Once your slide show is completed, you will need to learn how to present it to an audience. PowerPoint offers several tools and features that can help make your presentation smooth, engaging, and professional.
In this lesson, you will learn how to play a slide show and advance through slides. In addition, you will learn about various presentation options like using a highlighter to mark slides and how to set your slide show to play on a continuous loop.
Presenting a slide show
To present your slide show, you'll need to know how to start it. PowerPoint allows you to start your slide show from the first slide or from any slide within the slide show. Once your slide show has started, you'll need to know how to advance through the slides.
Optional: You can download this example for extra practice.
To start a slide show:
Select the Slide Show tab.
Click the From Beginning command in the Start Slide Show group to start the slide show with the first slide.
Starting Slide Show
You can also start the slide show from the slide you prefer by selecting the slide and clicking on From Current Slide from the Start Slide Show group. This option is convenient if you only want to view or present certain slides.
Another option for starting the slide show is to select Slide Show view at the bottom of the window.
Starting Slide Show view option
To advance and reverse slides:
Hover your mouse over the bottom-left of the screen. A menu will appear.
Click the right arrow to advance slides and the left arrow to reverse slides.
Advance or reverse slides
You can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to advance and reverse slides.
To stop or end a slide show:
To end a slide show, hover and select the menu box options command and click End Show. You can also press the Esc key at the top left of your keyboard to end the show.
Ending slide show
Presentation tools and features
PowerPoint provides convenient tools and features you can use while you are presenting your slide show. Features include changing your mouse pointer to a pen or highlighter to draw attention to items in your slides. In addition, you can jump around to slides in your presentation or access items from your computer desktop if needed.
To access the pen or highlighter:
Hover and click the pen menu option in the bottom-left of your screen.
Select Pen or Highlighter based on your preference.
Accessing Pen or Highlighter
Use the pointer to draw on or mark your slides.
Using the pen and highlighter on a slide
From the same menu, you can also change the color of the pen or highlighter. Keep in mind that light color choices are best for the highlighter.
Choosing a new ink color
To erase ink markings:
Hover and click the pen menu option in the bottom-left of your screen.
Select Eraser to erase individual ink markings, or select Erase All Ink on Slide to erase all markings.
Accessing Eraser options
When you end your slide show, you also have the option to Keep or Discard (erase) any ink markings you made during your presentation.
Choosing to keep or discard ink markings
To jump to a nonadjacent slide:
Hover and click the menu box option in the bottom-left of your screen.
Select Go to Slide, and choose the slide you want to jump to in your presentation.
Choosing Go To Slide
To access the desktop:
Sometimes you may need to access the Internet or other files and programs on your computer during your presentation. PowerPoint allows you to access your desktop task bar without ending your presentation.
Hover and click the menu box option in the bottom-left of your screen.
Select Screen, then click Switch Programs.
Switching Programs during slide show
Your computer's task bar will appear. Choose a program you want to switch to.
Accessing other programs during your slide show
Menu access options:
You can also access any of the above menu items by right-clicking anywhere on the screen during your slide show.
Right-clicking to access slide show menu options
Keyboard shortcuts
Switch between the pen pointer and mouse pointer by pressing Ctrl+P (pen) or Ctrl+M (mouse) on your keyboard.
Press E on the keyboard to erase any ink markings while using the pen or highlighter.
Slide show setup options
PowerPoint has various options for setting up and playing a slide show. For example, you can set up an unattended presentation that can be displayed at a kiosk and make your slide show repeat with continuous looping.
To access slide show setup options:
Select the Slide Show tab.
Click the Set Up Show command.
Setting up slide show
The Set Up Show dialog box will appear. Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn about the various options available for setting up and playing a slide show.
edit hotspots
Show Type
Here, you can choose a show type.
Show Options
Here, you choose playback settings and disable certain features if desired.
Show Slides
Here, you can choose which slides you want to show during the presentation.
All is selected by default, but you can choose to show only certain slides or use any custom shows you have created from your original presentation.
Advance Slides
If you have set timings in your slide show, they will play automatically. However, if you want to disable the timings and control the slides yourself, select Manually.
Multiple Monitors
If you have more than one monitor, you can choose which one to display the slide show on. It's usually best to leave this setting on Automatic.