wish there was a light of some kind to remind you that the device is on (and needs to be turned off). Alternatively it would also have been nice if the On/Off switch were on the top side as well. Were it not for the very satisfying price, I might have been inclined to give this product a "3" rating (mostly because of the ergonomics of the device). However, as a complete package that does what it advertises, the Easy Presenter deserves a "4."

___________ Gary Coyne has been a scientific glassblower for over 30 years. He's been using Macs since 1985 (his first was a fat Mac) and has been writing reviews of Mac software and hardware since 1995.