Browsing for and showing files in front of a client, always makes me feel unprofessional.
I work with branding, design and visual identity, and sharing menu bars, notifications, folders and my desktop with clients, kind of makes me feel beneath my area of “expertise” and does not represent what I stand for (branding, simple clean design, etc.)
Am i being over-perfectionistic? Also, can anyone suggest alternatives / workarounds?
Go in prepared. Most important. Read over all of your notes and recent emails with the client to refresh your memory of where you are.
Also, if you have a laptop or iPad or so, what about saving mock-ups of all of the work you’d like to display as a slideshow of JPGs for presenting? Leave all of the possible files that would come up in that meeting in folders on the desktop temporarily, so you don’t have to browse. Or, what about buying a good printer and doing some prints, one design per page? You could consider binding it together and maybe leaving it with them to mull over.
Also consider how you, yourself look. If you pull overnighters like most graphic designers, consider devoting time to a shave and ironing a nice shirt before your meeting too. And reach early!
That’s all I can think of right now.
I agree with what @Shaun_OfTheDead; has said
Good preparation is the key. If you’re going to show your work, you need to know the strong points of every design/work that you’ve done (and their weaknesses too, of course, and how to turn those weaknesses into strong points too ;))
If you’re presenting yourself to a company, it is also good to have a general feeling of their principles and goals and if you can have some info of the people you’re meeting too.
Always look clean and professional but don’t overdress. If the company is very formal, you’ll need a proper suit but if the company is informal, casual clothing may be enough and they may feel a bit overwhelmed if you wore a full suit. In any case, don’t wear jeans 
Thank for your input guys.
The thing is that in my experience it is hard to plan client meetings. Suddenly they want to see something else, the conversation takes you in a different direction, or if you really listen to the client you realize you should be showing them something else.
Basically it is hard just to stay in a Powerpoint or PDF, and it is when I then have to show them something different or more relevant, that I end up clicking around showing them my desktop, folders, menu bars, etc. Somehow it feels a little too “earthbound” and a bit personal and doesn’t feel like I am giving them a slick professional experience.
In others words, in would be nice to be able to stay in Powerpoint fullscreen and still being able to easily open any file on your computer and present it within the Powerpoint. If need be.
Does this make any sense?
so you can share your operating system, so that you can maintain one as official and other for your own. i meant dual os in one system. organised everything and just put a map for your discussion.if you do this thing you dont need to worry about your privacy data and you can end up your meeting with smooth fulfillment of goals.
Did you know that PowerPoint has what’s called personalized presentations?
Basically, you have one PowerPoint file with 100 or 200 slices (whatever is needed to have all the examples you may need) and you hide slides as you deem convienient. Obviously, you’ll not hide them while the client is right in front of you… you do it in your own home and give that configuration a name. You can create as many names (or choose which slides to show/hide) as you want… and when you need to do a particular presentation you simply double click on the name which has that particular configuration.
This serves to use the same presentation with different publics. Sometimes you’ll take more time and show more and some other time you don’t have that time or there are slides that are not relevant to your presentation.
Also, consider that you will rarely be able to show what your client wants… it is not even built! 
But you do want to build it
Simply show them what you’ve got and if necessary schedule a second meeting… even better if you convince them to hire you (so you don’t work in vain)
The first thing to look professional in client meeting to prepare your presentation in a proper way. Go with practice in front of mirror and confidence. Show your campaign that you have done for customers. Tell them stories and solutions in spite of showing them data. They should look on data by themselves. Good timing to show them data. Because most decision maker only want to hear what you can do for them.
Actually, someone once mentioned something to me about a program that works as a customized/personalized interface that you put “on top” of mac/pc. Lot simpler, displaying your brand and great for client meetings. Just don’t remember the name. Does it ring a bell with anyone?
Just be yourself, dont force it, clients will feel when youre forcing professionalism. Be prepared, dress nicely but be natural and smile 
A customer normally doesn’t mind how long it takes to get something to appear as long as it makes sense to them. talking about there business whilst trying to get something to appear normally works well.
Take screenshots and put them in PowerPoint or Google Presentation and from there you only have to worry about pressing your space bar to advance your presentation. Nerves go away with practice and confidence, if you’re really selling clients something they need, want, and can afford then you’ll be fine.
Also it never hurts to ask clients for feedback on your presentation because sometimes you are your worst critic, while your client might think you did a great job.
Lblack,
It sounds like you just need some practice keeping your audience on track. After you have a good number of presentations under your belt, you will be able to anticipate the common questions that people have. As many of the other members have mentioned, preparation is key. Maybe have some other windows ready to go so that you can just pop them open.
Again, once you have a feel for what you want to say as well as what clients typically want to see, it should get smoother for you.
Hope that helps,
Shawn
Take a screenshots and place them in PowerPoint or Google Presentation and from there you merely got to worry concerning pressing your key to advance your presentation. Nerves flee with observe and confidence, if you are extremely mercantilism shoppers one thing they have, want, and may afford then you will be fine.
And a cowboy hat. You should definitely wear a cowboy hat.
I think you’re over worrying. First, you should analyze what kind of Customer you got. Sometimes you need to detect bad ones and get out as soon as you can. There are some customers who are “I don’t know what I want so you show me something I might like”. This type is very difficult but if they have friendly personality then pursue it. There are some customers who are “I saw these shining web sites and I want to create a site that has all the features”. As long as customer understand that more feature will mean more $$$ and time, then pursue it. Then there are ******* customer who knows exactly what they want that is totally stupid…avoid these type of customers at all cost.
As for presentation go, just be comfortable. If you’re feeling comfortable then they probably are as well. You just need to prep on their requirements and bounce some ideas. During these time, analyze their personality from what I said before. G’luck.
you just need to well dressed up and be a professional and just share your operating system then everything will be share to clients and you don’t need to worry about anything.
We already notice that being a professional is your way to be success in life. But my mind seeking this kind of question, what Kind of aspect should posses so that I can be a professional in front of my clients? Well, In my stand about this, Being a professional will be part first is having a good personality. Always make sure that you can do a lot of good things and for being responsible.