Presenter’s Tip: Leveling Projectors

Whenever I show up to do a presentation, I find that the surfaces on which the projector must be placed are seldom level, the screen isn’t hanging quite level or the two just don’t match resulting in a skewed projected image.

The typical presenter rummages through his bag looking for lens caps, folded cardboard, credit cards, magazines, or other flotsam which might be used to shim one of the projectors (typically three) legs. It seems the random articles we find are never quiet the right height and we are always stacking a lens cover on top of a deck of cards or something else to come up with the right combination to square the image with the margins of the screen.

I carry in my bag a little device that makes this practice obsolete.

A small pocket-sized spiral-bound flip notepad will come to your rescue. They are dirt cheap and if you get the kind with the plastic cover like this one shown in the image above, they last a long time. The neat thing about them is they fit in your case, there are even pockets designed for them. They fit in your pocket, your laptop bag, or anywhere else you need to carry materials. What is really cool about them is you can open them up and flip pages until you get the height you need.

Another advantage is that they are small and will slide under the projector nearly completely. A  magazine or a board or some other commandeered device will likely stick out and become an obstacle in the dark.  If your height is still off, you simple turn a few more or less pages and you are set. When you are done, you flip the notebook closed and store it in your projection bag.

Oh, you can also record notes on them. It is one of the original hand-held devices.

Rikk Flohr © 2008