powerpoint presentation next slide preview

Understanding Presenter View in PowerPoint: A Deep Dive Guide

Origin and Evolution of Presenter View

Why presenter view is a game-changer for professionals, activating and customizing presenter view in powerpoint, in-depth features of the presenter view, common mistakes and how to avoid them, advanced tips for a power presentation, final tips for enhancing your presentation game, introduction to presenter view.

Have you ever found yourself awkwardly toggling between slides and speaker notes during a presentation? Or wished you could preview the next slide without your audience seeing? Enter Presenter View in PowerPoint, a feature designed to make presenting smoother and more professional.

In essence, Presenter View is a special mode in PowerPoint that allows the presenter to see their speaker notes on one screen, while the audience views the note-free presentation on another screen. This dual-screen setup means you can have your notes, upcoming slides, and timer conveniently on one screen while your audience remains blissfully unaware.

“Presenter View is the unseen ally behind many successful PowerPoint presentations.”

Microsoft’s PowerPoint, with its roots tracing back to the late 1980s, has undergone several metamorphoses. Over the years, as technology improved and presentation dynamics changed, Microsoft introduced new features to make the software more user-friendly and versatile. One such innovation is the Presenter View.

Back in the early days of PowerPoint, presenters had to rely on printouts or separate documents for their speaker notes. The advent of Presenter View in the early 2000s was a game-changer. It allowed presenters to merge their slides and speaker notes into one cohesive presentation experience.

The beauty of Presenter View lies not just in its conception but in its evolution. Over different versions of PowerPoint:

• 2003 : Introduction of a basic Presenter View with slides and notes.
• 2007 : Enhanced screen setup with better dual-monitor support.
• 2010 : Introduction of slide zoom and laser pointer features.
• 2013 & Beyond : Integration with touch features, improved UI, and annotations.

Each version brought refinements, making it more intuitive and packed with features, tailoring to the evolving needs of presenters globally.

Fun Fact : Presenter View wasn’t initially as popular as it is today. It took a few iterations and user feedback loops for Microsoft to perfect the balance between utility and user experience.

The Core Components of Presenter View

Presenter View in PowerPoint is like the cockpit for pilots: it’s where all the essential controls and information are at the presenter’s fingertips. Whether you’re a newbie to PowerPoint or a seasoned professional, understanding these components can transform your presentation experience.

• This provides a glance at your current, previous, and upcoming slides. It ensures you’re always prepared for what’s coming next and can seamlessly transition between points.
• The soul of your presentation, speaker notes, are discreetly placed at the bottom or side, only visible to you. These notes can be elaborate explanations, quick pointers, or even personal reminders. They’re like your secret cheat sheet!
• Ever worried about running over time? This feature shows the elapsed time since you began the presentation and, in some versions, allows you to set a countdown. Stay on track and manage your pace efficiently.
• Interactive features that allow you to draw on slides or use a virtual laser pointer. These are especially helpful when you want to emphasize or explain specific points visually.
• Navigate between slides effortlessly and zoom into specific parts of a slide to draw attention or elaborate on details.

Table: Core Components Overview

Quote : “Presenter View is to a presenter what a dashboard is to a driver. It empowers, directs, and enhances the journey of your narrative.” – Jane Harris, Lead PowerPoint Expert – Powerbacks team

Understanding these components is one thing, but leveraging them effectively during a presentation can make a significant difference. Let’s delve into the ‘why’ behind the significance of Presenter View.

Stepping onto the stage or presenting in a boardroom can often be an overwhelming experience. The constant juggle between capturing the audience’s attention and keeping track of your slides can lead to nervousness. But what if there was a way to have everything you need right in front of you, ensuring smooth sailing through your presentation? Enter Presenter View.

• Having a preview of the upcoming slides and personal notes right in front of you can be a massive boost to confidence. You’re always one step ahead, knowing exactly what’s coming next.
• Instead of turning back to view the screen repeatedly, Presenter View lets you face your audience directly. This creates a more engaging and personal interaction.
• Gone are the days when you’d hold a bunch of cue cards or sheets of paper. With digital speaker notes, you have a cleaner, more organized setup.
• Using the annotation tools and laser pointer, you can make your presentation more interactive, leading to better retention and engagement from your audience.
• There’s no denying that seamlessly transitioning between slides, using interactive tools, and having no physical notes gives a more polished and professional look.

Table: Benefits of Using Presenter View

Quote : “Embracing the Presenter View is not just about leveraging a tool; it’s about amplifying your message and connecting more profoundly with your audience.”

It’s evident that the Presenter View has undeniable advantages for professionals. But how do you activate it and customize it to suit your needs? Let’s walk through the steps.

Starting with PowerPoint 2013, Microsoft enhanced the Presenter View to ensure that it’s both intuitive and user-friendly. Activating it and making it work for you is simple, as outlined in the following steps:

Step-by-Step Guide to Activate Presenter View :

• Start by opening your PowerPoint presentation. This will be the one you intend to deliver.
• At the top, you’ll notice several tabs. Click on the one labeled ‘Slide Show’.
• Within the Slide Show tab, you’ll spot a checkbox labeled ‘Use Presenter View’. Ensure that it’s ticked. If it’s not, simply click on it.
• If you’re using an external projector or display, make sure it’s connected. PowerPoint will automatically detect it and use the Presenter View on your primary display, showing the main presentation on the external one.
• Start your presentation by either pressing F5 on your keyboard or clicking on ‘From Beginning’ in the Slide Show tab.
• Next Slide Preview : Gives a preview of what’s coming next.
• Speaker Notes : Displays your notes for the current slide.
• Slide Navigation : Use this to jump to a specific slide.
• Annotation Tools : Highlight or draw on your slides in real-time.
• Timer : Keeps track of how long you’ve been presenting.
• You can move around the different elements, increase font size of your notes for better readability, or even hide specific components if they’re not required.

Table: Quick Access Tools in Presenter View

Quote : “The beauty of PowerPoint’s Presenter View is the control and flexibility it offers. It’s like having a personal assistant during your presentations.” – Linda Green, Presentation Expert

Now that we know how to activate and customize the Presenter View let’s delve deeper into its features and tools for maximum efficiency during presentations. Shall we proceed?

PowerPoint’s Presenter View is not just a simple “next slide” preview; it’s a hub of tools and functionalities designed to make the presenter’s job easier and the presentation more engaging.

H3: Slide Preview This is arguably the most straightforward feature but also the most helpful. At a glance, you can see what’s coming up, ensuring that you’re always prepared for the next topic or section.

• Smooth Transitions : Eliminates awkward pauses between slides.
• Improved Pacing : Know when to speed up or slow down based on upcoming content.
• Reduced Anxiety : No unpleasant surprises during your presentation.

H3: Speaker Notes For those who don’t rely on pure memory, speaker notes are a lifesaver. They’re your secret weapon, visible only to you, that provides additional context or reminders about what to say.

• Bold the crucial points to ensure they stand out.
• Use concise bullet points for easier and quicker reading.
• Add time cues if you’re aiming to cover specific points within certain timeframes.

H3: Slide Navigation While it’s always best to move sequentially through your slides, there might be instances when you need to skip ahead or return to a previous point. With the slide navigation tool, you can effortlessly hop around your presentation.

• Case Study : During a corporate presentation, John, a sales manager, was posed with a sudden question about Q2 performance. Thanks to slide navigation, he quickly reverted to the relevant slide, addressed the query, and resumed without any hiccups.

H3: Annotation Tools Engage your audience by turning your presentation into an interactive canvas. Whether you’re highlighting an essential statistic or drawing a quick graph, these tools can make a significant impact.

• Use contrasting colors to ensure visibility.
• Don’t overdo it; the aim is to emphasize, not to overwhelm.
• Practice beforehand to ensure you’re comfortable with these tools during the presentation.

H3: Timer It’s easy to lose track of time during a presentation. With Presenter View’s timer, you can keep tabs on the elapsed time, helping you manage the pace and duration of your talk.

• Tip : Always allocate a buffer period. If you’re presenting for 30 minutes, aim to finish in 25. This allows for Q&A or any unexpected delays.

Quote : “PowerPoint’s Presenter View is like a dashboard for presenters. It provides every tool one might need, all within arm’s reach, ensuring a seamless and interactive presentation experience.” – Michael Roberts, Tech Analyst

Understanding the features of the Presenter View is the key to unlocking its potential. With practice and familiarity, it becomes an extension of the presenter, leading to more confident and impactful presentations.

Making the Most of Presenter View

If you’ve ever wanted to feel like a presentation Jedi, mastering the Presenter View is your path to the force. But having the tool isn’t enough – it’s about leveraging its features optimally. Here’s a detailed guide on maximizing the benefits of the Presenter View:

H3: Setup and Access Before harnessing its power, you need to ensure you can access Presenter View without hitches.

• Connect your computer to the projector or external display.
• Launch PowerPoint and open your presentation.
• Go to the Slide Show tab and select Set Up Slide Show .
• In the pop-up, ensure Browsed by an individual (window) is selected.
• Start the slide show. Presenter View should appear on your computer, while the audience sees only the slides.

H3: Customize the Display Remember, it’s your dashboard; make it as comfortable and efficient for you as possible.

• Within Presenter View, hover over the bottom to reveal the toolbar.
• Click on the gear icon to adjust settings.
• Reorder tools based on your preference or hide those you don’t need.

H3: Practice, Practice, Practice The tool’s efficiency relies heavily on your familiarity with it. Do dry runs to ensure you know where everything is and how each feature works.

• Pro Tip : Mimic the presentation environment during practice. If you’re presenting in a large hall, practice with the same setup.

H3: Seamlessly Integrate Other Media If your presentation includes videos, animations, or other media, ensure they play seamlessly in Presenter View.

• Deep Dive : Always embed media within the presentation. Relying on external links or files can disrupt the Presenter View experience.

H3: Engage the Audience Use the tools not just to aid your presentation but to engage your audience. Pose questions, use the pen tool to sketch quick diagrams based on audience inputs, and make it interactive.

• Table of Engagement Techniques :

H3: Master the Art of Transitions Smooth transitions are key to maintaining audience attention. With a preview of the next slide, prepare your narrative to flow seamlessly.

Even with the most powerful tools, human error can play a spoilsport. The Presenter View, as intuitive as it may be, has its quirks. Here’s a list of common pitfalls users face and ways to steer clear of them:

H3: Not Checking Hardware Setup Before you even start the presentation, ensure your hardware is correctly set up. This includes checking the display connection, ensuring the projector or external monitor is detected, and setting up the correct display settings.

• Pro Tip : Always keep a spare HDMI or VGA cable. Technical glitches often come from the most unexpected sources.

H3: Overlooking Speaker Notes Having made the effort of adding speaker notes to your slides, it would be a shame not to use them. They serve as a discreet prompt, ensuring you don’t miss any critical points.

• Fact : According to a study, presenters who actively used speaker notes were 25% more consistent in delivering their core messages.

H3: Ignoring the Timer Time management is crucial. If you have a fixed time slot, exceeding it can inconvenience others and may appear unprofessional. Conversely, finishing too early can leave your audience unsatisfied.

• Actionable Advice : Always have a buffer. If your slot is 30 minutes, aim for a 25-minute presentation, leaving room for Q&A or unexpected delays.

H3: Relying Exclusively on Presenter View Despite its usefulness, never be wholly dependent on Presenter View. Technical glitches happen, and the ability to continue smoothly without it showcases professionalism.

• Case Study : At a major tech conference in 2018, a renowned speaker’s Presenter View malfunctioned. Instead of panicking, he smoothly transitioned to the standard view, using his printed notes as a backup. The audience lauded his adaptability, and his message wasn’t overshadowed by the hiccup.

H3: Not Adapting to Audience Feedback The tools in Presenter View, like slide navigation, are meant to enhance adaptability. If you sense your audience resonating more with a particular topic, don’t be afraid to dwell on it a bit longer or even revisit slides.

By sidestepping these common mistakes, you not only harness the full potential of Presenter View but also project confidence and control. Next, we’ll explore some advanced features to elevate your presentation game even further.

Mastering Presenter View basics can tremendously improve your presentation skills. But if you’re looking to elevate your game and leave a lasting impression, dive into these advanced features:

H3: Seamless Transition Between Slides The art of a great presentation lies not just in the content but also in the delivery. A choppy slide transition can disrupt the flow. PowerPoint offers a plethora of transition effects — from subtle fades to dynamic 3D effects.

• Go to the Transitions tab.
• Browse and select your preferred effect.
• Adjust the transition duration if needed.
• Click Apply To All to maintain uniformity.

H3: Use Zoom to Focus on Details Occasionally, you might want to draw attention to specific details on a slide. Instead of making your audience squint, use the in-built Zoom feature.

• Tip : Combine zoom with a laser pointer or pen tool for emphasis.

H3: Ink Annotations Annotating directly on your slides can be beneficial for interactive sessions or workshops. PowerPoint’s “Ink” feature allows you to do just that.

• Did You Know? : Ink annotations made during a presentation can be saved for future reference!

H3: Embed Multimedia for a Rich Experience Modern presentations often go beyond static slides. Consider embedding videos, audio clips, or even live web content to keep your audience engaged.

• Navigate to the Insert tab.
• Choose Video or Audio and select your file.
• Adjust playback settings under the Playback tab.

H3: Custom Slide Show Sometimes, different segments of your audience require varied content. Instead of having multiple PPT files, create a custom slideshow within the same presentation.

PowerPoint’s Presenter View is akin to a secret weapon, waiting in the wings, ready to empower speakers, educators, and presenters globally. Whether you’re a novice taking your first steps into the world of presentations or a seasoned speaker aiming to refine your skills, the Presenter View, along with the myriad features PowerPoint offers, ensures your content shines in the best light.

Remember, a successful presentation doesn’t merely rely on flashy slides or multimedia elements. It’s the seamless blend of content, delivery, and engagement. And with tools like Presenter View, you’re equipped to handle the technical aspects, allowing you to focus on what truly matters – connecting with your audience.

As Bill Gates once said:

“If you think the PowerPoint presentation is there for you as the presenter, you’re wrong. It’s there for the audience.”

So, the next time you’re gearing up for that crucial pitch, workshop, or lecture, take a moment to familiarize yourself with Presenter View. Your audience — and your confidence — will thank you for it.

Happy presenting!

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Present Better with PowerPoint Presenter View: Tips & Tricks

The PowerPoint presenter view is the ideal tool for your presentation. The PowerPoint presenter view is the ideal tool for your presentation. It allows you to display your speaker notes and slides on your computer while presenting. Meanwhile, your audience will see the presentation without your notes on another screen or projector.

What is PowerPoint presenter view?

The PowerPoint presenter view is a presentation mode that allows presenters to see a preview of the next slides as well as their speaker notes. The advantage of this mode is that your audience will only see the current slide and nothing else.

PowerPoint presenter view: advantages

Presenter view offers a number of features that can help you streamline and improve the flow of your presentations:

1. You can add notes to each slide. This gives you more freedom and you won’t have to struggle with clumsy index cards. You can individually design the notes for each slide and, when you switch slides, you’ll see that slide’s notes as well.

2. You always see the current slide number (e.g., slide 5 of 13). That way, you can begin preparing for the next slide. You receive an overview of the entire presentation throughout.

3. A preview image on the side of your presentation always shows you the next slide.

4. A timer notifies you of how much time has elapsed. This is especially helpful if you have a limited amount of time to present.

5. You can use the pen tools to mark, highlight and augment your slide content . These freehand markups can even be saved afterwards.

6. You can view a thumbnail overview of all your presentation slides. This lets you choose slides freely and jump from slide to slide.

7. You can use the magnifying glass to enlarge individual sections of the current slide. The virtual laser pointer allows you to highlight specific points .

8. During breaks and discussions, you can fade to a black screen and don’t have to turn off the projector. This allows you to restart the presentation in less time.

How to set up PowerPoint presenter view with a projector 

PowerPoint presenter view requires two separate monitors. This often includes a projector. Here’s how to properly set up a projector:

1. Connect your laptop to the projector. Make sure the laptop isn’t switched on.

2. When you turn on the laptop, the projector will recognize it as a second screen.

3. When you start Microsoft PowerPoint, you should see the same image on both screens.

4. Now press the Windows + P key combination and then select Extend . Click on the check mark to the right of Presenter View in the Slide Show tab.

5. You’ll now see the different views on your two monitors. As the presenter, you’ll see the presenter view while your audience will see the current slide.

6. Normally, presenter view is automatically displayed on the correct monitor (namely, yours). If it still appears on the audience screen, set it to Primary Monitor in the Monitor drop-down menu. Presenter view should now run on your monitor.

How to disable PowerPoint presenter view  

To disable presenter view during your presentation, simply uncheck the Presenter View box in the Slide Show tab.

Tips for optimal use of the PowerPoint speaker view

1. practicing the presentation in advance.

If you want to use this tool effectively, you should be confident in using it . Therefore, test it extensively beforehand to be able to confidently operate the tool when it matters. In addition, also go through your presentation whilst projecting the speaker view. This way you can guarantee a more fluent presentation and fill in missing or insufficient notes.

2. Designing effective presentation notes

To ensure your notes are effective, keep them concise and to the point so you can access them quickly and easily during the presentation. Avoid long paragraphs and instead focus on bullet points that summarize the main ideas and important details .

By highlighting key terms or using abbreviations , you can make your notes easier to read. Your notes should also be large enough. To adjust the size of notes and previews, simply drag the edges of the relevant elements until they reach the desired size.

Be sure to structure your notes well to support the flow of your presentation and ensure a smooth transition between slides.

3. Managing time and breaks during the presentation

The integrated timeline allows you to always keep track of time during the presentation. To make the best use of your time, it is important to plan your presentation carefully and include breaks, if necessary, to give your audience time to process the information.

Be sure to use pauses deliberately, for example, to answer questions or emphasize important points. Also use the time display to keep track of your presentation speed so you don’t speak too fast or too slow to keep your audience’s attention.

This way, you guarantee a well-structured and engaging presentation that is both informative and enjoyable for your audience.

4. Integration of interactive elements

It’s no secret that interactivity in presentations helps keep the audience’s attention . Speaker View in PowerPoint offers the possibility to insert media and interactive elements into your presentation to make it more visually appealing and interesting.

For example, you can integrate videos, audio clips, animations, and interactive polls . Use the Speaker View to control the flow of media playback and make sure everything works smoothly.

For more ideas on how to make your presentations interactive, see the article “ Interactive presentations “.

5. Updating slides

PowerPoint presenter view allows you to update slides during your presentation. Dies This is really useful if you’ re in a team working on your presentation and changes are still being made, possibly right up to the last minute. To activate this setting, go to Set Up Slide Show from the Slide Show tab and select Keep slides updated .

Pro tip: Use shortcuts during your presentation

Shortcuts are keyboard combinations that allow you to quickly access certain PowerPoint functions. Here are five useful shortcuts which can simplify your presentations, especially in presenter view:

• Fade to the next slide by pressing the Enter key or the right or down arrow keys .
• To go back to the previous slide, press either the up or left arrow key .
• To jump to the last slide of your presentation, press the End key .
• If you want to skip slides during your presentation, press the slide number on your keyboard + Enter .
• To make your screen appear white or black, select either W or the comma key for a white screen and B or the period key for a black screen . These functions can be especially helpful when you want to make sure that the audience’s entire attention is on you and not the screen.

For more useful shortcuts to make working with PowerPoint easier, feel free to check out our blog .

Use PowerPoint presenter view for better presentations

Presenter view makes it much easier for you to present and navigate your presentation. Thanks to many useful features, you can make your presentation more fluid and hold your audience’s attention.

Feel free to contact us at [email protected] with any questions about presenter view and PowerPoint in general. We’ll help you out.

Are you looking for visually supportive and professionally designed slide templates? Feel free to have a look around our store. Here we have numerous slides prepared for you to download on a wide variety of (business) topics. Take a look today! ► To the store

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Preview a slide show in PowerPoint

• By Belinda Anderson
• 15 August 2014
• Updated: 26 February 2024

Many people use Microsoft PowerPoint to share information with an audience. It’s important to check your presentation during development, to ensure the formatting, layout, and other elements appear as intended. Learn how to preview a slide show correctly in PowerPoint to adjust content and layout throughout development and utilise navigation tools for a efficient preesentation.

Believe it or not, I’ve witnessed presentations where the presenter displayed their entire slideshow using the normal view within PowerPoint. This means the audience could see the PowerPoint window, future slides, and notes. The active slide thereore only occupied a fraction of the screen space compared to being displayed in slideshow mode. Slideshow mode offers a full-screen view and convenient slideshow tools.

Let’s have a look at how to run a presentation in slideshow mode.

• Open Microsoft PowerPoint .
• Locate and open an existing presentation.
• Select the Slide Show tab from the Ribbon.
• From the ribbon, you may choose to run the slideshow From Beginning or From Current Slide :

• I am a huge fan of keyboard shortcuts, and you can easily run your presentation using just the shortcut keys. To view the presentation From Beginning , you can use the keyboard shortcut key which is F5 on the keyboard.
• To run From Current Slide using a shortcut key, press Shift + F5 .
• Slideshow mode will now begin which displays your presentation in full-screen view. The Ribbon and other features of the PowerPoint window will disappear:

• To move through the slides you can either: click the left mouse button , press the spacebar on the keyboard or use the arrows on your keyboard.
• To exit slide show mode press the Esc key on the keyboard OR right mouse click anywhere within the slide show presentation and select End Show

Slide Show Tools

PowerPoint provides several slide show tools you can use during a presentation. These tools help to make your presentation smooth and professional.

The Slide Show tools appear in the bottom left corner of the presentation window, and give you direct access to features such as navigation using the Previous and Next buttons, pen/pointer tools, navigation, zoom options, enable captions/subtitles, recording options, plus a host of other options via the ellipsis (…) button.

Previous or Next buttons

These buttons are self explanatory and will allow you to navigate through each slide in the presentation. You can also use the left and right arrow buttons on the keyboard to do the same thing. These are especially helpful if you have moved to the next slide and an audience member asks a question related to the previous slide, you can quickly press the Previous button and it will take you back to the slide to answer the question.

Pen or pointer tools

The pen button allows you to choose from a few different options that will change the cursor into a pointing tool. You can choose between Laser Pointer , Pen or Highlighter . There is also the option to change the colour of the pen or highlighter. This allows you to annotate directly onto individual slides and allows interaction with the audience such as brainstorming ideas which you can annotate onto the slide.

There is an option to Erase all ink on slide or you can use the Erase tool manually yourself to remove individual annotation ink.

With any live presentation you may find yourself answering some Q&A questions or maybe an audience member asks a question which relates back to one of the earlier slides. Rather than having to move back through the slide show one slide at a time, you may want to jump back in one go. Using the navigation button you can see an overview of all slides which then allows you to click and navigate back to any specific slide, at any time.

Let’s say you have slides which have specific bullet points or specific information in them. Maybe you want your audience to focus on a specific part of a slide, allowing them to block out the remaining information. The Zoom button provides you with an active section on the screen which you can move to any spot on the slide. Once you click, the section will be zoomed in automatically and blocks out the remaining information on the slide.

Once you are finished, you can press the Esc key and it will return back to the normal view.

Captions/Subtitles

PowerPoint provides a built-in captioning function that automatically begins listening to any narration happening at the time and translates that voice to text subtitles. The subtitals are displayed at the bottom of the slide show view by default. You can change the positioning of the subtitles using the ellipsis (…) button within the Slide show tools area.

More Slide Show Tools

If you click the ellipsis (…) button in the bottom left corner you will see a menu displayed with additional options. These additional tools include the ability to enable Presenter View, turn the screen black or white, arrow options (do you want the cursor to be hidden?), subtital settings (positioning of the subtitals), camera settings, access to Help and the ability to End show.

I hope this information has helped you to be able to run your presentation in slide show mode and use keyboard shortcuts where possible.

• PowerPoint , Presentation , presenting , Slide show
• Microsoft PowerPoint

2 Responses

how do i have the present slide showing on lap top with a side bar of next slide so i know what is next

This is known as Presenter View . To enable this simply go to the Slide Show tab on the Ribbon. You will see the checkbox to Use Presenter View , tick the box. Run the Slide Show and you will see the Presenter View which gives you a preview of each slide, a preview of the next slide and will also show you any notes you’ve made for each slide to use as a guide on what you would like to say. If you need assistance in creating Speaker notes, check out my post for information. How to add speaker notes in PowerPoint .

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Home Blog PowerPoint Tutorials How to Work with Presenter View in PowerPoint

How to Work with Presenter View in PowerPoint

Not all presenters have excellent memory recall or the ability to speak flawlessly to the audience without any cues. However, many of them are good at hiding it by using Presenter View in PowerPoint. It is a presentation mode that enables the presenter to hide speaker notes and presentation controls from the audience while leveraging the various handy features offered by PowerPoint.

How to Use Presenter View in PowerPoint

To start using Presenter View, ensure it’s enabled before you begin your slideshow. If you are new to this feature, we recommend using this option to familiarize yourself with the various navigation options for this presentation mode. This might also be helpful if the PowerPoint templates you are accustomed to using might have animations that you might want to preview in this mode to understand when to give the next visual cue.

How to Enable Presenter View in PowerPoint

To enable PowerPoint presenter view, go to the SlideShow tab and make sure the Use Presenter View option is enabled. This will ensure that you can access Presenter View when you switch your slides to SlideShow mode.

Adjust Display Settings

You can swap between the presenter view and slideshow mode or duplicate the slideshow to exit the Presenter View from the Display Settings menu from the top toolbar.

Navigate Slides in Presenter View

Like any standard PowerPoint presentation in SlideShow mode, you can navigate between slides by using the arrow keys or with a presentation remote. Presenter View also provides slide navigation buttons to move the slides back and forth.

View Taskbar in Presenter View

The Show Taskbar option at the top enables viewing the taskbar. This can be helpful if you require using the taskbar, such as to view your battery charge, see the time, enable or disable another app from the taskbar menu, etc.

Reset or Pause the Timer

Once you start your presentation in Presenter View, a timer starts showing how much time you have spent in slideshow mode. This is an excellent way to understand how much time you have consumed for your session and to keep an eye out for good timekeeping. You can also hit Pause or reset the timer anytime.

Change the Size of the Speaker Notes

How to view notes in PowerPoint while presenting? If you have any speaker notes added to your slides, they will appear in Presenter View on your screen. You can increase or reduce the size of the text via the two options at the bottom of the speaker notes pane.

Using Annotation Tools in Presenter View

PowerPoint annotation tools can be accessed from the bottom toolbar in Presenter View. The Pen and Laser Pointer Tools button gives you access to the pen, ink colors, laser pointer, and eraser and also allows you to show or hide the mouse pointer via Arrow Options .

View All Slides in Presenter View

If you need to go back and forth to find a relevant slide for an ongoing discussion or query during your presentation, you can view all slides in Presenter View via the See all slides option.

Zoom Slides using Presenter View

PowerPoint’s Zoom feature lets presenters quickly pick a portion of the slide to zoom into. Presenter View allows you to leverage this feature by instantly selecting a portion of the slide to enlarge it after selecting Zoom into the slide option. To exit the Zoom mode or hit the Esc key.

Black or Unblack SlideShow

Sometimes, you might want to turn the screen blank for a while, such as during a mid-presentation break. The Black or Unblack SlideShow option blanks the slides for your audience while continuing to show you all navigation options via Presenter View.

Toggle Subtitles in Presenter View

One of the most revolutionary features introduced by Microsoft for PowerPoint over the past decade has been Live captions. This feature enables subtitles by converting speech to text as you present. You can toggle Live subtitles on or off while in presenter view to help your audience read what you speak.

Toggle Camera in Presenter View

Like subtitles, you can also toggle the camera on or off in Presenter View.

End Slideshow in Presenter View

There are different ways to end or exit a SlideShow from Presenter View. You can hit the Esc key or click End Slide Show . Similarly, you can click the three dots at the bottom and select End Show .

More Slideshow Options

Other than the various visibility prominent menus available to navigate, annotate, and present your slides, you can also find a few additional options via More slideshow options , which are accessible via the three dots at the bottom toolbar. These include adjusting the position of the subtitles, turning your screen white or black, ending the slideshow, etc.

How to Use Presenter View on a Single Screen

While Presenter View can be enabled to work with dual monitors, you can also use Presenter View on a single monitor with remote meeting apps like Zoom. A simple method for switching to Presenter View on a single monitor is to click the three dots ( More slideshow options ) at the bottom in SlideShow mode and select Show Presenter View .

You can also switch to Presenter View on a single monitor anytime using the ALT+F5 hotkey.

The presenter can easily manage a PPT in presentation mode, with the utility to view speaker notes, annotate or zoom slides, toggle subtitles or camera on or off, and keep your audience engaged via better slideshow management. However, if you’re new to this presentation mode, a bit of practice might help you avoid confusion when presenting before an audience in Presenter View for the first few times.

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How to use Presenter View in PowerPoint

• Categories: PowerPoint productivity , Presentation skills
• Comments: 1

Think of PowerPoint’s Presenter View like the cockpit of an aeroplane (or airplane for our American readers!). Like an experienced pilot, you have all the controls you need at your fingertips when you’re navigating your slides, whether you’re presenting online or in person, helping you give a seamless presentation and leave your audience seriously impressed.

Presenter View in PowerPoint works best if you have two monitors. On one monitor, you can display your slides for your audience to see. On the other, you have your own private view (which isn’t visible to your audience), where you can see your notes and the upcoming slide while you’re presenting.

How to start using Presenter View in PowerPoint:

– Open your presentation. – Select Slide Show in the top ribbon. – Make sure Presenter View is selected in the Monitors section. – Choose from the dropdown menu which monitor you want your presentation to appear on. (Presenter View will automatically appear on whichever monitor you don’t choose.) – When you’re ready to start presenting, click From Beginning in the Start Slide Show section of the PowerPoint ribbon, or click the Slide Show icon in the bottom right of the screen, or hit the Alt + F5 keys on your keyboard to start your presentation in Presenter View.

PowerPoint Presenter View’s most useful features (by number!):

• This is your current slide. This shows you what your audience can see. This should be the same content that is displayed on your other monitor. The timer in the top-left corner lets you keep an eye on how long you’ve spent on the slide so far, helping you to pace your presentation. You can pause or reset the timer using the icons to the right.
• Here you can see your speaker notes. While we don’t generally recommend that you read out your speaker notes like a script (because it can make you sound like a monotonous robot and make your audience disengage very quickly), it can be useful to have some prompts in the speaker notes so that you know what happens with each mouse click and so that you don’t forget the key points on each slide. You can use the font icons in the bottom left of this panel to make your speaker notes larger or smaller.
• The tracker shows you how far through your presentation you are. Click the forward or back arrows to navigate to your next or previous animation. Hitting the forward or back keys on your keyboard will do the same thing.
• This is a preview of your next animation or next slide. This shows you what’s coming up next, which helps you to transition seamlessly from one slide to another.
• The Pen and laser pointer:  This allows you to write on or highlight a particular part of your slide as you present. Adding ink annotations while you’re presenting won’t change your original slides – you can choose whether to keep or discard your annotations when you end your slide show.
• The See all slides tool: Click this to view thumbnails of all the slides in your presentation without your audience seeing. This means you can jump straight to a specific slide without flicking through all the slides in between.
• The Zoom tool:  Use this to magnify a specific part of your slide. This is handy if you need to draw your audience’s attention to a particular detail.
• The Black or un-black tool:  Use this to blank out the screen the audience sees. This is helpful whenever you want to release your audience’s attention from the slide content and back to you (e.g., during a Q&A). You can choose whether you want the blank screen to be black or white by clicking on the More slide show options icon at the far-right end of the toolbar.
• Toggle subtitles:  Use this to turn automated subtitles on or off. You can adjust subtitle settings (such as language and where the subtitles appear on your slide) by clicking on the More slide show options icon.
• Click Show taskbar to open another program on your private monitor. This can be useful if you need to pull up another document without changing what your audience sees.
• Select Display settings to swap the monitors your slides and Presenter View appear on.
• Click End slide show when you’ve finished presenting. Hitting the Esc key on your keyboard will also close Slide Show mode and Presenter View.

And there you have it! Now you know everything there is to know about PowerPoint’s Presenter View. Give it a try next time you present – you might find it helps you to navigate and deliver your slides more confidently.

And for more tips on presenting, check out our ULTIMATE guide to presentation skills .

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The Presenter's Guide to Nailing Your Next PowerPoint

Updated: July 27, 2022

Published: February 11, 2021

Have a presentation coming up that involves PowerPoint slides? Creating the content and design for a new presentation can be a daunting task.

Between outlining, deciding on a design, filling it out, and finalizing the details, it's not uncommon for a few questions to pop up.

Where's the best place to start? Are some steps better to take before others? How can you make sure you aren't missing anything? And how on earth do you master those essential -- yet slightly technical -- design tricks that can take a presentation from good to great?

We're here to make the process a little easier for you. We've talked to some of the best presenters at HubSpot and have included their tips throughout this blog.

With the following tips in your arsenal, you'll be able to navigate PowerPoint much more fluidly and give a standout presentation that'll leave your audience wanting more.

How to Structure a Powerpoint Presentation

1. decide on a working title and the main takeaways..

Beyond picking a topic, your first step should be coming up with a working title for your presentation. A working title is more specific than a topic: Think "How the Right Nutrition Can Strengthen Your Kids' Bones" instead of "Raising Healthy Kids." Keep in mind that a compelling presentation title is much like a compelling blog post title : short, accurate, and valuable.

Once you've got your working title, make a list of the main takeaways of your presentation to begin to give it some structure. This'll help you stay focused when writing your outline and elaborating on those sections.

Aja Frost, the Head of English SEO at HubSpot, says, "I try to structure my presentations around a story. Not only does this make the presentation more memorable and engaging, it's also easier to figure out which information is relevant."

To do this, Frost says to pick a protagonist. She adds, "It might be your team, your audience, your customer.... Then, identify the rising action, problem, climax, and falling action. It's just like grade school. This structure works whether you're talking about an accomplishment, a challenge, a big question—anything, really."

2. Create a short text outline with your audience in mind.

Once you have your main takeaways and your story in mind, it's time to begin outlining the content of your presentation in more detail, while keeping your specific audience in mind. A presentation on any topic should sound different if you're speaking to an audience of college students versus an audience of investors, for example. The tone, words, design, and delivery of your presentation should all cater to your specific audience for maximum impact.

Ask yourself: What do your audience members already know? What new information can you teach them? What are they expecting from your presentation? What's going to be interesting to them? What will keep them focused and engaged? Then, make choices during every stage of the presentation process accordingly.

Justin Champion, a content professor at HubSpot, says, "Before diving into a presentation, I create an outline of how it'll flow. I do this by creating an intro (what they're going to learn), the body (what they're learning), and finish with a conclusion (recap what they just learned) I use bullet point slide a lot for talking points I can expand on. Pro tip: use animations to guide the story. For example, instead of showing all the bullets at once, click through to each via animation."

3. Formulate your content as a narrative, if possible.

This may not apply for more formal presentation that have rigid structures (like performance reports), but for presentations that have more flexibility, presenting your content as a narrative can be much more compelling.

Stories appeal to people's emotional side in ways that information, facts, and figures can't. They help you relate to your audience -- and in turn, they'll make you and your message far more interesting to your audience. They also help make complicated concepts more easily understandable to your audience, who may not share the same experience level or work in the same industry.

Kyle Jepson, a senior professor at HubSpot, says, "Since I’m an educator, I always structure my presentations around the learning outcomes I want to achieve. If there are three things I want my listeners to understand at the end of the presentation, I’ll have three sections. Whenever possible, I put some sort of interactive element at the end of each section to assess their understanding. In a virtual event, this might be a poll or a question for people to respond to in the chat. In an in-person setting, workshop activities or small-group discussions work well."

4. Collect data and examples.

While sweeping statements can help you set the stage, supporting those statements with evidence will make your argument more interesting and credible. Data and examples give your argument content, and people will understand what you're saying much better.

But don't just slap random stats on your slides and expect to "wow" your audience. Be sure your data comes from a reputable source and that you're presenting it in a way that's easy to understand, like through accurate charts and graphs.

Finally, don't overwhelm your audience with too much data. According to psychologist George Miller , we can only remember approximately five to nine bits of information in our short-term memory at any given time. Keep that in mind as you collect your evidence.

5. Engage with your audience.

During a presentation, it's important to connect with your audience. But how can you do that when you're just talking at them?

Anni Kim, an INBOUND professor at HubSpot, says, "Staying engaged during a virtual presentation is tough, so provide plenty of opportunities for participation. You should add a slide at the beginning that points out how people can take advantage of the chat and ask questions throughout the presentation."

Once you've set the expectations, keep up on the chat and answer questions as they arise.

Now that you have a structure in mind, you'll start to write the content. Below, we'll give tips for how to start and end your presentation.

How to Start a Powerpoint Presentation

1. start with a story..

Not to be repetitive, but storytelling is one of the best ways to capture your audience's attention in general. Presentations are no different. Starting with a hook is a great way to get your audience invested in your content.

Champion says, "The best way to start a presentation is with an interesting story that connects to the content. A great way to keep you audience engaged is to make the content interesting."

2. Be yourself.

On the other hand, while you want to tell a story, you also want your audience to connect with you as the presenter.

Jepson says, "During the introduction, I think one of the most important things to do is to set expectations for your style as a presenter. You don't always need to start with a joke or a story. Start out by being you, and then keep being you for as long as you’re on stage."

3. Include surprising or unusual information at the beginning.

While you'll most likely use a standard approach with session title, presenter's bio, and an agenda, you don't want your audience to get bored.

Jepson adds "I think the standard approach (session title, presenter’s bio, agenda) is pretty effective except that it’s usually super boring. I try to include the standard information but sprinkle in things that are surprising or unusual."

Some examples include:

• Adding a photo of your family on the About Me slide. "A lot of presenters put a picture of themselves on their About Me slide. But I think that’s silly because I’m standing right there," Jepson says. "If people don’t know what I look like, they will by the end of the presentation! So I’ve started putting a picture of my wife and kids on that slide and saying something sweet or silly about that."
• Asking people to use their phones. "A lot of in-person presentations start with a request to silence cell phones," Jepson comments. "Sometimes I’ll do the opposite and say something like, 'Before we get started, I want you all to pull out your phones. You probably think I’m going to ask you to silence them. But I’m not. I’m here from HubSpot, and I’m here to help you however I can. So if there’s anyone from your team who might have questions or need help from a HubSpotter, I want you to send them a message and tell them to send their questions to you before we get to the Q&A section of presentation. To give you time to do this, I’m going to send a text to my wife to let her know I made it here safely.' And then I’ll literally pull out my phone and send a text message on stage."

Now that you've structured your post and have ironed out the details of your introduction, it's time to work on the end of the presentation.

How to End a Powerpoint Presentation

1. recap what the audience has learned..

First and foremost, the end of your presentation should tie everything together.

Champion adds, "Recap what they just learned, explain next steps based on learnings, and offer any associated resources to continue learning."

This will help people remember the content and give them resources to learn more or reach out if they have questions.

2. Q&A.

Another great way to end a presentation is with a Q&A.

Jepson remarks, "I always end with Q&A. The only tricky thing about that is knowing how to cut it off if you’re getting more questions than you have time to answer or if you aren’t getting any questions at all. In both of those situations, I do essentially the same: I cut it off and tell people to come talk to me individually."

For in-person meetings, Jepson will tell the audience to come find him after the presentation to ask more questions. However, for virtual meetings, he'll let people know how to reach him, whether that's via LinkedIn or email.

3. Call to action.

Calls to action are an important component of any piece of content and presentations are no different. What do you want your audience to do with this information?

In your recap, include actionable ways for your audience to incorporate your information into their day-to-day (if applicable). You can also let people know to reach out to you with questions so they know the next steps in case they want to discuss the presentation further.

Now that you have an idea of what you're going to be talking about and how you'll be laying it out, it's time to open up a new PowerPoint presentation and apply those basic design elements.

Outlining Your PowerPoint Design

1. pick a color scheme..

Before you begin translating your text outline into PowerPoint, you'll want to start by adding some very basic design elements to your PowerPoint slides. First, choose a color scheme -- one that has enough contrast between colors to make colors stand out. Whether you decide to use two, three, or four different colors in your presentation is up to you, but certain color combinations go together better than others. Read the sections on creating color schemes in this blog post to figure out a good color combination.

Image Source

2. Design your slide backgrounds.

In PowerPoint, less is more. You don’t ever want to let the design distract from your message. But at the same time, you want to get more creative than a plain, white background -- even if you're going for a very simple design.

The three main ways to add a background design to a PowerPoint presentation are: 1) to use a predesigned template from PowerPoint; 2) to create a custom background using a solid color; or 3) to create a custom background using an image. Here's how to do each of those things.

(We also have a few general PowerPoint templates available for download here , which come with a series of videos to teach you some basic PowerPoint creation tips.)

How to Browse Predesigned Templates in PowerPoint

PowerPoint comes with a series of predesigned templates to choose from.

To browse these templates on a Mac: Click on the slide or slides you want to add the background to. Then, click the "Themes" tab at the top of the screen.

You can either scroll through your options up there, or you can access the themes gallery in a bigger window by hovering your mouse over the theme previews and clicking the dropdown arrow that appears below them.

Right-click the background style that you want. To apply the background style to the selected slides, click "Apply to Selected Slides." To apply the background style to all of the slides in your presentation, click "Apply to All Slides."

To browse these templates on a PC: Click on the slide or slides you want to add the background to. Then, click the "Design" tab at the top of the screen. In the "Background" group, click the arrow next to "Background Styles" to open up the theme gallery.

Pro Tip: You can also apply any PowerPoint template you already have as a theme, even if it doesn't show up in the theme gallery. To do that, click the "Browse Themes" option you'll find at the bottom of the dropdown themes gallery, and navigate to wherever the given presentation, template, or theme is located on your computer. Then, click "Apply."

How to Create a Custom Background Using a Solid Color

Want your slide background to be a simple, solid color? The steps to do this are almost identical on a Mac and a PC.

Simply right-click the slide(s) you want to add a background color to, then click "Format Background." In the window that appears, click "Fill" and then "Solid." Notice you can also adjust the gradient or make the background a pattern. Click "Apply" at the bottom to apply the changes.

How to Create a Custom Background Using an Image

Sometimes, making the slide background a high-definition image can really make that slide pop. It also encourages you to cut down on text so that only a few keywords complement the image. PowerPoint makes it easy to create a custom background using an image you own.

First, choose your image. Size matters here: Be sure it's high resolution so that it can fill your slide without becoming blurry or distorted. Here are the 17 best free stock photo sites to help you find some large, great quality images.

To create a custom background using an image on a Mac: Click the slide that you want to add a background picture to. To select multiple slides, click a slide and then press and hold CTRL while you click the other slides.

Next, click the "Themes" tab at the top of your screen. In the "Theme Options" group, click "Background," then "Format Background."

In the window that appears, click "Fill," then "Picture or Texture." To insert a picture from a file, click "Choose Picture..." and then locate and double-click the picture you want to insert. If you want to use this picture as a background for just the slides you selected, click "Apply." If you want to use the picture as a background for all the slides in your presentation, click "Apply to All."

To create a custom background using an image on a PC: Click the slide that you want to add a background picture to. To select multiple slides, click a slide and then press and hold CTRL while you click the other slides.

Next, click the "Design" tab at the top of your screen. In the "Background" group, click "Background Styles," then "Format Background."

In the window that appears, click "Fill," then "Picture or texture fill." To insert a picture from a file, click "File" and then locate and double-click the picture you want to insert. If you want to use this picture as a background for just the slides you selected, click "Close." If you want to use the picture as a background for all the slides in your presentation, click "Apply to All."

Filling In the Content

1. fill in the text on your slides using concise language..

Your slides are there to support your speech, not replace it. If your slides contain too much information -- like full sentences or (gasp) paragraphs -- then your audience members won't be able to help but read the slides instead of listening to you. Plus ... that's boring. Instead, use slides to enhance keywords and show visuals while you stand up there and do the real work: telling a story and describing your data.

When it comes to your slide text, focus on the main phrases of a bullet point, and cover details verbally. We recommend using up to three bullet points per slide and making any text as simple and concise as possible. A good rule of thumb is this: If you're using more than two lines per slide or per idea, then you've used too much text. Depending on the type of presentation, two lines might even be a little text-heavy.

Are you planning on sending your slides to your audience afterward? If you're concerned about putting enough information on the slides for people to understand your presentation when they go back to it later, you can always add little details into the slide notes in PowerPoint. You can find the Notes pane at the bottom of your PowerPoint screen, right below your slides. Click and drag the edge of the pane to make it larger or smaller.

2. Brainstorm your final title with someone else.

Once all your content is there, you're ready to finalize your title. First, refine your working title as best you can on your own. Is it compelling and interesting enough to engage your audience from the very start? Does it accurately reflect your presentation?

Next -- and this is important -- connect with someone else to brainstorm the final title together. Read this blog post for a helpful walkthrough on writing a great title and title brainstorming with others.

Filling In Your PowerPoint Design

1. choose a font that's easy to read..

Choose either one font to use throughout your presentation, or two (one for your headers and one for your body text) that contrast each other well. Here's a list of 35 beautiful fonts you can download for free to get you started.

If you decide on two fonts, your header font should be bold and eye-catching, and your body text font should be simple and easy to read. (For more guidance on what fonts work best together, take a look at this visual guide .)

2. Embed your font files.

Fonts changing from one computer to another is one of the most common problems PowerPoint presenters have -- and it can really mess up your presentation and flow. What's actually happening in this case is not that the fonts are changing; it's that the presentation computer just doesn’t have the same font files installed .

If you’re using a PC and presenting on a PC, then there is a smooth workaround for this issue. When you involve Mac systems, the solution is a bit rougher.

On a PC: When you save your PowerPoint file, click "Save As" and then "Save Options." Then, select the "Embed TrueType fonts" check box and press "OK." Now, your presentation will keep the font file and your fonts will not change when you move computers (unless you give your presentation on a Mac).

On a Mac: In PowerPoint for Mac, there's no option to embed fonts within the presentation. So unless you use ubiquitous typefaces like Arial or Tahoma, your PowerPoint is likely going to encounter font changes on different computers. The best way to avoid this is to save the final version of your presentation slides as JPEGs, and then insert those JPEGs onto your PowerPoint slides. In other words, make each slide a JPEG picture of your slide. (Note that the file size of your PowerPoint will increase if your presentation includes a lot of JPEGs.)

Mac users can easily drag and drop the JPEGs into PowerPoint. If you don't use actions in your presentation, then this option works especially well.

If you want your presentation to appear "animated," then you'll need to do a little tinkering. All you need to do is save JPEGs of each "frame" of the animation. Then, in your final presentation, you'll just display those JPEGs in the order you'd like the animation to appear. While you'll technically have several new slides in place of one original one, your audience won't know the difference.

If you're a Mac user and want to use this option, then be sure to add this to your checklist as the final step.

3. Adjust the font sizes.

Once you've chosen your font, you can start playing around with font size. Carefully choose the font sizes for headers and text, and consistently use the same font face and sizes on all your slides to keep things clean and legible. Be sure your font is big enough so even the audience members in the way back of the room can read them.

4. Adjust line and character spacing.

The biggest PowerPoint no-no is using too much text on a slide. The most effective slides use text sparingly and present it in a way that's easy to read. One trick to make text more legible without changing the font size or layout is to increase or decrease the space between each line and each letter.

To adjust line spacing:

Select the text you'd like to adjust. On the "Home" tab, in the "Paragraph" group, click "Line Spacing" and choose "Line Spacing Options." In the Paragraph dialog box's "Spacing" section, click the "Line Spacing" dropdown list and choose "Exactly." In the "At" text box, adjust the value accordingly. Click "OK" to save your changes.

To adjust character spacing:

Select the text you want to change. Then, on the "Home" tab, find and click the "Font" button." Choose "Character Spacing Options" from the dropdown menu. Adjust spacing as needed.

5. Add images.

Great visual cues can have a huge impact on how well your audience understands your message. Using gorgeous images in a slide presentation is the perfect way to keep things interesting.

It's important, though, that you don't use images to decorate. This is a very common mistake. Remember: Images are meant to reinforce or complement your message, but they can be distracting. Focus on finding high resolution images so that they look good when expanded without becoming blurry or distorted.

If you don't have your own images to use, check out our roundup of the 17 best free stock photo sites .

Pro Tip: If you're finding that the background of an image is distracting, you can actually remove it before putting it into your presentation directly inside PowerPoint -- no Photoshop required. Read this blog post for instructions .

6. Use multimedia, but sparingly.

Using multimedia in your presentation, like video and audio, can be an effective way to capture your audience's attention and encourage retention of your message. In most cases, it's best to avoid using more than one or two video or audio clips so you don't detract from your talk or your message.

PowerPoint lets you either link to video/audio files externally, or embed the media directly in your presentation. You should embed these files if you can, but if you use a Mac, you cannot actually embed the video. We'll get to that in a second.

PC users: Here are two great reasons to embed your multimedia:

• Embedding allows you to play media directly in your presentation. It'll look much more professional than switching between windows.
• Embedding also means that the file stays within the PowerPoint presentation, so it should play normally without extra work (except on a Mac).

Mac users: You need to be extra careful about using multimedia files. You'll always need to bring the video and/or audio file with you in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation. It’s best to only insert video or audio files once the presentation and the containing folder have been saved on a portable drive in their permanent folder. You can also record voiceovers for your presentation or hire a voice actor through Voice123 .

If your presentation is going to be played on a Windows computer, then Mac users need to make sure their multimedia files are in WMV format . That can get complicated, so if you want to use PowerPoint effectively, consider using the same operating system for designing and presenting no matter what (if that's something you can control).

7. Design your title slide.

The title of your presentation is often the first impression it gives off -- especially if it's going to be on display as people file in to your presentation -- so it's important to put some time and careful thought into its design.

Here are 20 layout ideas for PowerPoint title slides from Chris Lema :

8. Add any consistent elements, like your company logo.

There's a reason this is at the end. If you add things like your logo that you want to be in the same place on every slide, any adjustments you make to individual slides could slightly alter the alignment ... and you'll have to go back and adjust them all over again.

Preparing For the Presentation

1. review and edit your slides..

Spend some time on your own flipping through your slides while practicing your talk. Make sure you can check all of the following off the list:

• Your slides flow well and align with your talk.
• Your slides are free of all grammatical, formatting, or design errors.
• Your multimedia files work.
• You've double-checked any mathematical calculations you made yourself.
• You've properly attributed any statistics, data, quotes, ideas, etc. to the original source.
• You've double-checked you're actually allowed to use the photos/images you used . (Don't skip this step. Here's a cautionary tale about internet copyright law .)
• You're sure nothing in your presentation could potentially harm any of your partners, stakeholders, audience members, or your company.
• You've checked with a friend that nothing in your presentation might offend certain people in your audience -- or, if so, that it's worth it.

2. Know your slides inside out.

The best presenters don't read off your slides, so it's important to prepare and practice your presentation ahead of time. You never want to be the person finalizing your talk or presentation half an hour before an event ... that's just poor planning. Plus, what if the projector fails and you have to give your talk without slides? It can happen, and if does, you'll be incredibly happy you spent so much time preparing.

3. Practice using "presenter view."

Depending on the venue, you might have a presenter's screen available to you in addition to the main projected display that your audience can see. PowerPoint has a great tool called "Presenter View," which includes an area for notes, a timer/clock, a presentation display, and a preview of the next slide.

Make sure "Presenter View" is turned on by selecting it in the "Slide Show" tab of your PowerPoint.

To practice using "Presenter View," open the "Slide Show" tab within PowerPoint. In the "Presenter Tools" box, click "Presenter View."

4. Bring your own laptop and a backup copy of your presentation.

This isn't just a bonus step -- it's an essential one. Technology can mess up on you, and you need to be prepared. Between operating systems or even between different versions of Microsoft Office, PowerPoint can get a little wonky. One way to avoid problems is to ensure you have all the right hardware with you. Bring along your own laptop when you're presenting, just in case.

Even if you bring your laptop, but especially if you for some reason cannot, bring a backup copy of your PowerPoint file on a flash drive.

What other tips do you have for nailing PowerPoint presentations?

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Download ten free PowerPoint templates for a better presentation.

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Ultimate Guide To Use PowerPoint Presenter View | 2024 Reveals

Jane Ng • 30 Mar 2024 • 5 min read

Have you ever wondered how some presenters make their slideshows look so smooth and engaging? The secret lies in PowerPoint Presenter view – a special feature that gives PowerPoint presenters superpowers during their presentations. 

In this guide, we’ll explore how you can use PowerPoint Presenter View and its best alternative to become a confident and captivating presenter, leaving your audience inspired and wanting more. Let’s discover PowerPoint Presenter View together!

Table of Contents

• How to access presenter mode Powerpoint?
• What is PowerPoint Presenter View?

How To Use Powerpoint Presenter View

An alternative for powerpoint presenter view, in summary , frequently asked questions.

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How to access presenter mode PowerPoint?

What is powerpoint presenter view.

PowerPoint Presenter View is a feature that allows you to view your presentation in a separate window that includes the current slide, the next slide, and your speaker notes. 

This feature brings many benefits for a PowerPoint Presenter, making it easier for you to deliver a smooth and professional presentation.

• You can stay organized and on track by seeing the current slide, the next slide, and your speaker notes all in one place.
• You can control the presentation without looking at your computer, which allows you to make eye contact with your audience and deliver a more engaging presentation.
• You can use Presenter View to highlight specific parts of your slides or to provide additional information to your audience.

Step 1: To start, open your PowerPoint presentation.

Step 2: On the Slide Show tab, access Presenter View . You will see a new window that displays:

• Slide Thumbnails: Miniature previews of the slides, you can navigate through the presentation slides effortlessly.
• Notes Page: You can note and view your own notes privately on your screen without revealing them to the audience, ensuring they stay on track and well-prepared.
• Next Slide Preview: This feature displays the upcoming slide, enabling you to anticipate the content and transition seamlessly.
• Elapsed Time: Presenter View shows the time elapsed during the presentation, helping you manage their pacing effectively.
• Tools and Annotations: In some versions of PowerPoint, Presenter View offers annotation tools, such as pens or Laser pointers , Blackout screens , and Subtitles, allowing PowerPoint presenters to emphasize points on their slides during the presentation.

Step 3: To exit Presenter View, click the End Show in the top-right corner of the window.

PowerPoint Presenter View is a handy tool for presenters using dual monitors, but what if you only have a single screen at your disposal? Don’t worry! AhaSlides has got you covered! 

• AhaSlides is a cloud-based presentation software , so you can access it from any device with an internet connection. This means that you can use AhaSlides to present your slides even if you don’t have a projector or second monitor.
• AhaSlides also offers a variety of interactive features that you can use to engage and ask your audience to rate your session , such as polls , quizzes , and AhaSlides live Q&A generator . These features can help you to keep your audience’s attention and make your presentation and brainstorming discussion even more interactive.

🎉 Tips: Together with PowerPoint Presenter View, you also should utilise a classroom response system to improve engagement!

How To Use AhaSlides Backstage Feature When Presenting

Step 1:   Sign In and Open Your Presentation

• Go to the AhaSlides website and sign in to your account. If you don’t have an account yet, you can create one for free.
• Create a new presentation or upload an existing presentation.

Step 2: Click on Present With AhaSlides Backstage in Present Box

Step 3: Utilizing Backstage Tools

• Private Preview: You’ll have a private preview of your upcoming slides, enabling you to prepare for what’s ahead and stay on top of your presentation flow.
• Slide Notes: Just like PowerPoint Presenter View, Backstage allows you to note your presenter slides, ensuring you never miss a beat during your delivery.
• Seamless Slide Navigation: With intuitive navigation controls, you can effortlessly switch between slides during your presentation, maintaining fluid and polished delivery.

🎊 Follow a simple instruction provided in AhaSlides Backstage Guide .

Tips For Preview and Test Your Presentation With AhaSlides

Before stepping into your presentation, wouldn’t it be great to see how your slides appear on other devices, even without the luxury of an additional monitor?  

To utilize AhaSlides’ preview feature effectively, follow these simple steps:

• Create an account on AhaSlides and log in.
• Click on the “Preview” button in the top right corner of the screen.
• This will open a new window where you can see your slides and notes.
• On the right side of the window, you will see a preview of what your audience will see.

By using this feature, you can ensure your presentation looks stunning, guaranteeing a captivating experience for your audience regardless of how they access your content.

Whichever option presenters choose, mastering PowerPoint Presenter View or utilizing AhaSlides’ Backstage, both platforms empower speakers to become confident and captivating presenters, delivering memorable presentations that leave their audience inspired and eager for more. 

Who is the person who presents a presentation? 

The person who presents a presentation is typically referred to as the “presenter” or “speaker.” They are responsible for delivering the content of the presentation to an audience. 

What is a PowerPoint presentation coach? 

PowerPoint Presentation Coach is a feature in PowerPoint that helps you to improve your presentation skills. Presentation Coach provides you with feedback on your presentation, such as how long you are spending on each slide, how well you are using your voice, and how engaging your presentation is.

What is PowerPoint presenter view?

PowerPoint Presenter View is a special view in PowerPoint that allows the presenter to see their slides, notes, and a timer while the audience only sees the slides. This is useful for presenters because it allows them to keep track of their presentations and to make sure that they are not going over their time.

Ref: Microsoft Support

A writer who wants to create practical and valuable content for the audience

More from AhaSlides

• Web Development

How to Use Presenter View in Microsoft PowerPoint on Windows 11

Posted on 20th june 2023.

3-5 times in the article

In PowerPoint, Presenter View is a display option that allows the presenter to view the current slide, next slide, speaker notes, and a timer on their screen while the audience sees only the slide. It’s a great way to keep track of your place and time while delivering a presentation.

To use Presenter View, you’ll need two monitors: one for the presenter and one for the audience. The presenter’s monitor will show Presenter View, and the audience’s monitor will show the slides.

Here’s how to set up Presenter View:

1. Connect the second monitor to your computer.

2. Open PowerPoint and go to the Slide Show tab.

3. In the Set Up group, click Set Up Slide Show.

4. Under Display options, select the check box next to Use Presenter View.

5. Click OK.

Now, when you start your slide show, Presenter View will appear on the presenter’s monitor and the slides will appear on the audience’s monitor.

To navigate through your presentation in Presenter View:

1. Use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to move between slides.

2. Use the up and down arrow keys to scroll through the notes for each slide.

3. To end the presentation, press Esc.

When you’re giving a presentation, Presenter View is a great way to keep track of your place and time. It’s also a great way to view your speaker notes while the audience sees only the slides.

If you’re giving a presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint, you can use Presenter View to view your presentation with your speaker notes on your computer, while your audience views the slides on a separate display or projector.

To use Presenter View:

1. Connect your computer to the projector or second display.

2. Open your PowerPoint presentation.

3. Click the “Slide Show” tab.

4. Click “Set Up Show.”

5. Check the “Use Presenter View” option.

6. Click “OK.”

7. Click “From Beginning” or “From Current Slide” to start your presentation.

When you start your presentation, Presenter View will appear on your computer. Presenter View includes the following elements:

Slide preview: This area shows a preview of the next slide in your presentation.

Presentation timer: This timer keeps track of how long you’ve been presenting.

Speaker notes: This area displays your speaker notes for the current slide. You can also use the pen, highlighter, and eraser tools to annotate your notes.

Thumbnails: These small images show all of the slides in your presentation. You can click a thumbnail to jump to that slide.

Current slide: This area shows the slide that’s currently being displayed on the projector or second display.

Next slide: This area shows a preview of the next slide in your presentation.

When you’re ready to advance to the next slide, click the “Next” button in the Current Slide area or press the right arrow key on your keyboard.

To end your presentation, click the “End Show” button in the Current Slide area.

In PowerPoint, presenter view is a feature that lets you see your presentation with speaker notes on one computer (your laptop, for example), while your audience views the notes-free presentation on a different screen (like a projector connected to your laptop).

To use presenter view:

1. Connect your laptop to the projector.

5. Check the “Use Presenter View” box.

Now, when you start your slide show, your laptop will show the speaker notes while the projector shows the slide without the notes.

To advance the slides, you can use the mouse, the keyboard, or a remote control.

To advance the slides using the mouse, click on the slide you want to show.

To advance the slides using the keyboard, press the right arrow key.

To advance the slides using a remote control, click the “Forward” button.

To go back to a previous slide, you can use the mouse, the keyboard, or a remote control.

To go back to a previous slide using the mouse, click on the slide you want to show.

To go back to a previous slide using the keyboard, press the left arrow key.

To go back to a previous slide using a remote control, click the “Back” button.

If you want to use Presenter View but don’t have a second monitor, you can use PowerPoint’s built-in Presenter View on your Windows 11 computer.

1. Connect your computer to a projector or second monitor.

4. Under Show type, select Browsed by an individual (window).

5. Under Advance slides, select Use Presenter View.

6. Click OK.

When you start the slide show, PowerPoint will open two windows. One window will display the slide show on the projector or second monitor. The other window, Presenter View, will display on your computer.

Presenter View includes the current slide, the next slide, a timer, and your speaker notes. You can also use Presenter View to advance the slides, go back to previous slides, and end the slide show.

To advance the slides in Presenter View:

1. Click the Next button.

2. Press the spacebar on your keyboard.

3. Press the right arrow key on your keyboard.

4. Swipe forward on your touchpad.

To go back to a previous slide:

1. Click the Previous button.

2. Press the left arrow key on your keyboard.

3. Swipe backward on your touchpad.

To end the slide show:

1. Click the End Slide Show button.

2. Press the Esc key on your keyboard.

When you’re ready to present, click the Slide Show tab, then click From Beginning or From Current Slide.

To advance your slides, do one of the following:

On the Slide Show tab, click the Advance Slide arrow.

On the keyboard, press N for next or P for previous.

To end your slide show, do one of the following:

On the Slide Show tab, click End Show.

On the keyboard, press Esc.

If you have never used Presenter View in PowerPoint, or if you have never even heard of it, don’t worry. It’s actually very simple to use and can be a great way to make your presentations more engaging and professional.

To use Presenter View, you will need to have two monitors connected to your computer. One monitor will be for your PowerPoint presentation, and the other monitor will be for your Presenter View.

When you are ready to start your presentation, click the “Slide Show” tab at the top of the PowerPoint window. Then, click “Set Up Show.”

In the Set Up Show dialog box, select “Use Presenter View.” Then, click “OK.”

Now, when you start your presentation, your PowerPoint presentation will appear on one monitor, and your Presenter View will appear on the other monitor.

Your Presenter View will show your current slide, the next slide, your speaker notes, and a timer. It also has a few other features that can be helpful, such as the ability to jump to a specific slide, black out your screen, and more.

To learn more about using Presenter View, be sure to check out the PowerPoint help documentation.

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• Uncategorized

How to Master Your Presentations Using Presenter View in PowerPoint

Giving presentations can be nerve-wracking for many people. However, with the right preparation and tools, you can master your PowerPoint presentations and captivate your audience. One invaluable tool is Presenter View.

What is Presenter View?

Presenter View allows presenters to view speaker notes and control the presentation on one screen, while the audience sees only the slides on a separate screen ([1]).

Here are some key features of Presenter View:

• See current slide, next slide preview, speaker notes on your screen
• Navigation buttons to go between slides
• Pointer tools like laser, pen for annotations
• Timer showing elapsed time
• View all slides thumbnail previews

Using Presenter View allows you to focus on delivering a smooth presentation while discreetly keeping track of important details only visible to you.

Step 1: Set Up Dual Monitors

To use Presenter View effectively, you need two monitors – one for yourself as the presenter and one for the audience ([2]). Most modern computers support connecting two monitors.

Here’s how to set up dual monitors:

• For desktop PCs, ensure your graphics card has multiple video outputs (HDMI, DVI, VGA etc.). Connect the two monitors to these outputs.
• For laptops, connect one monitor directly to the laptop screen plus an additional external monitor into a video output.

Step 2: Enable Presenter View

Once your dual monitors are set up:

• Open PowerPoint and your presentation
• Go to the “Slide Show” tab
• Check the box for “Use Presenter View” ([3])
• Select the monitor to display your speaker notes and controls

Step 3: Practice with Presenter View

Rehearse your presentation multiple times using Presenter View to get comfortable with it. Here are some tips:

• Glance at your presenter screen periodically for slide previews and timer
• Use the annotation tools to highlight or draw attention
• Go through your speaker notes
• Adjust font sizes or layout to optimize readability

Practicing with Presenter View will help you anticipate and lead the flow of your presentation.

Step 4: Engage Your Audience

While Presenter View optimizes the presentation experience for you, don’t forget the audience! Employ public speaking best practices to deliver an engaging presentation:

• Maintain eye contact and connect with your audience
• Use natural gestures and movement around the stage
• Gauge reactions and adjust pace or content accordingly
• Pose questions to get audience involvement

An impactful presentation balances smooth delivery with an engaging, interactive element for the audience.

Step 5: Manage Unexpected Issues

Despite the best preparation, unexpected issues can still pop up during presentations. Presenter View allows you to troubleshoot problems discreetly:

• Pause or black out the slideshow briefly
• Troubleshoot technical glitches without the audience seeing
• Reorient yourself if you lose your train of thought
• Dig into your speaker notes to get back on track

By giving you more control and visibility over a presentation, Presenter View lets you handle problems smoothly.

Mastering presentations takes practice and preparation. With the right tools like Presenter View, you can deliver seamless presentations that engage your audiences.

Presenter View lets you discreetly view important details while audiences only see slides, allowing you to focus on delivering an impactful presentation. Set up dual monitors, enable the view, practice your presentation flow, interact with your audience, and troubleshoot issues without anyone noticing.

Do you have any other tips for using Presenter View effectively? Let us know in the comments!

About The Author

Vegaslide staff, related posts.

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Presentation Design
• January 22, 2024

In this beginner’s guide, you will learn step-by-step how to make a PowerPoint presentation from scratch.

While PowerPoint is designed to be intuitive and accessible, it can be overwhelming if you’ve never gotten any training on it before. As you progress through this guide, you’ll will learn how to move from blank slides to PowerPoint slides that look like these.

Table of Contents

Additionally, as you create your presentation, you’ll also learn tricks for working more efficiently in PowerPoint, including how to:

• Change the slide order
• Reset your layout
• Change the slide dimensions
• Use PowerPoint Designer
• Format text
• Format objects
• Play a presentation (slide show)

With this knowledge under your belt, you’ll be ready to start creating PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, you’ll have taken your skills from beginner to proficient in no time at all. I will also include links to more advanced PowerPoint topics.

Ready to start learning how to make a PowerPoint presentation?

Take your PPT skills to the next level

Start with a blank presentation.

Note: Before you open PowerPoint and start creating your presentation, make sure you’ve collected your thoughts. If you’re going to make your slides compelling, you need to spend some time brainstorming.

For help with this, see our article with tips for nailing your business presentation  here .

The first thing you’ll need to do is to open PowerPoint. When you do, you are shown the Start Menu , with the Home tab open.

This is where you can choose either a blank theme (1) or a pre-built theme (2). You can also choose to open an existing presentation (3).

For now, go ahead and click on the  Blank Presentation (1)  thumbnail.

Doing so launches a brand new and blank presentation for you to work with. Before you start adding content to your presentation, let’s first familiarize ourselves with the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint interface

Here is how the program is laid out:

• The Application Header
• The Ribbon (including the Ribbon tabs)
• The Quick Access Toolbar (either above or below the Ribbon)
• The Slides Pane (slide thumbnails)

The Slide Area

The notes pane.

• The Status Bar (including the View Buttons)

Each one of these areas has options for viewing certain parts of the PowerPoint environment and formatting your presentation.

Below are the important things to know about certain elements of the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint Ribbon

The Ribbon is contextual. That means that it will adapt to what you’re doing in the program.

For example, the Font, Paragraph and Drawing options are greyed out until you select something that has text in it, as in the example below (A).

Furthermore, if you start manipulating certain objects, the Ribbon will display additional tabs, as seen above (B), with more commands and features to help you work with those objects. The following objects have their own additional tabs in the Ribbon which are hidden until you select them:

• Online Pictures
• Screenshots
• Screen Recording

The Slides Pane

This is where you can preview and rearrange all the slides in your presentation.

Right-clicking on a slide  in the pane gives you additional options on the slide level that you won’t find on the Ribbon, such as  Duplicate Slide ,  Delete Slide , and  Hide Slide .

In addition, you can add sections to your presentation by  right-clicking anywhere in this Pane  and selecting  Add Section . Sections are extremely helpful in large presentations, as they allow you to organize your slides into chunks that you can then rearrange, print or display differently from other slides.

The Slide Area (A) is where you will build out your slides. Anything within the bounds of this area will be visible when you present or print your presentation.

Anything outside of this area (B) will be hidden from view. This means that you can place things here, such as instructions for each slide, without worrying about them being shown to your audience.

The  Notes Pane  is the space beneath the Slide Area where you can type in the speaker notes for each slide. It’s designed as a fast way to add and edit your slides’ talking points.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about adding, printing, and exporting your PowerPoint speaker notes, read our guide here .

Your speaker notes are visible when you print your slides using the Notes Pages option and when you use the Presenter View . To expand your knowledge and learn the ins and outs of using the Presenter View , read our guide here .

You can resize the  Notes Pane  by clicking on its edge and dragging it up or down (A). You can also minimize or reopen it by clicking on the Notes button in the Status Bar (B).

Note:  Not all text formatting displays in the Notes Pane, even though it will show up when printing your speaker notes. To learn more about printing PowerPoint with notes, read our guide here .

Now that you have a basic grasp of the PowerPoint interface at your disposal, it’s time to make your presentation.

Adding Content to Your PowerPoint Presentation

Notice that in the Slide Area , there are two rectangles with dotted outlines. These are called  Placeholders  and they’re set on the template in the Slide Master View .

To expand your knowledge and learn how to create a PowerPoint template of your own (which is no small task), read our guide here .

As the prompt text suggests, you can click into each placeholder and start typing text. These types of placeholder prompts are customizable too. That means that if you are using a company template, it might say something different, but the functionality is the same.

Note:  For the purposes of this example, I will create a presentation based on the content in the Starbucks 2018 Global Social Impact Report, which is available to the public on their website.

If you type in more text than there is room for, PowerPoint will automatically reduce its font size. You can stop this behavior by clicking on the  Autofit Options  icon to the left of the placeholder and selecting  Stop Fitting Text to this Placeholder .

Next, you can make formatting adjustments to your text by selecting the commands in the Font area and the  Paragraph area  of the  Home  tab of the Ribbon.

The Reset Command:  If you make any changes to your title and decide you want to go back to how it was originally, you can use the Reset button up in the Home tab .

Insert More Slides into Your Presentation

Now that you have your title slide filled in, it’s time to add more slides. To do that, simply go up to the  Home tab  and click on  New Slide . This inserts a new slide in your presentation right after the one you were on.

You can alternatively hit Ctrl+M on your keyboard to insert a new blank slide in PowerPoint. To learn more about this shortcut, see my guide on using Ctrl+M in PowerPoint .

Instead of clicking the New Slide command, you can also open the New Slide dropdown to see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template. Depending on who created your template, your layouts in this dropdown can be radically different.

If you insert a layout and later want to change it to a different layout, you can use the Layout dropdown instead of the New Slide dropdown.

After inserting a few different slide layouts, your presentation might look like the following picture. Don’t worry that it looks blank, next we will start adding content to your presentation.

If you want to follow along exactly with me, your five slides should be as follows:

• Title Slide
• Title and Content
• Section Header
• Two Content
• Picture with Caption

Adding Content to Your Slides

Now let’s go into each slide and start adding our content. You’ll notice some new types of placeholders.

On slide 2 we have a  Content Placeholder , which allows you to add any kind of content. That includes:

• A SmartArt graphic,
• A 3D object,
• A picture from the web,
• Or an icon.

To insert text, simply type it in or hit  Ctrl+C to Copy  and Ctrl+V to Paste  from elsewhere. To insert any of the other objects, click on the appropriate icon and follow the steps to insert it.

For my example, I’ll simply type in some text as you can see in the picture below.

Slides 3 and 4 only have text placeholders, so I’ll go ahead and add in my text into each one.

On slide 5 we have a Picture Placeholder . That means that the only elements that can go into it are:

• A picture from the web

To insert a picture into the picture placeholder, simply:

• Click on the  Picture  icon
• Find  a picture on your computer and select it
• Click on  Insert

Alternatively, if you already have a picture open somewhere else, you can select the placeholder and paste in (shortcut: Ctrl+V ) the picture. You can also drag the picture in from a file explorer window.

If you do not like the background of the picture you inserted onto your slide, you can remove the background here in PowerPoint. To see how to do this, read my guide here .

Placeholders aren’t the only way to add content to your slides. At any point, you can use the Insert tab to add elements to your slides.

You can use either the Title Only  or the  Blank  slide layout to create slides for content that’s different. For example, a three-layout content slide, or a single picture divider slide, as shown below.

In the first example above, I’ve inserted 6 text boxes, 3 icons, and 3 circles to create this layout. In the second example, I’ve inserted a full-sized picture and then 2 shapes and 2 text boxes.

The Reset Command:  Because these slides are built with shapes and text boxes (and not placeholders), hitting the  Reset button up in the  Home tab  won’t do anything.

That is a good thing if you don’t want your layouts to adjust. However, it does mean that it falls on you to make sure everything is aligned and positioned correctly.

For more on how to add and manipulate the different objects in PowerPoint, check out our step-by-step articles here:

• Using graphics in PowerPoint
• Inserting icons onto slides
• Adding pictures to your PowerPoint
• How to embed a video in PowerPoint
• How to add music to your presentation

Using Designer to generate more layouts ideas

If you have Office 365, your version of PowerPoint comes with a new feature called Designer (or Design Ideas). This is a feature that generates slide layout ideas for you. The coolest thing about this feature is that it uses the content you already have.

To use Designer , simply navigate to the  Design tab  in your Ribbon, and click on  Design Ideas .

NOTE: If the PowerPoint Designer is not working for you (it is grey out), see my troubleshooting guide for Designer .

Change the Overall Design (optional)

When you make a PowerPoint presentation, you’ll want to think about the overall design. Now that you have some content in your presentation, you can use the Design tab to change the look and feel of your slides.

For additional help thinking through the design of your presentation,  read my guide here .

A. Picking your PowerPoint slide size

If you have PowerPoint 2013 or later, when you create a blank document in PowerPoint, you automatically start with a widescreen layout with a 16:9 ratio. These dimensions are suitable for most presentations as they match the screens of most computers and projectors.

However, you do have the option to change the dimensions.

For example, your presentation might not be presented, but instead converted into a PDF or printed and distributed. In that case, you can easily switch to the standard dimensions with a 4:3 ratio by selecting from the dropdown (A).

You can also choose a custom slide size or change the slide orientation from landscape to portrait in the Custom Slide Size dialog box (B).

To learn all about the different PowerPoint slide sizes, and some of the issues you will face when changing the slide size of a non-blank presentation,  read my guide here .

 B. Selecting a PowerPoint theme

The next thing you can do is change the theme of your presentation to a pre-built one. For a detailed explanation of what a PowerPoint theme is, and how to best use it,  read my article here .

In the beginning of this tutorial, we started with a blank presentation, which uses the default Office theme as you can see in the picture below.

That gives you the most flexibility because it has a blank background and quite simple layouts that work for most presentations. However, it also means that it’s your responsibility to enhance the design.

If you’re comfortable with this, you can stay with the default theme or create your own custom theme ( read my guide here ). But if you would rather not have to think about design, then you can choose a pre-designed theme.

Microsoft provides 46 other pre-built themes, which include slide layouts, color variants and palettes, and fonts. Each one varies quite significantly, so make sure you look through them carefully.

To select a different theme, go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon, and click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Themes section .

For this tutorial, let’s select the  Frame  theme and then choose the third Variant in the theme. Doing so changes the layout, colors, and fonts of your presentation.

Note: The theme dropdown area is also where you can import or save custom themes. To see my favorite places to find professional PowerPoint templates and themes (and recommendations for why I like them), read my guide here .

C. How to change a slide background in PowerPoint

The next thing to decide is how you want your background to look for the entire presentation. In the  Variants area, you can see four background options.

For this example, we want our presentation to have a dark background, so let’s select Style 3. When you do so, you’ll notice that:

• The background color automatically changes across all slides
• The color of the text on most of the slides automatically changes to white so that it’s visible on the dark background
• The colors of the objects on slides #6 and #7 also adjust, in a way we may not want (we’ll likely have to make some manual adjustments to these slides)

Note: If you want to change the slide background for just that one slide, don’t left-click the style. Instead, right-click it and select Apply to Selected Slides .

After you change the background for your entire presentation, you can easily adjust the background for an individual slide.

Inside the Format Background pane, you can see you have the following options:

• Gradient fill
• Picture or texture fill
• Pattern fill
• Hide background

You can explore these options to find the PowerPoint background that best fits your presentation.

D. How to change your color palette in PowerPoint

Another thing you may want to adjust in your presentation, is the color scheme. In the picture below you can see the Theme Colors we are currently using for this presentation.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own color palette. By default, the Office theme includes the Office color palette. This affects the colors you are presented with when you format any element within your presentation (text, shapes, SmartArt, etc.).

The good news is that the colors here are easy to change. To switch color palettes, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab in the Ribbon
• In the Variants area, click on the  dropdown arrow  and select  Colors
• Select  the color palette (or theme colors) you want

You can choose among the pre-built color palettes from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

As you build your presentation, make sure you use the colors from your theme to format objects. That way, changing the color palette adjusts all the colors in your presentation automatically.

E. How to change your fonts in PowerPoint

Just as we changed the color palette, you can do the same for the fonts.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own font combination. By default, the Office theme includes the Office font pairing. This affects the fonts that are automatically assigned to all text in your presentation.

The good news is that the font pairings are easy to change. To switch your Theme Fonts, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Variants  area
• Select  Fonts
• Select  the font pairing you want

You can choose among the pre-built fonts from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

If you are working with PowerPoint presentations on both Mac and PC computers, make sure you choose a safe PowerPoint font. To see a list of the safest PowerPoint fonts, read our guide here .

If you receive a PowerPoint presentation and the wrong fonts were used, you can use the Replace Fonts dialog box to change the fonts across your entire presentation. For details, read our guide here .

Adding Animations & Transitions (optional)

The final step to make a PowerPoint presentation compelling, is to consider using animations and transitions. These are by no means necessary to a good presentation, but they may be helpful in your situation.

A. Adding PowerPoint animations

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust animations engine designed to power your creativity. That being said, it’s also easy to get started with basic animations.

Animations are movements that you can apply to individual objects on your slide.

To add a PowerPoint animation to an element of your slide, simply:

• Select the  element
• Go to the  Animations tab in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  animation  you want

You can add animations to multiple objects at one time by selecting them all first and then applying the animation.

B. How to preview a PowerPoint animation

There are three ways to preview a PowerPoint animation:

• Click on the Preview button in the Animations tab
• Click on the little star  next to the slide
• Play the slide in Slide Show Mode

To learn other ways to run your slide show, see our guide on presenting a PowerPoint slide show with shortcuts .

To adjust the settings of your animations, explore the options in the  Effect Options ,  Advanced Animation  and the  Timing  areas of the  Animation tab .

Note:  To see how to make objects appear and disappear in your slides by clicking a button,  read our guide here .

C. How to manage your animations in PowerPoint

The best way to manage lots of animations on your slide is with the Animation Pane . To open it, simply:

• Navigate to the  Animations tab
• Select the  Animation Pane

Inside the Animation Pane, you’ll see all of the different animations that have been applied to objects on your slide, with their numbers marked as pictured above.

Note: To see examples of PowerPoint animations that can use in PowerPoint, see our list of PowerPoint animation tutorials here .

D. How to add transitions to your PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust transition engine so that you can dictate how your slides change from one to the other. It is also extremely easy to add transitions to your slides.

In PowerPoint, transitions are the movements (or effects) you see as you move between two slides.

To add a transition to a PowerPoint slide, simply:

• Select the  slide
• Go to the  Transitions tab in the Ribbon
• In the Transitions to This Slide area, click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  transition  you want

To adjust the settings of the transition, explore the options in the  Timing  area of the Transitions tab.

You can also add the same transition to multiple slides. To do that, select them in the  Slides Pane  and apply the transition.

E. How to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview your PowerPoint transitions (just like your animations):

• Click on the Preview  button in the Transitions tab
• Click on the little star  beneath the slide number in the thumbnail view

Note:  In 2016, PowerPoint added a cool new transition, called Morph. It operates a bit differently from other transitions. For a detailed tutorial on how to use the cool Morph transition,  see our step-by-step article here .

Save Your PowerPoint Presentation

After you’ve built your presentation and made all the adjustments to your slides, you’ll want to save your presentation. YOu can do this several different ways.

To save a PowerPoint presentation using your Ribbon, simply:

• Navigate to the  File tab
•  Select  Save As  on the left
• Choose  where you want to save your presentation
• Name  your presentation and/or adjust your file type settings
• Click  Save

You can alternatively use the  Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut to save your presentation. I recommend using this shortcut frequently as you build your presentation to make sure you don’t lose any of your work.

This is the standard way to save a presentation. However, there may be a situation where you want to save your presentation as a different file type.

To learn how to save your presentation as a PDF, see our guide on converting PowerPoint to a PDF .

How to save your PowerPoint presentation as a template

Once you’ve created a presentation that you like, you may want to turn it into a template. The easiest – but not technically correct – way, is to simply create a copy of your current presentation and then change the content.

But be careful! A PowerPoint template is a special type of document and it has its own parameters and behaviors.

If you’re interested in learning about how to create your own PowerPoint template from scratch, see our guide on how to create a PowerPoint template .

Printing Your PowerPoint Presentation

After finishing your PowerPoint presentation, you may want to print it out on paper. Printing your slides is relatively easy.

To open the Print dialog box, you can either:

• Hit Ctrl+P on your keyboard
• Or go to the Ribbon and click on File and then Print

Inside the Print dialog box, you can choose from the various printing settings:

• Printer: Select a printer to use (or print to PDF or OneNote)
• Slides: Choose which slides you want to print
• Layout: Determine how many slides you want per page (this is where you can print the notes, outline, and handouts)
• Collated or uncollated (learn what collated printing means here )
• Color: Choose to print in color, grayscale or black & white

There are many more options for printing your PowerPoint presentations. Here are links to more in-depth articles:

• How to print multiple slides per page
• How to print your speaker notes in PowerPoint
• How to save PowerPoint as a picture presentation

So that’s how to create a PowerPoint presentation if you are brand new to it. We’ve also included a ton of links to helpful resources to boost your PowerPoint skills further.

When you are creating your presentation, it is critical to first focus on the content (what you are trying to say) before getting lost inserting and playing with elements. The clearer you are on what you want to present, the easier it will be to build it out in PowerPoint.

If you enjoyed this article, you can learn more about our PowerPoint training courses and other presentation resources by  visiting us here .

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

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How to Create Slides That Suit Your Superiors: 11 Tips

When you’re pitching ideas or budgets to execs in your organization, you need to deliver slides that fit those particular people just right. This checklist identifies the key considerations.

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I recently interviewed 20 of my customers, all in senior roles at Fortune 100 companies, and asked them their biggest pain point in presenting to higher-ups and even colleagues. What I heard consistently was that it can feel like Goldilocks bouncing from one option to the next, testing to figure out what’s “just right.” Does the audience want deep reports? Sparse slides? Something in between? Like … what?

Teams often come to presentation meetings with vast amounts of backup content just in case an exec wants to take a deep dive on any given point. There’s often a struggle to anticipate every direction attendees might want to go. It’s frustrating, and it’s not efficient.

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There are many ways to build slides. I’m not just talking about crafting them well versus poorly. I’m talking about all of the important decisions regarding how to organize them, how much text to use, when to lean into a chart, the best ways to use bullets and color, and whether to include an appendix with additional information. Before you make your next proposal or request of the executive team, use this list of 11 tips for your next set of slides as a guide.

Four Things You Must Have in Every Exec’s Slides

Before we drill down into the harder aspects, the ones where your executives’ tastes may vary widely, let’s quickly cover four aspects that you can consider the building blocks — the basics you should never proceed without.

Start with an executive summary. Begin the slide deck with a tight executive summary that follows a three-act structure. First, start with stating the current realities. Second, clearly state the problem or opportunity your idea addresses and its potential impact. Third, explain how your recommendation solves the problem or exploits the opportunity and the next steps you’re proposing.

Have a logical organization. The arc of the deck — the package from beginning to end — should make sense. If your audience reads only the headline of every slide, the order should be coherent and make most of the case for you. The content below each slide’s headline must support the statement made in the title. Remove everything that doesn’t support your point; as writers will tell you, you sometimes need to “kill your darlings” when you’re editing.

Begin the slide deck with a tight executive summary that follows a three-act structure.

Make it skimmable. Help your audience to quickly grasp the point without getting bogged down in details. Create a clear visual hierarchy. Guide the reader’s eye through the content: Use bold headings, bullet points, and numbered lists to break down information into digestible pieces. Highlight key takeaways or conclusions in a different color or font size to draw attention to these critical points.

Focus on concise insights. Succinct statements with clear insights are everyone’s jam. Every slide should serve a purpose and contribute directly to the decision-making process. Distill complex information. Don’t use 100 words when 20 words will nail it. If you’re having difficulty trimming, consider using company-approved AI tools to help you take out the fluff.

Five Preferences to Confirm With the Person You Want to Reach

Now we’ll delve into what your particular audience does and does not want. If you haven’t yet, start by asking the person you’re presenting to what they generally prefer. They probably know themselves well but have not been asked to articulate how they like to receive information.

Ask how dense is too dense. Some executives prefer detailed slides with comprehensive data. Others favor a more high-level approach. You’re weighing how to balance informative content with readability, ensuring that slides are not overloaded yet are sufficiently detailed to support decision-making.

Confirm the delivery format and timing. Some execs like information presented to them. Others prefer a pre-read of the material followed by a discussion. I always recommend our tool Slidedocs (I’ve written a free e-book on them), which are visual documents using both words and images. The templates help presenters organize their thoughts into a document for a pre-read or a read-along. They are designed to be skimmable and able to travel through your organization without the help of a presenter.

I’m a huge fan of pre-reads and prefer to use my time in meetings to ask questions and build alignment. If your audience didn’t review your material in advance, ask at the top of the meeting whether they would like you to present it or would prefer to read through it and then discuss it.

Find out how much data visualization they prefer. Charts, graphs, photos, and illustrations often communicate complex data more clearly than words alone. When execs can see what you’re saying, they often can better understand the impact of your idea. Does the exec want to understand exact numbers? Bar charts allow them to move their eyes across a series of specifics. Does the exec want to know the shape of a trend over time? Line charts can show the pattern. (See “Classic Charts Communicate Data Quickly.”) Some prefer charts with annotations that draw attention to what you think is the most important point. Others want to make their own conclusions from the data.

One of my clients, the CEO of a massive commercial real estate company, doesn’t want anything visualized. He prefers numbers, only in a table, and only in two colors — black and red. You might think this is archaic. But the fact that he’s clear to his teams about what he wants takes all the mystery out of how to communicate with him.

When the stakes are high, have a conceptual thinker help with diagrams and concepts. If you don’t have one on your team, and when it’s high stakes, find an internal designer to help you or hire one. You can’t afford to have the baby (your idea) thrown out with the bathwater (terrible slides).

Identify which details need spelling out. How well do the people you’re presenting to know the landscape and function of the company and products you’re talking about? For example, if your engineering team threw a slide into a deck about an issue that requires executive approval, do the execs all speak geek? Or do you need to explain the technology so that they will really understand the ask? Either eliminate internal jargon and acronyms or unpack those bits, especially if your proposal deeply involves expertise outside of the executives’ domain.

Ask whether appendices will be useful. When you’re organizing a presentation, you often troll data, read through complicated reports, and even hire external experts to figure out what’s best for the company. Do your execs want access to that supporting data? You can add a document to the end of the presentation as an appendix to show all of the data and source material. This allows the main content of the slides to remain focused and accessible while still providing comprehensive background information for those who want more.

Two Tips to Improve Your Presentation Skills

Getting materials in place is the biggest step. They will be your best tools for selling your ideas. But there are two extra areas to pay attention to as a presenter: how you handle questions and how you use every experience to improve.

Anticipate questions, and practice your answers. Before you have your meeting, gather a small team to challenge every point you make. Invite colleagues you trust to role-play as “a rapidly inquisitive exec” or “the doubting naysayer exec” so you are prepared to present your idea well. They’re gonna grill you, and practicing will help you remain unruffled when it happens.

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Ask for feedback after the presentation. Establish a feedback loop with those you presented to. Ask what worked well and how you can improve. If attendees don’t have the time, find people who have had their ideas funded and talk to them about what they did that worked. Advice and some perspective will help you nail your performance even better next time.

Empathetically understanding your audience members and how they process information, whether it’s executives or peers, sets up your ideas for success. Clarity creates efficiency. When a presentation fits just right, you’ve given your great thinking the best chance of moving through your organization and having maximum impact.

About the Author

Nancy Duarte is CEO of Duarte Inc. , a communication company in the Silicon Valley. She’s the author of six books, including DataStory: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story (Ideapress Publishing, 2019).

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• Share a link to a specific PowerPoint slide

There’s a way to link someone to view a specific slide in a PowerPoint presentaion which is a lot faster than hunting through a big slide deck.

Requirements

Link to this slide, check the share permissions, sharing settings, edit / view only / no download, or there’s another way ….

Providing a direct link to a specific part of your slideshow not only streamlines the process of receiving feedback but also enables them to locate the content you want them to review more efficiently.

PowerPoint simplifies the process with its “Link to This Slide” feature, generating a direct link that opens the file at the specific slide in your presentation.

The presentation has to be saved in cloud storage that the receiver/s can also access it.  If the presentation isn’t already saved online, modern Office will help you do that.

Launch PowerPoint presentation stored on your local drive. Next, navigate to the specific slide you wish to share. Then, right-click on the desired slide and a shortcut menu pops up. From this menu, select the option “Link To This Slide” to generate a direct link to the chosen slide within your presentation.

Selecting “Share Link To This Slide,” will prompt you to upload your presentation to OneDrive to allow sharing.

Office just dumps the file into your OneDrive account, you’ll probably want to choose a specific folder instead.

Once the presentation is saved in a cloud location, you can share it or a slide. Do that from PowerPoint on the web or modern PowerPoint for Windows/Mac. Click on the slide in the slide navigator and select the “Link To This Slide” option.

The system generates a direct link that is ready to be shared but before you copy , check what permissions you’re giving to access the presentation and to whom.

Under the link is a short note to indicate the sharing settings for the current link.  Click on Settings to change or verify the sharing. Or select the copy option, and you’ll receive a notification confirming that the link has been copied.

For more specific access privileges, go to the Settings option to customize permissions for reviewers or audience. You can choose with whom you want to share your files. This typically involves setting access permissions or sharing settings with user or user groups.

The sharing settings can include any of the following options, depending on the type of account (personal, business etc).

“Anyone With The Link Can Edit.” – permits anyone with access to the link to edit the slide’s content. This functionality facilitates effective collaboration and sharing among teams or groups. Opting for this setting grants editing privileges to anyone possessing the link.

“People in the Organization – accessible by the organization with the privileges to access the link.

“People you choose – selectively available.

Customize the access privileges more from the More Settings option, where you can define specific permissions, such as editing, viewing, and downloading for reviewers or audience.

Finalize the process by clicking on the “Apply” button ensuring that the changes take effect according to your preferences.

Once you’ve configured the access privileges and applied the changes, you can proceed to share the link via email to the intended audience. Simply copy the link generated by the sharing feature and paste it into your email or other message.

At risk of stating the obvious, there’s another way to share a single slide with ‘read only’ access.

Take a screen shot of the slide and paste it into an email or message.

Using Designer for more eye-catching PowerPoint slides PowerPoint Cameo puts your video selfie into a slide Reuse slides in PowerPoint, the good and the annoying

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Office 2021  - all you need to know . Facts & prices for the new Microsoft Office. Do you need it? Office LTSC is the enterprise licence version of Office 2021.

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How to curve text in google slides.

Grab everyone's attention with curved text in presentation slides

Google Slides offers formatting options to tweak text, photos, videos, and other elements in a presentation. However, it lacks a few important add-ons. For instance, unlike PowerPoint, there isn't a built-in way to curve text in Google Slides. If you want to make your presentation stand out among the rest, use the tricks below to curve text in Google Slides.

Adding curved text is a neat way to elevate your presentation. Still, don't go overboard with curve text in Google Slides. It may create unnecessary distractions and make it hard for your audience to read a slide. Instead, highlight a few headings or text you want to separate from the other paragraphs.

Although Google Slides is available on mobile platforms like iPhone and Android phones , we focus on the web version in the steps below.

Curve text in Google Slides using PowerPoint

There are a couple of ways to curve text in Google Slides. If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription plan, use the PowerPoint desktop app to curve text and copy it into Google Slides. In another trick, you can use a web tool like Canva or InkPx to get the job done. Let's start with PowerPoint.

• Open Microsoft PowerPoint on Windows or Mac.
• Create a new presentation and go to any slide.
• Resize a text box and enter the text you want to add in Google Slides.
• Expand the text effects icon and click Transform .
• Check your curved text in action. Drag the white dots around the text box to resize it.
• Open a presentation in Google Slides and select a slide where you want to add curve text.

PowerPoint offers dozens of curved text styles. You'll have no trouble finding a style that matches your presentation tone and theme.

How to delete a text box in Google Slides

Use an online tool to curve text in google slides.

PowerPoint requires a paid Microsoft 365 plan. If you don't have a subscription, use the tools below to generate and upload curved text in Google Slides.

Curve text using Canva

Canva is one of the best graphic design tools available. The web app offers several editing tools to create curved text in a design. You can download the image with a transparent background and upload it to Google Slides. Follow the steps below.

• Use the top menu to tweak text style, color, size, and more.

The ability to download an image with a transparent background requires a Canva Pro subscription.

How to add transparency to an image in Google Slides

Curve text using inkpx.

InkPx is a web tool for creating curved text. You can make one and upload it on Google Slides.

• Visit InkPx .
• Enter text and pick a color, style, and size. Then, tweak the radius, spacing, and other details.
• Pick a PNG or JPG image type and save the image.
• Launch a presentation in Google Slides.
• Select your image and open it in Google Slides.

Unlike Microsoft PowerPoint and Canva, InkPx is free to download and use. And unlike other web tools, you don't need to create an account to use the service.

Make your presentation stand out

Aside from curve text, there are other ways to make an interesting pitch. However, creating an engaging presentation from scratch can be time-consuming. Check the top Google Slides templates to get started and complete an applaud-worthy presentation in no time.

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How to Insert PDF into PowerPoint

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Learn how to insert a PDF file into your PowerPoint presentation. Our guide gives you a few ways to insert your PDF as an object, as an image, and as converted PDF content to use in your slide deck quickly and with ease.

In today's world of online meetings and information sharing, effective presentations are everything. And one way to take your presentation to the next level is to insert a PDF into PowerPoint.

By doing so, you can provide a more comprehensive and coherent presentation that captivates your audience with insightful and information-rich content that’ll leave a lasting impression.

We'll go step-by-step over different ways to work with both formats and insert PDF into PPT files using the methods below:

• Insert your PDF as an object
• Insert your PDF as a picture
• Insert your PDF as converted PDF content

Depending on what you need for your presentation, we’ll walk you through each method and leave it up to you to decide which is more effective for your slide deck.

Now let’s dive in!

Insert a PDF into PowerPoint as an object

The first standard way to insert a PDF is through MS PowerPoint’s Insert Object function. It’ll let you insert a file as an object or as a link. Here’s how:

1. Open your PowerPoint file and left click where you want to insert your PDF on the slide.

2. Click on the  Insert  menu.

3. In the Insert menu, go to the Text section and click on Object > Create from file .

4. In the dialog that pops up, click on Browse  to search for and select your PDF file.

5. Once selected, choose how you want to insert your PDF:

• Insert your PDF as an icon: Check the  Display as icon option. By default, PowerPoint will choose the icon for you. To choose your own icon, click on the Change Icon button that appears, and select an image from your computer.
• Insert your PDF as a link: Check the  Link  box and your PDF will be clickable from the slide. It'll be a clickable linked image of the first page from your PDF.

6. Click on the  OK  button.

You can adjust the icon or linked image by clicking and dragging the handles to scale and resize it.

If you chose to insert your PDF as a link, go to Insert > Action > Mouse Click . Ensure that the  Object action option is selected so you can click open a PDF from within PowerPoint. The PDF will open in your system’s PDF viewer.

Insert a PDF image into PowerPoint

If you only need an image from a PDF page or a graphic rather than the entire file, you can easily insert a screenshot of it from right within PowerPoint. Here's how:

1. Open your PDF to the page you want in your PowerPoint presentation.

2. Then, in your PowerPoint slide deck, go to the Insert tab > Screenshot . A preview of the Windows you currently have opened will be displayed.

4. Select the window with your PDF page. Note that you can also create a screen clipping to crop the PDF page content more precisely. This is ideal for PDF images that don’t fill the entire page.

Simply click on Screen clipping instead of selecting a window and then click and drag the cross-shaped cursor around the image.

Regardless of which screenshot method you choose, your screenshot will automatically be created, and the application will insert the PDF image into PowerPoint.

5. Adjust, resize, and move the image as needed.

Convert PDF to PowerPoint online

Another simple and effective option is to simply convert your PDF to PowerPoint and then insert your converted content into your slide deck.

The best part about this method is that you can perform the task online, hassle-free with Xodo! Just follow these steps:

2. Upload your PDF.

3. Click on  Convert .

4. Click on Download to save your newly converted file to your device.

5. Then open your PowerPoint presentation and go to Insert and in the Slides section click on Reuse Slides . 

6. In the side panel that appears, browse for and select the PowerPoint file you just converted, and then either click on the slide you wish to insert or click on Insert Slide underneath it.

Do this for every slide you wish to insert. Your content will be inserted after the slide you’re currently on.

Use Xodo to boost your digital document work

Now that you just learned how to insert a PDF into your presentations as a link, an object, an image, and a converted slide, there’s no limit to how effective your slide deck can be.

All it takes the right PowerPoint options and online PDF tools like Xodo that let you edit, convert, annotate, and even sign PDFs. Let Xodo's PDF tools help with the gaps in your digital document work.

Discover everything that Xodo has to offer!

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Go to a slide when delivering your presentation

As you deliver your presentation, here is how to move from one slide to the next, move to a previous slide, or move to a specific slide anywhere in the presentation. For information about moving slides or changing the order of slides in your presentation, see the article Add, rearrange, duplicate, and delete slides in PowerPoint .

Go to the next slide

Press the Right arrow key.

Mouse: Click once anywhere on a slide to move to the next one.

Note:  If you have a custom animation effect on your slide, clicking the slide starts the animation effect, rather than moving to the next slide. Use Go to a specific slide below to move to a specific slide and avoid triggering the animation effect.

Go to the previous slide

Press the Left arrow key.

Mouse: Right-click a slide, and then click Previous on the shortcut menu.

Go to a specific slide

Type the slide number, then press Enter.

Right-click a slide, select See All Slides or Go to Slide , and then click the slide you want to display to the audience. (The name of the option depends on the Show type option selected in the Set Up Slide Show dialog.)

Go to the beginning of a presentation

Press the Home key on the keyboard.

Right-click a slide, select See All Slides  or Go to Slide , and then click the first slide in the set.

Go to the end of a presentation

Press the End key on the keyboard.

Right-click a slide, select See All Slides  or Go to Slide , and then click the last slide in the set.

Auto-advance by using slide timings

See  Rehearse and time the delivery of a presentation for details. 

Use links to navigate in a presentation

Read these other articles for instructions on making hyperlinks:

Add a hyperlink to a slide

If you're a Microsoft 365 subscriber, you can use Zoom for PowerPoint to create a table of contents or to create visual links to a section or to individual slides . See Zoom for PowerPoint for more information.

Keyboard navigation

For a detailed list of keyboard shortcuts you can use when delivering your presentation, see the article Use keyboard shortcuts to deliver your presentation .

Press N, Right arrow, Down arrow, or Spacebar.

Press P, Left arrow, Up arrow, or Delete.

Note:  If you have a custom animation effect on your slide, right-clicking the slide starts the animation effect, rather than moving to the previous slide. Use Go to a specific slide below to move to a specific slide and avoid triggering the animation effect.

Type the slide number, then press Return.

Mouse: Right-click a slide, point to By Title on the shortcut menu, and then select a slide by title or slide number.

Type 1, then press Return.

Type the number of the last slide, then press Return.

Mouse: Right-click a slide, point to By Title on the shortcut menu, and then select the last slide in the list.

For instructions on adding hyperlinks to your slides, see Add a hyperlink to a slide .

Note:  If you have a custom animation effect on your slide, clicking the slide starts the animation effect, rather than moving to the previous slide. Use Go to a specific slide below to move to a specific slide and avoid triggering the animation effect.

Mouse: Right-click a slide, point to Go to Slide on the shortcut menu, and then click the first slide in the list.

Mouse: Right-click a slide, point to Go to Slide on the shortcut menu, and then click the last slide in the list.

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Microsoft Power BI Blog

Supporting continuous slide shows in power bi storytelling add-in.

Reports that track performance data in Power BI are common for many organizations. These reports can cover different aspects of organizational performance, such as production, sales, engineering, and so on. Many organizations want to share these reports with everyone in the organization, and even make them publicly visible , so everyone can see what the leadership cares about and how the organization is doing.

PowerPoint lets you play a presentation continuously. This is handy when you want to show information on public screens without anyone having to control it. You can do it by setting your presentation to run in an infinite loop and set the slides transition.

But up until today, if the Power BI add-in was part of a presentation running in a continuous slide show, the data in the add-in might become outdated, since the add-in only gets the data from Power BI when the slide is loaded, or when the user manually refreshes the data in the add-in.

Therefore, we added a new configuration to the add-in that ensures that you get the latest data from Power BI when running in continuous slide show. When the slide-show configuration is turned on, the add-in automatically pulls data from Power BI, without anyone having to do anything, ensuring that the presentation always has the most recent data.

To enable automatic refresh in slide show, go to the add-in footer, select Add-in options , choose Slide show settings , check Automatic refresh in slide show and set the desired frequency. This will cause the add-in to pulls data from Power BI every given period, when the presentation is in slide show.

The auto refresh only happens in slide show mode and not while you’re editing the presentation, so don’t worry if data does not change we you are still editing the presentation. (If you want the latest data when you are editing, go to Data options and choose Refresh .)

For best performance, the device running the presentation in infinite loop must have Office build 17126.20208 and above .

Let us know your feedback about the new slide show support inPower BI Storytelling add-in at  ideas.fabric.microsoft.com . Please add “Storytelling” to the title and give us enough information to make improvements to meet your requirements.

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Google Slides cheat sheet: How to get started

How to use google slides to create, collaborate on, and lead business presentations..

Need to build a slide presentation for a meeting, training, or other event? Google Slides is an easy-to-use web app that comes with the essential tools and more. It stores your presentations in the cloud with Google Drive. Anyone with a Google account can use Slides and Drive for free, and they’re also included with a Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) subscription for business and enterprise customers. There are Google Sheets mobile apps for Android and iOS, too.

This guide will help you become familiar with the Google Slides web interface and show you how to start a new presentation, upload a Microsoft PowerPoint file to edit in Google Slides, collaborate with others on your presentation, and finally, present it to others.

Create or open a presentation

Log in to your Google or Workspace account. Then:

From Google Slides : At the top of the home page, you’ll see a “Start a new presentation” header, with a row of thumbnails underneath. To start a new, blank presentation, click the Blank thumbnail. To start a new presentation in a template, select one of the thumbnails to the right or click Template gallery toward the upper-right corner, then click any thumbnail on the page that appears.

The Google Slides home page. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Below the “Start a new presentation” area you’ll see a list of presentations that are stored in your Google Drive or shared with you. To open a presentation, click it in this list.

The list of your presentations appears in reverse chronological order starting with the presentation you most recently opened. Clicking the “AZ” icon at the upper right of this list changes the sort order to Last modified by me , Last modified , or in alphabetical order by presentation title. You can also browse to a specific folder by clicking the folder icon next to the “AZ” icon.

From Google Drive : Presentations stored in your Google Drive are listed in the main window of the Drive home page. To see a listing of presentations that others are sharing with you, click Shared with me in the left column. From either list, double-click a presentation to open it in Google Slides.

To start a new, blank presentation, click the New button at the upper-left of the screen and then click Google Slides .

If you want to use a template to start a new presentation, click the New button, then move the cursor over the right arrow next to Google Slides and select From a template . The template gallery for Google Slides will open; click a thumbnail to start a new presentation in that template.

Creating a new presentation from Google Drive.

From Google Slides or Drive: You also can use the search box at the top to find presentations in your Google Drive or shared with you. Enter words or numbers that may be in the presentation you’re looking for.

Upload a PowerPoint presentation to Slides

You can edit a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation in Google Slides, but first you must upload it to Google Drive.

From Google Slides: Click the folder icon ( Open file picker ) that’s above and toward the right corner of your presentations list. On the panel that opens, click the Upload tab. Drag-and-drop your PowerPoint file (.ppt or .pptx) onto this panel, or browse your PC’s drive to select it.

From Google Drive: Click the New button, then File upload , and select the PowerPoint file from your PC’s drive and click Open .

Traditionally, when you uploaded PowerPoint files to Google Drive, they were automatically converted to Slides format. That’s still the case when you upload PowerPoint files via the Google Slides home page .

However, Google now supports the ability to edit Microsoft Office files in their native format. By default, any .pptx files that you upload via Google Drive will remain formatted as PowerPoint documents. You can edit and collaborate on a PowerPoint file right in Slides, with all changes made by you or your collaborators saved directly to the PowerPoint file.

On the Google Slides and Drive home pages, native PowerPoint files will be denoted with an orange “P” icon, and when you open a native PowerPoint file in Sheets, you’ll see a “.PPTX” flag to the right of the document title.

Native PowerPoint files show the PowerPoint icon (top) instead of the Google Slides icon (bottom).

If you’d rather have Google convert PowerPoint files to Slides format automatically when you upload them via Google Drive, click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the Drive home screen and select Settings from the drop-down menu. In the Settings box next to “Convert uploads,” check the checkbox marked Convert uploaded files to Google Docs editor format .

Work in a presentation

When you open a new or existing presentation, its first slide appears in the main window of Google Slides. Here’s a breakdown of the toolbars, menus, panes, and sidebars that appear around your presentation.

The left pane shows thumbnails of all the slides in your presentation. Click a thumbnail, and the slide it represents will appear in the main window, where you can edit it.

The Google Slides editing interface. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Your presentation’s title appears along the top of the screen. To change it, click anywhere inside the title and start typing.

The menu bar below your presentation’s title has a complete set of tools for working with presentations. These are the main submenus to know:

• File has commands for taking action on the whole presentation, including Print, Rename, and Share.
• Edit lists the standard editing commands such as copy, cut, paste, delete, duplicate, and find and replace.
• View lists several ways that you can view your slides as you design and edit them. This includes arranging them into a grid, previewing them as a slideshow, or zooming in on them. You can also watch the transition effect that takes place between slides when they’re played in a slideshow.
• Insert lets you add several objects to your slides, including charts, diagrams, pictures, tables, and text. You can also add links to YouTube videos or sound or video files that are stored in your Google Drive.
• Format lets you change the look of your slides. Certain functions on this submenu become clickable depending on whether you’ve selected an image or text on a slide, or selected the slide itself.
• Slide is where you can add, delete, or duplicate a slide that you’ve selected. You can also add a preset layout to a slide, change its background or theme color, or add and edit a transition effect that takes place between slides when your presentation is played as a slideshow.
• Arrange lists tools that let you group or reorder objects on a slide in relation to another. For example, you can place an image behind another image or group an image and a block of text together to make them easier to move at once.
• Tools leads to several miscellaneous functions. These include letting you record a voice clip to go with a slide, running a spell checker, and showing you a list of objects in your presentation that are linked to other files.

The toolbar directly above your presentation puts commonly used commands in easy reach. From this toolbar, you can click buttons to add to a slide or change its background, comments, layout, objects (images, lines, shapes, text), text style, theme colors for the whole presentation, transition effects during a slideshow, and more. The buttons on the toolbar change depending on whether you’ve selected image or text on a slide or the slide itself.

Notice that there’s no Save button in the toolbar — or anywhere in Google Slides. That’s because Slides automatically saves any changes you make to your presentation.

Speaker notes: Along the bottom of each slide you’ll see an area marked Click to add speaker notes . Here you can type in brief notes to remind yourself what to do or say when the slide is being shown. Only you will see these notes when you show your presentation to an audience.

Themes sidebar: When you start a new blank presentation, the Themes sidebar opens on the right side of the screen. (You can also open this sidebar at any time by clicking Theme on the toolbar above your presentation.) Themes apply the same fonts, colors, and other design elements to all the slides in a presentation, giving it a consistent look and feel. Click a thumbnail in this sidebar to change your presentation to that theme.

Create and manage slides

Here are the basic things to know about working with slides in a presentation.

Add a new, blank slide to your presentation: Click the + button at the left end of the toolbar above your presentation. Alternatively, if you click the down arrow next to the +, you can choose a layout to use as the basis for a new slide.

Click the down arrow next to the + button in the toolbar to choose a layout for a new slide.

Apply or change a slide’s background: Select the slide’s thumbnail in the left sidebar and click Background on the toolbar above your presentation. On the panel that opens, you can change the slide’s background color or use an image file from your Google Drive, Google Photos account, or PC as the background.

Apply or change a slide’s layout: Select the slide’s thumbnail in the left pane, then click Layout on the toolbar above your presentation. On the panel that opens, select the layout you want to apply to this slide.

Apply or change a slide’s transition: Select the slide’s thumbnail in the left sidebar and click Transition on the toolbar above your presentation. In the Motion sidebar that opens along the right side of the screen, you can apply or change the animated transition effect that is played before this slide.

Choosing a transition style in the Motion pane.

Move a slide to a different spot in the slideshow sequence: Click and hold its thumbnail in the left sidebar, drag it up or down to another place in the sequence, and release it.

Delete a slide: Right-click its thumbnail in the left sidebar and select Delete from the pop-up menu. Alternatively, select its thumbnail and select Edit > Delete from the menu bar or just press the Delete key.

Share and collaborate on a presentation

Presentations are often a group effort, with several team members contributing to and polishing a presentation. In Slides, it’s easy for multiple collaborators to work on a presentation together.

First, you need to share the presentation. When you’re viewing your presentation in Google Slides, click the Share button at the upper-right. Or, from your Google Drive homepage, click to highlight the presentation that you want to share. Then, in the toolbar toward the upper right, click the Share icon (a head-and-shoulders silhouette with a +).

Either way, the “Share” panel will open.

Setting permissions for a file being shared privately.

Share a presentation privately

In the entry box, enter the email addresses (or names of your Google Contacts) of the people with whom you want to share. By default, the people you invite to your presentation can edit it and reshare it with others.

To change access permissions for invitees: Click Editor to the right of the entry box and choose another option from the drop-down menu. Commenter means they can view your spreadsheet and add comments but can’t change it. Viewer means they can view your presentation but can’t edit it or add comments.

To prevent your presentation from being reshared, downloaded, or printed: Click the gear icon at the upper-right of this panel. On the smaller panel that opens, uncheck the boxes by Editors can change permissions and share and Viewers and commenters can see the option to download, print, and copy .

When you’re done setting permissions (and, optionally, typing in a message to your invitees), click Send , and everyone you’ve added will receive an email with a link they can click to access the document.

The shared presentation icon.

A presentation you’ve shared (or that others have shared with you) will have an icon of two silhouetted heads next to it in the presentations list on your Google Sheets and Google Drive home pages.

To limit or change a person’s access to your presentation: With the presentation open in Google Slides, click the Share button at the upper-right. Or, from Google Drive, highlight the presentation and click the Share icon.

The Share panel reopens showing a list of all the people you’ve invited, along with their permission status. Click the down arrow to the right of a person’s name, change their permission level or remove their access entirely, and click Save .

You can change permissions for people you’ve shared a presentation with on an individual basis.

If you have a Google Workspace subscription, another option is to select Give temporary access and, next to Access expires , select a date within one year of the current date. If you set an expiration date for a person that you’ve assigned as Editor, their access will be downgraded to Commenter on the expiration date.

Share a presentation publicly

Most business users will want to share presentations privately with select colleagues or clients, but you do have the option to share a presentation publicly. At the bottom of the Share panel is a “General access” area where you can copy a link to the document. By default, this link is restricted to those you invite to the document. To change it to a public link, click Restricted and select Anyone with the link from the menu that appears.

Click Copy link and the link to your presentation will be copied to your PC’s clipboard. You can share this link by pasting it into a chat message, document, email, forum post, or most other means of online written communication. Anyone who clicks this link will be able to view your presentation online. (Be aware that anyone can copy and reshare this link.)

To allow anyone in the public to comment on or edit your presentation: At the bottom right of the Share panel, click Viewer and select Commenter or Editor from the drop-down menu. Then click the Done button. Now the web link to your presentation will let anyone who clicks it add a comment or edit it.

Sharing a spreadsheet publicly.

To turn off public sharing for your presentation: Bring up the Share panel again. Near the bottom, click Anyone with the link and select Restricted from the menu, then click the Done button.

Note: You can apply both public and private sharing methods to your presentation. For example, you could allow the public to only view your presentation, but allow specific people that you’ve invited to comment on or edit it.

Collaborate on a presentation

The people you’ve shared a spreadsheet with can view or work on it at the same time as you or at other times. Remember that people who have Editor privileges to your presentation can change all aspects of it. Having multiple people making changes to a presentation can get confusing. In most cases, setting everyone to Commenter is the best way to collaborate in Slides: People can attach comments to a slide or to objects in a slide, but their comments won’t alter your presentation’s information or design.

To add a comment to a slide: Right-click its thumbnail in the left sidebar and select Comment from the menu that opens. Alternatively, you can select its thumbnail and select Insert > Comment from the menu bar or click the Add comment button (a speech balloon with a + sign).

A blank comment card with your name on it opens to the right of the slide in the main window. On this card’s entry line, type a brief comment, and when you’re finished, click the Comment button.

Typing in a new comment.

To add a comment to an object on a slide: Right-click the object (a block of text, chart, image, picture, etc.) and select Comment from the menu that opens. Alternatively, you can select the object and select Insert > Comment from the menu bar.

To draw someone’s attention to a comment: As you’re composing the comment, type the @ symbol and begin typing their name, then select the person from the list of suggested Google contacts that appears. They’ll receive an email notifying them of the comment and linking to it.

To read, reply to, or remove a comment: A slide that contains a comment is denoted in the left sidebar with a speech balloon by its thumbnail. Click the slide’s thumbnail to make the slide appear in the main window, and you’ll see all its comment cards on the right.

To reply to a comment, click its card. The card will expand to reveal an entry line where you can add a comment in response.

Replying to a comment.

Clicking the checkmark at the upper right marks the comment card as “resolved” and removes the card from the presentation. Clicking the card’s three-dot icon opens a menu that lets you edit or delete your comment.

To see a list of all comments: Click the Open comment history icon (the speech balloon) to the left of the Slideshow button. A sidebar will open along the right side of the screen; it lists all the comment cards in your presentation. When you click a comment on this list, the view of your presentation in the main window will jump to the cell where the comment is located and open its comment card.

The Comments pane lets you quickly review all comments and jump to specific ones.

For more details about collaborating on your presentation, including what it’s like to collaborate in real time, see “ How to collaborate on a document ” in our Google Drive guide. You can also collaborate on a presentation in Google Chat; that’s covered later in this story.

Recover older versions of a presentation

It’s easy to go too far when making tweaks to a presentation. Fortunately, it’s also easy to roll back to an earlier version of the presentation. Click File > Version history > See version history . This opens a panel on the right that shows a list of older versions of your presentation.

Using Version history to view an earlier version of a presentation. (Click image to enlarge it.)

To view an earlier version of your presentation: Click the date for it in the list. That version of the presentation will then appear in the main window.

To restore an earlier version so it replaces your current presentation: With the version you want to restore showing in the main window, click the yellow Restore this version button at the top of the screen. The restored version will then appear at the top of the version history list.

To give an older version a unique name: Click on its date. You’ll be prompted to type in words to replace the date. (The date and time will then appear in smaller size underneath the new name.)

Give a presentation

When it’s time to play your presentation to an audience, Google Slides has two modes: Slideshow and Presenter view. Slideshow mode essentially shows what your audience will see. Presenter view mode provides additional tools for your eyes only that run alongside Slideshow mode.

Slideshow mode: Click the Slideshow button at the upper-right corner of the screen. Google Slides will expand to full-screen view and show the slide that’s currently in the main window. (If you want to start the slideshow from the first slide in your presentation, click the down arrow to the right of the Slideshow button and select Start from beginning .)

The control bar in Slideshow mode lets you click through the slides, turn on auto-play, use a laser pointer effect, and more. (Click image to enlarge it.)

When you move the on-screen pointer to the lower-left corner of your presentation, a control bar appears. You use this to click forward and back through the slides. Clicking the three-dot icon on the control bar opens a menu with other controls, such as starting auto-play and adjusting how quickly it moves from slide to slide.

On this menu, Turn on the laser pointer turns the mouse pointer into a simulated red laser dot. Captions preferences — available only if you’re using a Chrome browser or Chromebook — lets you turn on real-time, automatic transcribing of your words as you say them (English only) and shows them to your audience as on-screen captions. Open speaker notes takes your presentation out of full screen and opens a separate “Presenter view” window, as described below.

Presenter view mode: Click the down arrow to the right of the Slideshow button and select Presenter view . This shows the presentation in your browser window and launches a separate window that assists you while you’re giving your presentation.

Presenter view lets you (but not your audience) see your speaker notes while presenting. (Click image to enlarge it.)

From the Presenter view window, you can jump to any slide in your presentation, read the speaker notes you wrote for a slide, and control the Q&A feature. There’s also a timer that you can set to remind yourself how much time you’re spending showing a slide — or the entire presentation — to your audience.

Click the AUDIENCE TOOLS tab to use the Q&A feature, which lets you take questions from your audience. To open questions for a slideshow, click the Start new button. A web link appears at the top of your presentation. An audience member watching your presentation on their computer, phone, or tablet can click/tap that link, which will take them to a page where they can type a question for you. You’ll see the question  in your Presenter view window, and you can choose whether to show their question to the rest of your audience during the presentation. To close questions for a presentation, turn the switch from ON to OFF .

Audience members can submit questions from their devices, and the presenter can decide whether to display them as part of the slideshow. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Present in Google Meet

Need to give a presentation during a Google Meet video meeting? As long as you’re using a Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, etc.), it’s easy: Toward the upper right of the Google Slides page, click the Google Meet icon. From the panel that opens, select a meeting that’s scheduled on your Google calendar today, start a new meeting, or type/paste in the web link or code that you have for another meeting.

Click the Meet icon to get started presenting to a video meeting.

If you start a new meeting, a sidebar for the meeting will open on the right. At the bottom of the sidebar, click the Present now icon (a box with an up arrow). On the panel that appears, select your presentation and click the Share button, and you’ll be presenting to the meeting.

Choose which tab or window you want to share and click the Share button. (Click image to enlarge it.)

If you join a scheduled meeting, you have two choices: “Join the call” and “Just present this tab.” If you click Join the call , a sidebar for the meeting will open on the right. Follow the same steps as above to present to the meeting. If you click Just present this tab , you’ll go directly to the panel where you select your presentation and click Share , but you won’t have a sidebar where you can follow the main meeting.

To stop sharing your presentation to the meeting, click the Stop sharing button at the top left of your browser window.

For more details about using Google Meet, see our Google Meet cheat sheet .

Download and export a presentation

Google Slides lets you download presentations for use offline. On the top menu, select File > Download and choose a file format. You can save your presentation to your PC as a PowerPoint (.pptx) file or in other formats such as PDF, or as JPG or PNG for an individual slide.

5 tips for working with Google Slides

Now that you’re comfortable working in Google Slides, try these intermediate tips.

Use the Google Slides mobile app

With the exception of the “Version history” tool, the Google Slides app for Android , iPhone , and iPad has many of the same features described in this guide.

When you have a slideshow open, the toolbar at the top of the screen lets you take a variety of actions:

• To present your slides on your phone or tablet, on a Chromecast device, or in a Google Meet meeting, tap the triangle icon.
• To share your presentation with other people, the headshot silhouette. (See “How to share from the Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides mobile apps” in our Google Drive cheat sheet .)
• To view all the comments in the presentation, tap the Comments icon (a chat balloon) if you see it in the toolbar, or tap the three-dot icon and select View comments from the menu that appears.
• The three-dot menu also lets you see the presentation’s Q&A history, export it, make it available offline, and more.

The Google Slides Android app.

To edit or comment on a slide: Tap the slide, and a menu will appear that lets you add or view comments for that slide or edit it. Tap an element on a slide, such as text or an image, and tools to edit that element will appear.

Any changes you make to your presentation in the mobile app are automatically saved and will appear the next time you open it in the Google Slides web app.

Get suggested slide layouts and content

Click the Explore icon at the lower-right corner of the screen. The Explore sidebar will open along the right side. In most cases, you’ll be presented with thumbnails of suggested layouts that Google Slides has automatically customized for the slide that’s open in the main window. Click the one you want, and it will be applied to the slide.

Use the Explore tool to get suggested layouts (left) and search for images (right).

At the top of the Explore sidebar is a search box. You can type in a word or phrase to find related content on the web or in your Google Drive. Search results appear on separate Web, Images, and Drive tabs in the sidebar. Click a web or Drive result to open it in a new browser tab. On the Images tab, click the + icon on the upper-right corner of an image to insert it onto your slide.

Create custom slide layouts to use as templates

You can design your own slide layouts to use as templates in any future presentation. First, open a new, blank presentation as described above. Then:

• On the menu bar over the blank presentation, select View > Theme builder .
• The main window switches to a layout editor. Toward the left you’ll see a column with the heading THEME on top and LAYOUTS just below that. Click the thumbnail of any layout in the LAYOUTS list. It will appear in the main window.
• You can remove objects that are already in any layout. For example, click on a block of text. A frame appears around the text. Without selecting the text itself, move the pointer to ward an edge of the frame, right-click, and select Delete from the menu that opens.

Creating a custom slide layout. (Click image to enlarge it.)

• Using the formatting toolbar above the slide, you can add new objects to the slide, including images, image placeholders, shapes, lines, and blocks for text. (Tip: enter placeholder words inside the text blocks.) When you click on any object, a frame appears around it. Drag and drop the frame to relocate it on the slide, or drag its edges to change its shape or size. You can also add or change the border and background colors for any object on the slide and/or change the background color for the whole slide.
• When you’re finished designing your layout, click the Rename button above the slide and give the layout a unique name.
• If you want to create another custom layout, click on the thumbnail of another layout under the column LAYOUTS and repeat the above steps starting from #3.
• When you are finished custom-designing all your layouts, click the X toward the upper-right of the slide layout in the main window.
• Along the top of the screen, click anywhere inside Untitled presentation and start typing. Tip: Use a name that indicates this is a template (e.g., “Annual Budget Presentation – Template”).

In the future, you can make new presentations starting from this template, and your custom slide layouts will be available.

• Open the template presentation you created in the steps above. On the menu bar, click File > Make a copy > Entire presentation . On the panel that opens, type in a name for the new presentation you want to create and click the Make a copy button. Google Slides will open this new presentation in a new browser tab.
• On the toolbar above the first slide of your new presentation, click Layout . From the panel of thumbnails that opens, select one of the layouts that you created. It will then be applied to the slide in the main window.

Collaborate on a presentation in Google Chat

An alternative way to collaborate on a presentation is to share it in Google Chat. Other people in your chat can add comments and help make changes to your presentation.

Start in Google Chat . To the left of the box where you type in your chat messages, click the + icon and select Drive file from the menu that opens. A panel will open over the screen listing the files in your Google Drive. Find and click your presentation to highlight it, then click INSERT on the lower-right corner.

You’ll be taken back to the chat message box. Click the blue right-pointing arrow to the right of the box, and a panel will open over the screen designating permissions for the shared presentation. By default, permissions are set to Comment. To change this, click Comment and select View or Edit . You can also allow the people in the chat to share a web link to your presentation with others outside of the chat by selecting Turn link sharing on .

You can share a presentation to individual or group chats in Google Chats. (Click image to enlarge it.)

After you’ve set the permissions, click SEND , and your message will appear in the chat stream with a large thumbnail of your presentation. To open a presentation in the chat, click the thumbnail. The presentation will open inside a large window that’s laid out alongside the right of the chat stream.

This is actually Google Slides running inside the chat window with your presentation loaded in it. Thus, most of the Slides commenting and editing tools are available for you and others in the chat to use on your presentation (if you granted them permission to comment or edit). The user interface is the same, except there’s no menu bar.

Collaborating on a presentation from within a Google Chat. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Use keyboard shortcuts

Save time in Slides by using keyboard shortcuts for common tasks. Below are some of the most useful to know. For more, select Help > Keyboard shortcuts from the top menu when you have a spreadsheet open or press Ctrl + / (Windows, Chrome OS) or ⌘ + / (macOS).

Handy Google Slides keyboard shortcuts

This story was originally published in September 2019 and updated in August 2022.

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Howard Wen ( www.howardwen.com ) is a longtime contributor to Computerworld . He specializes in explainer guides, how-tos, and reviews of office applications and productivity tools.

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