This isn't a how-to on using your gadget as a remote to advance slides on the PowerPoint presentation you've got loaded up on your laptop. This is a how-to on using your iPod, BlackBerry, or Treo to load up your presentation without your laptop.

Okay, those with common sense would ask, "Why?" There are a ton of laptops out there that are already handy and easy to lug around. Plus, these laptops are obviously more powerful than a handheld. Well, read these three practical reasons that may just convince you to use your handheld in some other way.

• Your gadget can be a last resort, just in case your laptop decides to conk-out or get depressed on you like "Marvin the Paranoid Android" from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• It frees you to travel on business without a laptop; laptops are so last century.
• You can be prepared for your pitch anytime, anyplace.
  

There are three processes when it comes to presenting from handhelds. The first is the conversion of PowerPoint Slides, next is the issue of how to connect the handheld to the projector, and the last is  how you'd display the slides properly.

You could use any iPod as a presentation device, but first you need a product called "ThinkFree Office 3 Show iPod Edition." It basically lets you create, edit, convert, and store presentations in your iPod. The conversion process saves each slide into images that you can scroll through on your iPod as you present them. If "ThinkFree Office 3" is too pricy for you, there's "iPresent it."

If you're really a cheapskate, PowerPoint actually lets you save your presentation as .TIFF or JPEG files. So you can use the iPod's slideshow functions, and there you go, you've got a presentation.

Getting your iPod connected to a projector is a bit harder though. There's the "Monster iTV Link" for iPod, and you could use that and its high-quality S-video option. You'll also need to buy the $39.00 Apple iPod Universal Dock if you don't already have one. You can leave the iPod in its cradle, and advance slides using the included remote. So there. Really easy right?

Now imagine hooking your iPod up to this.

Buy: [iPod]
Buy: [PowerPoint]
Buy: [Thinkfree Office 3]
Buy: [iPresent It]
Buy: [Monster iTV Link]