Remotely control Powerpoint/OpenOffice Impress over network

Question

I need to remotely control a Microsoft Powerpoint or OpenOffice.org Impress presentation over the network. I am having a presentation running and I won't have physical access (and I cannot use an IR remote) to the computer (it is a laptop). I need to be able to at least remotely (over a private LAN network) advance the slide or go back (if I need to).

The laptop running the presentation will be running Windows XP or 7. The controlling computer will most likely be running Windows 7. If there is no other option, I might be willing to switch either of them to Linux, but I do not think that I will need to.

I will not need to worry about the laptop running the presentation going to sleep or turning off. It will also be using a wired ethernet connection so I don't need to worry that much about a bad network connection.

Does anyone have anyone have any solutions? (or ways to do it differently; the slides will be static (no animation) other than fading between slides)

P.S. I do not have that long (4 days) to implement any solutions. I can code some things if I need to.

Answer 1

I would recommend you take a look at some of the free remote control software programs on the market. The purpose of this type of software is to give you access to a computer as if you were sitting in front of it, even if you were not even in the same geogrpahical location.

Good site: http://logmein.com for the LogMeIn Free product.

Typical scenario:

• Laptop is sitting, connected to the projector, in the front of the room. Laptop has the LogMeIn Free demon running on it.
• Controlling PC is remoted into the Laptop via LogMeIn, and is in full screen mode. Controlling PC is essentially acting like the laptop.

Presenter can then control the laptop via the PC w/o issue.