Playing a Slide Show

Playing and stopping a slide show are simple. Just choose Slide Show, View Show or press F5. PowerPoint automatically jumps to the first slide in the show, and you're off and running. To end a show, play the show to the end or press Esc to stop immediately at any point in the show.

You can also start a show by clicking the Slide Show View button (Slide Show from Current Slide button) or pressing Shift+F5. However, this method starts the show at the current slide, so if you intend to show the entire show, you have to move to Slide 1 before you click the button or press Shift+F5.

If you're making a presentation in which you know there won't be any interruptions, this may be all you need to know. But PowerPoint also provides lots of options to accommodate many different presentation styles and needs.

Setting Up a Slide Show

You can select from among several slide show options by using the Set Up Show feature. Choose Slide Show, Set Up Show to display the Set Up Show dialog box (see Figure 14.1).

Figure 14.1. You use the Set Up Show dialog box to customize how you play a slide show.

The default show setup assumes that you (or another speaker) will make the presentation using a full-screen display, that you'll play all the slides, and that you'll use a slide's timings, if it has any.

The basic show types include the following:

• Presented by a Speaker This simply means that you as the presenter have full control over the slide show...at least you hope you do!

• Browsed by an Individual This option brings up the slide show in a browser, and by default it also provides a scrollbar to make it easier for an individual to browse the slide show (see Figure 14.2). If you uncheck Show Scrollbar, it's much more difficult for the viewer to advance from slide to slide. However, if you provide lots of navigation links, such as action buttons and hyperlinks, the show acts like a well-designed Web page, and the scrollbar isn't necessary.

  Figure 14.2. You can set up a show to be played in a browser, to be navigated by an individual like a Web page.

  

• Browsed at aKiosk This option assumes that you don't want viewers to interact with the slide show. Instead, the show automatically advances based on slide transition timings. The slide show also loops (that is, repeats) continuously until you press Esc. If you forget to add slide transition timings, the show stops and does not advance.

Other options in the Set Up Show dialog box include the following:

• Show Options You can make a slide show loop continuously, even if you're presenting it yourself. If the slide show contains recorded narration or animations, you can suppress either or both. Finally, if you use a highlighter pen during the presentation, you can choose the color. We'll talk about pen options a bit later in this chapter.

• Show Slides By default, you present all the slides in a show. But you can select a range of slides or choose from among any custom slide shows you've defined.

• Advance Slides Choosing Manually simply overrides any automatic timings you have added to slide transitions or animations.

• Multiple Monitors Presenters frequently request the ability to see menus and speaker notes onscreen without letting the audience see them. Unfortunately, whatever you see on your computer is also projected to the audience. The Multiple Monitors option enables you to use two monitors one that the audience sees and one that you see. The details of using this option are beyond the scope of this book. Further, in my experience, this feature is difficult to set up because it depends on having the right combination of hardware and software, besides being able to actually use the feature.

• Performance No, this option doesn't help you do a better job of presenting. But you can use it to improve how well a computer presents the slide show. If you notice serious slowness, jerky transitions, and so on, access the Set Up Show dialog box and click the Tips button. PowerPoint provides a help screen that discusses performance issues in detail. Generally, with today's speedy computers and high-powered graphics hardware, performance issues aren't as common as they used to be.

After you choose setup options, click OK to apply them and to return to the PowerPoint screen.

Navigating a Slide Show

After you begin a slide show, your objective is to move smoothly through the show until you reach the end. If you have no interruptions, make no mistakes, and have a relatively sequential presentation, this shouldn't be too hard. Unfortunately, sometimes you accidentally advance a slide or an animation before you want to, or someone asks a question about the slide you just left behind. Knowing how to back up or go directly to another location can be extremely useful.

An easy way to access navigation options during a slide show is to move the mouse until a mouse pointer appears. PowerPoint can be frustratingly slow at this, especially when you want to back up quickly. But have patience. The mouse pointer eventually appears, along with a semitransparent toolbar at the lower-left corner of the screen (see Figure 14.3).

Figure 14.3. You use the onscreen toolbar to navigate a slide show.

To back up, simply click the Go Back button on the toolbar. Backing up does not always mean that you'll return to the previous slide. If you have animations on the slide, going back steps through those animations one at a time.

If you don't want to wait for the mouse, or if you'd prefer not to have the audience watch as you click to navigate, you can use the keyboard to back up. Press Page Up to back up and Page Down to advance. Quick and easy, clean and simple.

Other types of navigation are a little more involved than backing up and moving forward. If you anticipate the need to jump to a slide out of sequence, consider preparing action settings or links to get there.

For details on using action settings for navigation, see p. 222.

You can navigate to nearly anywhere by clicking the Navigation Options button on the toolbar or by right-clicking the slide. In either case, PowerPoint displays a menu of navigation choices (see Figure 14.4). The options on this menu include the following:

Figure 14.4. The navigation menu helps you go directly to anyplace in a slide show.

• Next This takes you to the next slide or to the next animation, if any.

• Previous This takes you to the previous slide or to the previous animation, if any.

• Last Viewed This takes you to the last slide viewed, even if you jumped to the current slide from somewhere else in the slide show. This can be very useful if you need to backtrack in a nonlinear slide show.

• Go to Slide This displays a list of all the slides in the slide show (see Figure 14.5). You select a slide, even a hidden slide, and PowerPoint takes you directly there. If you become adept at using this option, you can change direction quickly without seriously interrupting a presentation.

  Figure 14.5. The Go to Slide option lists slides in the current slide show.

  

• Custom Show This lets you jump into a subset of the current show, depending on whether you have defined any custom shows ahead of time.

• End Show This ends a show and returns you to PowerPoint. It has the same effect as pressing the Esc key.

Navigating by using the mouse is not too complicated. But you can also benefit from learning to use the keyboard, which can be quicker, easier, and less apparent to viewers. For more information on this, see the section "Using Easy Keyboard Shortcuts," later in this chapter.

Using Screen and Pointer Options

If you've ever had to stare into the bright light of a projector while pointing at something onscreen, you'll appreciate PowerPoint's pen and pointer options.

To access the pointer options, click the Pointer options button on the toolbar or right-click and choose Pointer Options. PowerPoint displays a pointer options menu (see Figure 14.6).

Figure 14.6. You can change the pointer type and how it works by using the pointer options menu.

One thing you might want to do, especially if you'll be using a lot of pointing or navigation options, is to choose Arrow Options from the pointer options menu (see Figure 14.7). By default, the mouse pointer disappears automatically after a few seconds of inactivity. Unfortunately, it also takes a few seconds of moving the mouse to make the pointer or the toolbar appear again. If you select Visible, the pointer and the toolbar remain onscreen. Hidden means the pointer never appears, although clicking the mouse still advances slides or transitions. However, if you have an action setting or link to click, you can't see the mouse pointer to do so.

Figure 14.7. By default, the arrow disappears after a few seconds of inactivity.

By default, the mouse pointer is simply an arrow. You can use the arrow to point at things onscreen to help the audience see what you're talking about. This is usually better than walking in front of the screen to point with your hand.

You can also change the pointer to a pen, marker, or highlighter, and you can then draw directly on the slide. To draw on a slide, follow these steps:

1. Click the Pointer Options button on the toolbar or right-click the slide and choose Pointer Options.

2. From the pointer options menu (refer to Figure 14.6), select the type of pen you'd like to use (for example, Felt Tip Pen). PowerPoint changes the mouse pointer to a dot with a color above it.

3. Click and drag the mouse to draw onscreen (see Figure 14.8).

   Figure 14.8. You use a marker to make drawings or annotations on a slide during a slide show.

   

4. When you're through using the pen, click the Pointer Options button on the toolbar and select Arrow. Or you can press Esc to turn off the pen.

If you plan to use the pen frequently, you can leave the pen setting turned on and advance the slides by using the Navigation Options button on the toolbar or by using the keyboard.

Drawings onscreen remain there until you erase or clear them, even if you advance to another slide. To erase a drawing, follow these steps:

1. Click the Pointer Options button on the toolbar and choose Eraser. The pointer turns to an eraser shape.

2. Click and drag the eraser across a line. The line disappears.

3. Repeat step 2 to erase other drawings.

4. Click the Pointer Options button on the toolbar, turn off the eraser, and select a pen style or an arrow from the Pointer Options menu. Or you can press Esc to turn off the eraser.

To clear all the drawings on a slide, from the Pointer Options menu, choose Erase All Ink on Slide.

You can choose the pen's ink color so that it contrasts well with the slide's background. From the Pointer Options menu, choose Ink Color and then choose Automatic or a color from a basic palette of colors.

Finally, when you exit the slide show, PowerPoint asks if you want to keep your annotations so that you can refer to them when editing your slides. If you choose Keep the Annotations, PowerPoint displays them on the slide editing screen (see Figure 14.9). These annotations act exactly like AutoShapes in that you can select, move, or delete them. You can also print them if you choose that option when printing. However, they are different from AutoShapes in that they do not display if you play the slide again in a slide show. They're there strictly for your reference so that you can make changes to the slide. When you're through with them, you can select them and delete them.

Figure 14.9. Annotations and drawings can remain on a slide and be printed.

Using Easy Keyboard Shortcuts

Using a mouse while creating and testing a slide show makes sense: You're seated in front of the computer, and you're used to the amount and direction of movement required to accurately move the mouse. When you're standing, giving a presentation, it's harder to use the mouse, especially with any kind of precision.

Using the keyboard can be an easier way to make things happen during a slide show, and indeed there are dozens of keyboard alternatives for mouse and menu options. For example, which is the largest key on the keyboard? Correct. The spacebar is easy to find, easy to hit, and, as luck would have it, it's a key that's used to advance to the next slide or animation. I find it extremely easy to wander over to my laptop while talking, press the spacebar for the next slide and wander away from the laptop, never missing a beat.

To learn about keystroke alternatives, as well as a few unusual mouse click options, you can press F1 in the Slide Show view. You can also right-click a slide and from the context menu choose Help. PowerPoint displays the Slide Show Help dialog box, which provides a long list of options (see Figure 14.10).

Figure 14.10. Using keyboard shortcuts can be quicker and less obvious to the audience than using the mouse.

You might even want to print this screen. Simply press Alt+PrtSc to copy the window, paste it onto a blank slide or into a Word document, and print the resulting slide or page.

The following are some of my favorite and most useful keyboard shortcuts:

• Advancing You can press the spacebar, Page Down, the right arrow, the down arrow, Enter, or the letter N. Using the spacebar is my favorite method because it's the easiest to find while you continue to talk.

• Backing up You can press Page Up, left arrow, up arrow, or Backspace.

• Black screen Pressing the letter B changes the screen to a blank, black screen. This allows you to force audience attention to you instead of to the screen. Press B again to turn off the black screen.

• Going to a slide Pressing Ctrl+S displays of a list of slides (see Figure 14.11). Move up or down to select a slide, and press Enter.

  Figure 14.11. The Ctrl+S shortcut helps you quickly select a slide to go to.

  

• Going to a slide number You can type the number of a slide followed by Enter. Of course, you have to know the number of the slide, but if you've memorized a critical slide or two, you can get there quickly by using this method.

Not all keystrokes are useful to you because you use them relatively infrequently. But for actions that you use all the time, learn and practice using keystroke alternatives to save time, or at the very least, to have options as you advance through a slide show.