Running a Slide Show

Most presenters stick with the mouse when giving their presentations, which works fine for advancing the presentation but leaves them stuck fumbling with the context menu and its submenus when they need to execute any other command. If you put in the modicum of effort required to learn the keyboard shortcuts that PowerPoint provides for running a slide show, you can control the presentation faster and more easily, which gives a more professional appearance to your presentation.

Shortcuts for Running a Slide Show

Start a slide show

[F5]

Press this shortcut instead of choosing Slide Show View Show.

Start a slide show from the current slide

[Shift] - [F5]

Navigate to the slide from which you want to start the slide show, and then press this shortcut. Alternatively, click the Slide Show from Current Slide button on the horizontal scroll bar.

End the slide show

[Esc] , [Ctrl] - [Break] , [-] on the numeric keypad

[Esc] is the easiest shortcut for ending a presentation.

Display the next animation or the next slide

[N] , [Enter] , [Spacebar] , [ “ ] , [ ’ ] , [PageDown]

Press any of these keys to trigger the next animation (if there is one) or display the next slide (if there is no further animation).

Display the previous animation or the previous slide

[P] , [Backspace] , [ ‘ ] , [ ] , [PageUp]

Press any of these keys to trigger the previous animation (if there is one) or display the previous slide (if there is no previous animation).

Display the All Slides dialog box

[Ctrl] - [S]

Use the All Slides dialog box to navigate to a slide by its title.

Display the slide identified by the number

< number > - [Enter]

For example, press [5] [Enter] to display slide 5 in the presentation.

Toggle a black screen

[B] , [.]

Press [B] or [.] to display a black screen in place of the current slide. Press [B] or [.] again to display the slide again.

Toggle a white screen

[W] , [,]

Press [W] or [,] to display a white screen in place of the current slide. Press [W] or [,] again to display the slide again.

Stop or restart an automatic slide show

[S] , [+]

If you ve set a slide show to run automatically, press [S] or [+] to stop or restart it.

Change the pointer to a pen

[Ctrl] - [P]

You can use the pen to make annotations on the screen.

Change the pen back to the pointer

[Ctrl] - [A]

Use this shortcut to restore the pointer after making annotations.

Toggle the display of ink markup

[Ctrl] - [M]

Change the pointer to the eraser

[Ctrl] - [E]

Erase all on-screen annotations

[E]

Use this shortcut to erase any annotations you ve made using the pen.

Display the next hidden slide

[H]

Use hidden slides to keep extra information up your sleeve.

Apply new timings while rehearsing

[T]

Use your original timings while rehearsing

[O]

Toggle to using the mouse to advance while rehearsing

[M]

m both mouse buttons for two seconds

Return to the first slide

This isn t a keyboard shortcut, but it s well worth knowing as the quickest way to return to the first slide in the presentation.

Toggle hiding the pointer

[A]

Hide the pointer and button

[Ctrl] - [H]

Hide the pointer arrow for 15 seconds

[Ctrl] - [U]

Display the shortcut menu

[Shift] - [F10] (or right-click)

After displaying the shortcut menu, you can use the arrow keys on the keyboard to navigate to the choice you want to make, and then press [Enter] .

Display the Windows taskbar

[Ctrl] - [T]

This shortcut lets you display the taskbar (for example, to access another application) without ending your slide show.

Display the Slide Show Help dialog box

[F1]

The Slide Show Help dialog box provides a quick reminder of the keyboard shortcuts available for controlling a presentation.