Timed Slide Rehearsal Tools in LibreOffice Impress

LibreOffice Impress provides dedicated built-in tools to help presenters practice their delivery, track pacing, and automate slide transitions. This guide covers how to access and utilize the Rehearse Timings feature, configure automatic slide durations manually, and use the Presenter Console to monitor your elapsed time during practice sessions.

The Rehearse Timings Feature

The primary tool for timing presentations in LibreOffice Impress is the Rehearse Timings tool. This feature runs your presentation in full-screen mode while displaying a small timer in the corner to record how long you spend on each slide.

To use this feature: 1. Open your presentation in LibreOffice Impress. 2. Go to the top menu and select Slide Show. 3. Click on Rehearse Timings. 4. The presentation will start from the first slide, and a small timer window will appear in the lower-left corner showing the elapsed seconds. 5. Speak your script for the slide. When you are finished, click the slide or press the spacebar to advance to the next slide. 6. Repeat this process for the entire presentation.

Once you reach the end of the slide show, Impress automatically saves the recorded durations as the transition times for each respective slide.

Manual Slide Transition Timings

If you prefer to assign specific, predetermined time intervals to slides rather than recording them live, you can set slide advance timers manually.

To set manual timers: 1. Select the slide you want to time from the Slides pane on the left. 2. Open the Slide Transition panel in the right sidebar (indicated by a slide icon with a star). 3. Scroll down to the Advance slide section. 4. Select the Automatically after radio button. 5. Enter the exact number of seconds you want the slide to remain on the screen before advancing automatically. 6. Click Apply to All Slides if you want uniform timing, or repeat the steps individually for specific slides.

Monitoring Pacing with the Presenter Console

The Presenter Console provides an interactive dashboard during your rehearsal, offering real-time feedback on your pacing without forcing slides to advance automatically.

When you connect a second display or enable the presenter screen in settings, the Presenter Console shows: * Elapsed Time: A running digital timer showing the total time spent in the presentation so far. * Current Clock: The current time of day to help keep your overall schedule on track. * Slide Previews: A preview of both the current slide and the upcoming slide. * Presenter Notes: Your notes for each slide to assist with practicing speech delivery within your targeted time frame.

To enable the Presenter Console, navigate to Tools > Options > LibreOffice Impress > General, and verify that the Enable Presenter Console option is checked.

Managing and Removing Recorded Timings

If you want to rehearse again or switch back to advancing slides manually by mouse click: 1. Select the slides you wish to modify. 2. Open the Slide Transition sidebar. 3. Under the Advance slide section, select On mouse click. 4. Save the presentation to clear the automated timing data.