When giving a presentation, adding visuals from a PC-based slide show can help reinforce your message. Of course, it can also add stress, since now you have to worry about advancing past the correct slide or escaping out of presentation mode and not being able to get back to where you were.

No longer. These three remote presentation controls, costing $75 to $180 (street), all do a first-class job of advancing (and backing up) your PowerPoint presentation from a distance of 10 to 30 feet. Each remote uses radio frequency signals to communicate with its receiver attached to the USB port of your notebook, eliminating the need for line-of-sight reception, which infrared remotes require. They all have laser pointers, and at the very least, they send PgDn (advance) and PgUp (back up) commands. Typically, signals go to your laptop, which sends the slide show output, via the external video port, to an LCD projector or big-screen TV.

All of these remotes get the job done, but none are perfect. None are printed with instructions saying which button does what, and the manuals are small and easily lost. The receivers look like USB memory keys, with nothing to indicate they are not, which might be a temptation to casual thieves.