WO2013037009A1

WO2013037009A1 - Preparation of slide presentations

Info

Publication number: WO2013037009A1
Application number: PCT/AU2012/001108
Authority: WO
Inventors: David Cowan
Original assignee: Flexiprez Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2011-09-15
Filing date: 2012-09-14
Publication date: 2013-03-21

Abstract

The present invention provides a slide presentation, which comprises a plurality of slides arranged in a hierarchical structure. When advancing through the slide presentation system, the hierarchical structure is used to determine which slide to advance to next. A variety of advancement schemes may also be used to determine which slide to advance to. In one embodiment, a hyperlink is placed on a parent slide, linking to a child slide in the hierarchy. The slide presentation can then be advanced normally using the standard advance function of the slide presentation, and will in due course return to the parent slide after displaying some or all of the child slides. Methods for creating such slide presentations, and displaying such slide presentations, are also provided.

Description

PREPA RATION OF SLIDE PRESENTATIONS

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001 ]. The present invention relates to the area of graphical presentations, and in particular to slide presentations.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002]. Graphical presentations are often presented in the form of slides, which may be physical objects but nowadays are more commonly in electronic form. A slide is simply a discrete graphical body of information, which can be displayed by a presenter, usually in conjunction with a verbal discussion of the displayed information. The information on a slide is often (but not necessarily) arranged as a series of points to be discussed by the presenter.

[00031. The slides in a slide presentation are prepared and arranged the order in which the slides arc to be presented. An initial or starting slide is displayed, and functionality is provided allowing the presenter to simply ''advance" the slide presentation in the order in which the slides are arranged. This is typical ly accomplished by a simple key press or mouse click.

[0004]. If the presenter interacts with the class (or audience) and wishes to move the presentation in different directions to the order in which the slides are arranged, then they must navigate their own way sequentially back and forth through the slides, or use a pointer to jump to another slide. This can be a difficu lt and unwieldy exercise, especially if the presentation is large. There is a significant potential for the presenter to lose track of where they are within the presentation.

[0005] . The learning process is also greatly enhanced by breaking a presentation into smaller points and reinforcing and reviewing those points at regular intervals. Additionally, it can be advantageous to have one presentation file cover a range of topics - such as a series of lectures where the lecturer may wish to refer to previous lectures. However, current slide presentation systems do not readily facilitate the reviewing of teaching points, and they can also make it difficult to use and prepare presentations where there are a large number of slides in the one presentation.

[0006] . It is an object of the present invention to reduce or eliminate some or all of the disadvantages of conventional slide presentation systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] . According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of displaying a slide presentation having a plural ity of slides, the method comprising:

associating a hierarchical position with a slide; and advancing to or from the slide based on the hierarchical position.

[00081. As described above, advancing a slide is typically accompl ished by a simple key press or mouse cl ick. When advancing between sl ides, the "advance" function used to select the next slide in the context of the present invention may vary in many ways, as may the hierarchy of slides. A common s l ide h ierarchy wi l l be a h ierarchical tree - many presentations can be arranged in a logical order using a tree structure, wh ich mirrors the logical order used for many documents.

[0009] . The use of a tree to define a slide hierarchy allows the slides of a presentation to be arranged and displayed in a non-linear manner. The exact mechanism and algorithms used to parse the sl ide tree may vary between embodiments. In some embodiments, a lower lev el slide may be accessed from a higher level slide by following a pointer (e.g. a hyperlink). When the presentation is advanced from the lower level sl ide, the next sl ide at that level may be d isplayed, or (if there are no remaining slides at that level) it may revert to the slide above it in the hierarchy. In other embodiments, lower level sl ides may be accessed by using the advance function of a higher level slide. Various other algorithms for parsi ng the hierarchical structure wil l be described in more detai l later in th is document. A user may specify wh ich algorithm to use for a particular slide presentation.

[0001 0j. In a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of creating a slide presentation, comprising:

al lowing a user to define a plurality of slides;

al lowing the user to associate a hierarchical position with one or more of the slides,

wherein during the display of the sl ide presentation, when the slide presentation is advanced, the h ierarchical position is used to determine which of the plurality of the slides to d isplay.

[000 1 1 ] . The hierarchy may be d isplayed to the user using a graphical display means. The user may associate a hierarchical position with the one or more slides, by dragging corresponding slide icons into the slide hierarchy.

[000 1 2J. The method may further comprise checking whether all lower level slides have a pointer providing access to them. The user may be alerted if there are any Orphaned' sl ides within the hierarchy.

[000 1 3] . In a third aspect, the present invention accordingly provides a slide presentation comprising:

a slide;

a set containing one or more further slides;

a pointer al lowing navigation from the slide to at least one of the further slides in the set: and d irect access means by which the slide can be accessed from at least one of the further slides in the set.

[000 ! 4]. In some embodiments, the set may contain two or more further slides which are arranged in a sequence. The pointer would then allow navigation from the first sl ide to the in itial slide in the sequence, and the other slides in the sequence would typical ly be accessed by advanc ing the presentation.

[000 1 5] . Preferably, the direct access means allows the first slide to be accessed simply by advancing from the last sl ide in the set. In this way, once the pointer is selected, a user can advance through al l of the further sl ides and return to the original sl ide simply by using the advance function. However, there may be some embodiments in which a hyperlink is placed on one or each further sl ide in the set, providing access to the first slide.

[0001 6] . Furthermore, there may be multiple rules defined for advancing slides, and a different ru le will be appl ied depend ing on the particular sl ide and how it was accessed. For most sl ides that are part of a sequence, a l inear rule for advancement wi l l be appl ied to advance the presentation to the next sl ide in the sequence. However, if a sl ide is the last slide in a sequence, then another rule should be applied to advance to the sl ide from which the set was accessed, or to the next slide in the presentation after that sl ide.

[0001 7] , Further rules for advancement may be added as required.

[000 1 8] , The pointer wi l l typical ly be in the form of a hyperl ink. There may be multiple pointers located on a slide. In some embod iments, several sets of slide(s) may accordingly be accessed from any given sl ide. The advantages of the present invention then become readily apparent, in that a user can easily navigate between a number of sets of slides, as desired.

[ 000 1 0] .^' In a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is prov ided a method of presenting a slide presentation, including:

displaying a slide:

fol lowing a pointer associated with the slide to a further slide in a set of one or more further slides: and

accessing the sl ide from one of the further slides in the set.

[00020] , The sl ide hierarchy may be displayed during the presentation, either by graph ical means or by noting the position in a predefined position on each slide. [0002 1 ] . In a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sl ide presentation system comprising:

a processor adapted to perform any one of the above methods; and

a memory in commu ication with the processor.

[00022] . In a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a slide presentat ion system comprising:

means to allow a user to define a plurality of sl ides;

means to allow the user to associate a hierarchical position with one or more of the slides, where in during the display of the slide presentation, when the sl ide presentation is advanced, the h ierarch ical position is used to determine which of the plurality of the sl ides to display.

[00023] . In a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is prov ided a computer readable medium encoded with data representing instructions for directing a programmable device to perform any one o f the above methods.

[00024] , In yet further aspects o f the present invention, computer program elements are provided comprising computer program code means to make a programmable device execute the above methods.

[000251. A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the invention is provided below along with accompanying figures that il lustrate by way of example the principles of the invention. Whi le the invention is described in connection with such embodiments, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to any embodiment. On the contrary, the scope of the invention is lim ited only by the appended claims and the invention encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalents. For the purpose of example, numerous speci fic details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention.

[00026], The present invention may be practiced accord ing to the claims without some or al l of these specific detai ls. For the purpose of c larity, technical material that is known in the techn ical fields re lated to the invention has not been described in detail so that the present invention is not unnecessari ly obscured.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[00027] , An illustrative embodiment of the present invention will be discussed with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: [00028]. FIGURE I is a general diagram of a computer architecture which could he used to implement the present invention;

[00029]. FIGURE 2 depicts a linear slide presentation sequence according to the prior art;

[00030], FIGURE 3 depicts a hierarchical slide presentation according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

[00031 ]. FIGURES 4 to 6 are screenshots from a computer embodiment of the present invention, showing the creation of a slide presentation.

[00032], In the following description, like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[00033], The present invention is best adapted to run on a computer. Figure 1 schematically and generally depicts hardware that may be used to implement an embodiment of the present invention. A central processing unit (CPU) 42, containing an Input/Output Interface 44. an Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) 43 and a Control Unit and Program Counter element 45 is in communication with input and output devices through the Input/Output Interface 44, and a memory 46.

[00034J. Figure 2 depicts a conventional slide presentation, wherein the slides are presented in a simple linear fashion. Advancing from Slide 1 results in Slide 2 being displayed, advancing again displays Slide 3. and so on.

[0003 ]. Figure 3 depicts an example of a hierarchical slide presentation according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this example, which will be described in detail for explanatory purposes, the invention facilitates the grouping of slides under headings, sub headings and appendices, similar. to the way a multi-level text document might be structured. Slide sequences and individual slides can then be viewed under their headings according to a chosen slide navigation scheme OR can be located via a pointer such as a hyperlink or menu item. The presenter is kept fully aware of the location of the viewed slide within the presentation.

[00036], Various types of slides are shown in this example, including;

a root slide (Slide 1 )

a plurality of Header Slides (Slides I . I ., 1.2, 1.2.1, 1.2.2 and 1.3) arranged in a hierarchical manner underneath the root slide. Slides 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 are children of Slide 1 , and Slide 1 is the parent of those slides. Similarly. Slide 1.2 has a parent-child relationship with slides 1.2.1. and 1.2.2. a sequence of Appendix slides (Slides ΑΟ0Ί. A001 (2/3). A001 (3/3)), which are arranged linearly and independently of the header slide hierarchy. These slides can be accessed only via a slide pointer (e.g. a hyperlink), but such pointers may be placed anywhere within the slide presentation. Each appendix slide can optionally have a slide sequence attached to it.

[00037]. a slide sequence (Slides I.I (2/3), 1.1 (3/3)) is also shown within the hierarchy. A slide sequence can be attached to either a header or appendix slide.

Displaying the Slide Presentation

[00038]. Within the slideshow, the first slide presented will typically be the root slide (Slide I )..

This can advance to a new slide by the presenter utilising a direct access means (generally an 'advance^' function activated by a mouse click or key press). The particular scheme for advancing a slide may vary between different embodiments. Four exemplary advancement schemes are set out below, but of course these schemes may be varied in accordance with different embodiments of the present invention. logical Scheme

[00039]. In a first scheme, for convenience referred to as a 'logical' scheme, the root and header slides advance to the next slide in logical order. That is, if a user presses the advance button, positioned slides advance to the next slide in a logical order in the same manner as a multi-level document is read - i.e. if a user uses only the advance function to advance through the slide presentation shown in Figure 3. the order of slides will be:

Slide 1. Slide 1.1. Slide 1.1 (2/3), Slide 1.1 (3/3), Slide 1.2. Slide 1.2.1. Slide 1.2.2, Slide 1.3.

Retrace Scheme

[00040], In this scheme, if a user uses the advance function to advance from a child slide, positioned slides will retrace to the parent slide. That is, advancing from Slide 1.2.1 will retrace to Slide 1.2, which will in turn retrace to Slide 1 when advanced. A retrace scheme may be combined with the logical scheme, such that presenters can display slides in a logical and intuitive order, and can also review sections automatically.

Manual Sche e

[00041]. In a manual scheme, the presenter ma choose from a drop down list of child and parent slides. The drop down list may be accessible by clicking on a specified point on a slide, or by the use of a specific input device (e.g. a right click on a mouse). 1000421. A drop down list may also be accessible to the presenter when presenting a sl ide presentation using any of the other schemes.

Pointers

[00043] . In addition to using the typical advance function, as outl ine in the above schemes, a presenter may w ish to make use of pointers (such as hyperl inks) to access further sl ides during their presentation . This gives the presenter more flexibi l ity as to the order of sl ides to be presented.

[00044] , Where a hyperlink is to a slide which is a child or parent of the originating slide, the slide show advances just as if the standard advance function had been used. For hyperlinks to other sl ides, the slide show will display the other slide, as well as any additional slides in sequence with the hyperlinked sl ide. When advanc ing from the final sl ide in the sequence, the sl ide show wi ll return to the sl ide from wh ich the hyperlink originated.

Additional Navigation Tools

[00045] . Different embodiments of the present invention may utilise a number of additional tools to assist presenters to navigate throughout a slide presentation. For example, reference numbers may be displayed with each slide, preferably in an unobtrusive place, wh ich al lows the presenter to readi ly determine where they are in the logical structure of the presentation.

[00046] , Another option would be to d isplay, on the presently displayed slide, a reference or head ing denoting the next sl ide to be shown, if the presenter uses the advance function. This may differ depending on the advancement scheme chosen .

[00047] , Of course, in some embodiments, the presenter may also choose the advancement scheme for a sl ide presentation at the time of making the presentation.

[00048], Additional display options may also be avai lable to the user, accessible through a preferences menu. For example, for a particular presentation, the user may elect to start at a different sl ide within the hierarchy (i.e. not the first slide). This may assist in large presentations wh ich span mu ltiple sessions -the presenter can readi ly carry on from where he left off in the previous session. In this case, sl ide re ferences may be truncated to be based on the opening slide for a particular session - this helps to prevent them becoming too long and unwieldy.

[00049]. To assist this, the concept of a "slideshow framework'^' may be used, which can be defined by a specific opening sl ide within a sl ide presentation. The "slideshow framework'^* can be viewed as being al l hierarch ical slides, under the opening slide, in the slide hierarchy. [00050] . The sl ideshow framework, may be when jumping to slides in the presentation (either by hyperl ink, using the search tool or clicking on a side in the slideshow framew ork display). The slide that is "advanced to" using this means wi l l then, in this embodiment, further advance on mouse cl ick (or key press ) as follows;-

1 . I f the sl ide is part of the slideshow framework, the slideshow w il l advance according to the slideshow scheme .

2. I f the sl ide is outside the slideshow framew ork, the sl ideshow wil l return to the sl ide from wh ich the jump originated

[0005 1 ] . Th is sl idesho framework can be displayed in a dedicated pane to the presenter during the sl ideshow. Th is dedicated pane may also reveal w hich sl ides have already been viewed (e.g. by showing them in bold). Click ing on a sl ide in the slide framework display may cause the show lo jump to that slide

Creating the Slide Presentation

[00052J . Referring no to Figures 4 to 6, there is shown a user interface for creating a slide presentation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[00053] . The present invention provides users with the abi lity to group sl ides in different ways.

By doing th is sl ides can then easi ly be located under their headings (e.g. the presentation in Figure 3). Figures 4 to 6 depict screenshots from a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention, used to create a di fferent slide presentation.

[00054] , Turning first to Figure 4, there are shown three panes or frames within the user interface.

On the right-hand side is shown a pane headed "Available". In this pane, there are listed all available sl ides that have been defined or created for the purposes of creating a slide presentation. At the top left, there is another pane headed "Headers", which shows a hierarchical tree of the slides which have been added to the presentation At the bottom left, is a pane headed "Sequence^*", which shows where slides have been added to a sequence which is independent of the rest of the hierarchy.

[00055] . To create a slide presentation, a user can create slides and add them within the Available slides pane. S lides can be created with their own content and title, and they can also be assigned a slide name for use when creating the slide presentation. The slide name may be different to the slide title.

[00056] . Once a sl ide has been created, it will appear in the Available slides pane. This pane shows al l s lides that are avai lable - the sl ides can be sorted as required by name or by reference (see Figure 5 for an example of sorting by reference). [000571. To associate a slide with a position in the slide hierarchy, slides can be dragged from the

Available slides pane to the Headers pane or to the Sequence pane to insert the slide into the slide hierarchy or into an independent sequence^'. This drag and drop feature enables slides to be quickly, easily and intuitively placed into a hierarchical structure reflecting the logical order of the presentation, similar to a multi-level document.

[00058) . Once a slide is inserted into either a sequence or the slide hierarchy, it will be allocated a slide reference number. Typically, this reference number will specify the slide's position using a logical notation system, e.g. 1.2.1. to allocate a slide at the corresponding position in the hierarchy. Slides which are not within the hierarchy may be designated as appendices, and allocated reference numbers which indicate this, e.g. A001. Obviously, however, different naming conventions may be used in different embodiments of the invention, depending on user preferences. These reference numbers may be displayed with each slide during the slide presentation.

[00059) . In this embodiment, an automatic hyperlinking feature is provided. A user may select text on a slide and indicate (using a menu or short-cut function) that they wish to insert a hyperlink. The software will then search the presentation for a slide with the same name as the hyperlinked text, and will automatically insert the link into the originating slide. Alternatively, hyperlinks can be inserted by requiring the user to specify the slide specifically.

[00060]. Another alternative would be to provide a function which a user could activate from a slide (Slide A), e.g. from a top menu or using a right mouse-click, to search for another slide (Slide B), select Slide B, and then insert the title of the selected Slide B as hyperlinked text on Slide A.

[00061]. The above described functions utilise the use of slide names to facilitate the rapid creation of tcxl based hyperlinks, which match hyperlinked text to a slide name. This encourages users to use logical names for the slides in their presentation, which can then help facilitate a logical slide presentation. Furthermore, the present invention can allow a user to search for slides using the slide names (or part(s) of the slide names).

[00062], It is also desirable for an embodiment of the present invention to allow a user to check the links within a presentation. To this end, a function may be provided which can search through the slides of a presentation, and identify possible errors - for example, to check for slides in the hierarchy which are not hyperlinked from higher level slides. This would allow a user to identify orphaned slides which are not linked to and so would not be accessed during the ordinary course of the slide presentation. [00063] . Λη extra feature that may be provided by the present invention is to enable a user to export presenter notes to a multi-level document under the slide headings. Images of the slides themselves can optionally be included in this.

[00064] , As is read i ly apparent, the hierarch ical arrangement of sl ides provides a natural layout for the presentation of in formation. For example, a main teaching point (e.g. teaching point I ) may have a number of sub-points (e.g. 1 . 1 ). which in turn may have their own sub-points (e.g. 1 . 1 . 1 ). This logical structure can be reflected in the slide hierarchy.

[00065]. The arrangement according to the present invention also al lows more flexibi l ity in the presentation, allowing the presenter to better interact w ith the audience and to move the presentation in di fferent directions accord ing to feedback received. For example, if the presenter discovers that the audience has already covered a particular hyperlinked topic, they can simply choose not to cl ick on the relevant l ink, thereby skipping the topic. This al lows a presentation to contain more content than is actual ly used at any particular time,

[00066] . A lternatively, main teaching points can be reviewed at regular intervals - the presenter can easi ly navigate to slides presented previously ,

[00067] , Furthermore, because the presentation is arranged in a h ierarchical manner (and in particular because i f the presenter is using a retrace advancement scheme as outlined above), they are less l ikely to lose track of where they are in the presentation, f 00068] . W hi lst conventional slide presentation systems may allow hyperlinks to other slides, wh ich can be inserted according to standard procedures that will be known to a person ski lled in the art. However, in conventional slide presentation systems, the hyperlinks are ^ilone way", and it can be d ifficult to return to the sl ide from which the l ink originated .

[00069] , Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described in the foregoing detailed description, it wil l be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiment disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, mod i fications and substitutions without departing from the scope of the invention. Modifications and variations such as would be apparent to a skilled addressee are deemed within the scope of the present invention.

[00070] . For example, although in the embodiment described above, appendix slide sets have been shown, these may not be requ ired for al l presentations, Furthermore, in some embod iments, the same appendix slide (or slide sequence) may be accessed from different heading slides. [0007 1 ], Furthermore, the hierarchy need not be as rigidly defined as shown in the figures. In some embodiments, it would be possible for a sl ide to include pointers l inking to sl ides not in the immed iate level below. These examples, of course, are merely indicative of possible variations, and should not be taken as an exhaustive list.

[ 000721. It shou ld be also appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, or a computer readable medium such as a computer readable storage medium or a computer network wherein prograin instructions are sent over optical or electronic communication l inks. It should be noted that the order of the steps of at least the method of preparing a slide presentation may be altered without departing from the scope of the invention.

[00073] . The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the embodiments d isclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. For a hardware implementation, processing may be implemented with in one or more application speci fic integrated circuits ( AS ICs), d igital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs ). programmable logic devices (PLDs), fie ld programmable gate arrays ( FPGAs), processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof. Software modules, also known as computer programs, computer codes, or instructions, may contain a number of source code or object code segments or instructions, and may reside in any computer readable medium such as a RAM memory, flash memory. ROM memory. EPROM memory, registers, hard d isk, a removable d isk, a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM or any other form of computer readable medium. In the alternative, the computer readable med ium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the computer readable medium may reside in an A S IC or related device. The software codes may be stored in a memory unit and executed by a processor. The memory unit may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor, in which case it can be communicatively coupled to the processor via various means as is known in the art.

[00074] , Throughout the specification and the claims that follow, unless the context requires otherw ise, the words "comprise" and "include" and variations such as "comprising'^' and "including" w ill be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers, but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers.

[00075 ] . The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as. an acknowledgement of any form of suggestion that such prior art forms part of the common general knowledge.

Claims

CLA I MS

A method of displaying a sl ide presentation having a plurality of slides, the method comprising: associating a hierarchical position with a sl ide; and

advancing to or from the slide based on the hierarchical position.

The method of claim 1 . further comprising:

allowing a user to select from a plural it of advancement schemes, wherein advancement to or from the sl ide is based on the hierarchical position and the selected advancement scheme.

The method of cla im 1 or 2, wherein the sl ide is a child s lide and the advancing step comprises advanc ing from the slide to a parent slide having a higher hierarch ical position.

The method of claim 3, wherein the parent sl ide was previously displayed in the sl ide presentat ion.

The method of claim I or 2, wherein the slide is parent slide and the advancing step comprises advanc ing from the sl ide to a child slide having a lower h ierarchical position.

6. A method of creating a sl ide presentation, comprising:

allowing a user to define a plurality of slides;

a llowing the user to associate a hierarchical position w ith one or more of the sl ides, wherein during the display of the sl ide presentation, when the slide presentation is advanced, the hierarch ical position is used to determine wh ich of the pl urality of the slides to d isplay.

7. The method of c laim 6. further comprising:

defin ing a sl ide name for each s l ide.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

enabl ing a user to identify a selected slide;

inserting, on a source sl ide, a hyperlink to the selected slide, wherein the hyperlink comprises hyperlink text corresponding to the slide name of the selected slide.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the selected sl ide has a lower h ierarchical position than the source sl ide.

0. The method of any one of claims 6 to 9. further comprising:

providing a search function wh ich identifies slides w ithin the sl ide presentation which do not have l inks. 1 . Λ sl ide presentation comprising:

a slide;

a set containing one or more further sl ides;

a pointer allowing navigation from the slide to at least one of the further slides in the set; and

d irect access means by wh ich the slide can be accessed from at least one of the further s l ides in the set. 2. The slide presentation of claim 1 1 , wherein the pointer is a hyperlink, and the direct access means is an advance fu nction of the slide presentation. 3. A method of presenting a slide presentation, inc luding:

(a) displaying a slide;

(b) following a pointer associated with the slide to a further slide in a set of one or more further slides; and

(c) accessing the sl ide from one of the further slides in the set. 4. The method of claim 1 3 , wherein the pointer is a hyperlink, and the direct access means is an advance function of the slide presentation. 5. A sl ide presentation system comprising:

a processor adapted to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 4; and a memory in commun ication with the processor. 6. A slide presentation system for creating a sl ide presentation, comprising:

means to allow a user to define a plurality of slides; and

means to allow the a user to associate a hierarchical position with one or more of the sl ides,

wherein during the display of the slide presentation, when the sl ide presentation is advanced, the hierarch ical position is used to determ ine wh ich of the plurality of the sl ides to d isplay.

7. A computer readable medium encoded with data representing instructions for directing a programmable device to perform the steps of any one of claims 1 to 1 0 or 1 3 to 1 4. 8. A computer program element comprising computer program code means to make a programmable device execute the steps of any one of claims 1 to 1 0 or 1 3 to 1 4.