University of Nebraska - Lincoln Communications and Information Technology

Tips for Effectively Running a PowerPoint Slide Show During Your Presentation

Before the slide show

If you are creating a slide show on one computer that will be run on a different computer, make sure the fonts (and bullets) used by your file are on both computers. If the fonts aren’t on the computer used for the slide show, you will have to install them or your formatting will be changed because of PowerPoint’s automatic (and unannounced) font substitution. You could also use PowerPoint’s “Pack and Go” feature to save the fonts with the slide show file (see the Help menu for more information).

It is best to run the PowerPoint slide show directly from the hard drive rather than a network drive or a CD. Running the show directly from the hard drive makes for a smoother and speedier show and without the chance of network error or disk error. To copy a slide show, copy all of your files — the .ppt file and others such as imported images and linked files. Then, on the second computer, create a new folder on the hard drive and copy all files into that folder.

Moving through the slide show

When you run a slide show, you want to make the PowerPoint program as invisible as possible. There are numerous commands which can be activated using the mouse or keyboard strokes that can help you navigate through your show without having to return to the actual PowerPoint program.

Action

Keystroke

Advance to the next slide or the next animated bullet

N, Enter, Page Down, Right Arrow, Down Arrow, or the Spacebar (or click the mouse)

Return to the previous slide or the previous animated bullet

P, Page Up, Left Arrow, Up Arrow, or Backspace

Go to a specific slide

Number+Enter (1+Enter returns to first slide)

Hide the pointer and navigation button (if visible)

Ctrl+H

End the slide show

Esc, Ctrl+Break, or Hyphen

 

 

Show the list of all keyboard commands

F1

Display the shortcut menu

Shift+F10 (or right-click)

Highlighting on-screen text

Use the Pen tool to draw on-screen while running a slide show. The mouse pointer will look like a pen. Depress the left mouse button and drag to draw on the slide. Press the SHIFT key while you drag the mouse to lock in a nice, straight line.

Change the pointer to a pen and/or redisplay hidden pointer

Ctrl+P

Erase on-screen annotations

E

Change the pointer to an arrow and/or redisplay hidden pointer

Ctrl+A

Hide the pointer or pen

Ctrl+H

If the Pen is active, you can move through your show using the keyboard commands. If you want to advance slides by clicking the mouse button, you must hide the pen or return to the arrow pointer.

Showing a black or white screen

Experts on presenting recommend that you not have a slide on the screen or show your computer screen when you start your presentation and are introducing yourself nor when you finish and are answering questions. This gets your audience to focus on you, not your slide show or computer screen.

Display a black screen, or return to the slide show from a black screen

NOTE: PPT 2002 & 2003 automatically end with a black screen

B or Period

Display a white screen, or return to the slide show from a white screen

W or Comma

~ Lana Johnson & Pam Peters

 

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Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources  Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR)
 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
 Last updated April 15, 2005