...more software...seriously. Why can't this thing run on its own?

Now that you have spent money on the dock-to-VGA connector, you are eager to start displaying your PowerPoint lectures.  Riiiight!  You did not possibly think that Apple was going to let you do that before you fork over some more $$$.

Microsoft Office apps do not run natively on the iPad nor can you "install" them in any way.  So, you need to use other apps that can view and project MS office files.  The two biggest contenders for opening and showing PowerPoints files are Documents To Go and QuickOffice.  However, neither is good for editing slides on the go.  So, for $9.99 you might as well get the Apple-designed Keynote which can open and edit .ppt files and project them for your students using the VGA connection.  For a spiffy guide on how to use Keynote for iPad check out this apple video.

Keep in mind that when you are presenting with Keynote, the screen of your iPad is NOT mirrored onto the projector screen.  Instead, you see a square in the middle of your iPad screen where you can tap to move backward and forward though your presentation while the output is sent to the VGA linked screen.

Keynote has problems, however (you can search for reviews elsewhere).  It does stand above the competition when it comes to designing and editing slides on the go.  It is very convenient when I can locate my latest version of the lecture slides in Dropbox and select to open them in Keynote, make any changes I need to on the go and finally project them to the class. 

A key problem for me has been the absence of the exporting feature for any presentations that have been altered on the iPad itself.  Once you change the presentation, you can email it in the Keynote format but not in the original PowerPoint (.ppt) format.  This should not be an issue for those who work exclusively with Mac products and have Mac versions of Keynote installed on all their machines.

Be aware that when you open a .PPT file in Keynote, some formatting, font styles and animations will be lost or changed in the transfer.  Those who teach with slides that contain videos and images may turn a little gray while trying to get Keynote to work.  I recently played a presentation in class where the slides would not stop at each tap but the presentation kept running on its own like a slideshow.  Turns out that when I created the presentation on my PC, some of the slides had hidden transition settings that were never an issue in PowerPoint but the settings linked the slides together in the Keynote presentation.  Technically, I could have removed all the hidden transition straight on my iPad which would have made the presentation run smoothly, but who has time to change 20 slides with a room full of students staring at you and wondering if you're ever going to learn how to use slides. 

Another problem I encountered was in presenting a lecture where I had to move backward and forward through slides which included animations (bullets, quotes and pictures flying in and out on tap).  Moving backwards through the slides can be annoying because you can't see which slide you are moving to until it shows up on the large screen.  If those slides include animated elements, you may need to tap back for every single one of them before you can get the whole slide to appear.  I suppose I could have stopped the presentation, selected the desired slide, and played the presentation again, but......Grrr, let's just say the presentation was taxing on my students' patience and I don't want to think about it again.

To avoid these kinds of problems, I try to minimize the use of slide animations and transitions.  I keep my dummed down in order to make sure that formatting and text stay the same when I open my lectures in Keynote on the iPad.  The downside of course is that it forces you to cut out some of the bells and whistles that might make the presenation more enjoyable and memorable for the students.  All this to say that you should not expect everything to open up in Keynote auto-magically.