There comes a time with every presentation when you have to actually deliver it to an audience.
Luckily, PowerPoint comes with several different tools that can help you give a smooth, professional-looking
presentation.
To get started, you can play your presentation one of three ways: using the command on the
quick access toolbar, the button at the bottom of the window, or the options on the Slide
Show tab.
In this example, we're going to click the button up here... which will take us to the
first slide in the presentation.
To go to the next slide, you can click your mouse, or press the space bar on your keyboard.
Or you can use the arrows keys to go backwards or forwards.
You can also use the menu in the bottom left corner that appears only when you move your
mouse. This gives you easy access to navigation buttons... and also some other options that
can help you during your presentation.
Have you ever wanted to access something else while you were in the middle of using PowerPoint,
for instance? Maybe a website, or a file in another program? All you have to do is click
Screen... then choose Show Taskbar.
Now you can easily access the file explorer, your web browser, or anything else that you
have pinned to your taskbar. When you're ready to exit the program, all you have to do is
close or minimize the window... and you'll be taken straight back to PowerPoint.
Getting back to the menu, another tool I use pretty frequently is Show All Slides—just
click the button here. This displays a thumbnail version of each slide in your presentation,
so you can easily skip ahead or go back.
You can access the same feature by right-clicking anywhere on the screen... then choosing See
All Slides.
Now would a good time to practice using some of the drawing tools, which can be a good
way to call attention to something specific in your presentation. Just open the menu here...
and you can turn your cursor into a pen, a highlighter, or even a laser pointer.
First select the tool you want... then click and drag to draw anywhere on the screen. This
makes it easy to point out the most successful fundraiser, for example... and also the least
successful.
Drawing with your mouse can be a little tricky, so you might want to try the feature before
you use it in front of an audience. To erase any markings, open the menu again... and choose
one of the options here. When you're done, you can switch back to the regular mouse pointer
by deselecting the current tool.
I think I'm ready to wrap this up, so I'm going to exit the slide show now, and go back
to PowerPoint. To do this, just press Esc on your keyboard, or go to the slide options
menu... and choose End Show.
Before we leave, PowerPoint will ask if we want to keep the ink markings we just made.
I'm going to keep them for now... which means they stay on the slide, but you can delete
them any time. Just select the mark... then press Delete on your keyboard.
What if you're going to be using a second display to give your presentation, like a
projector or a separate monitor? There's actually a really cool feature called presenter view
that can give you some extra help behind the scenes. Here's how it works.
First, start your presentation as usual... then go all the way down to the slide options
menu. Next, choose Show Presenter View... and you'll be taken to a special set of tools
that only you can see. The audience will just see the presentation.
The layout is pretty different compared to normal presentation mode, but if you look
closely, you'll find a lot of familiar features. For example, here are most of the options
that we discussed earlier, including the pen tool, the Show All Slides button, and also
arrows for navigation.
There's also a place to keep track of the time... preview the upcoming slide... and
reference any notes that you've added, which can really come in handy.
When you're done, go ahead and click the button that says End Slide Show.
There's one more thing I'd like to show you that can help with your presentation, depending
on what you need. Just make sure you're on the Slide Show tab... then click Set Up Slide
Show... and you can access settings that control how your presentation is played.
For instance, if you ever need to set up your slide show so it runs by itself in a loop
(maybe at a kiosk or a trade show booth), this is the place to do it.
You can also control what slides are included in the presentation, whether they advance
manually or automatically, and much more.
Now you know how to present your slide show in PowerPoint. With a little practice—and
with so many tools at your disposal—you'll be an expert presenter in no time.