Slide Show View in PowerPoint 365 for Windows

Have you created all your slides, and now you want to show it in front of an audience? Or you just want to use this slide deck in a webinar, or even see them yourself to understand how they look in full-screen view? In that case, the view that plays your presentation in full-screen mode is Slide Show view, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Slide Show view

To access Slide Show view in PowerPoint 365 for Windows, you can choose any of these options:

1. Click the Slide Show button on the Status Bar to play the presentation from the active slide (highlighted in red within Figure 2).
2. 
   Figure 2: Slide Show button on the Status Bar
3. To exit Slide Show view, just press the Esc key.
4. Additionally, you can hold the Alt key while pressing the same button to see your slides in quarter screen view, as you can see in Figure 3, below. Notice that your quarter screen slide show only covers the top left area and lets you see PowerPoint's editing view in the remaining areas.
5. 
   Figure 3: Quarter screen Slide Show
2. You can also access the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon (see Figure 4).
3. 
   Figure 4: Slide Show tab of the Ribbon
4. Then, choose one of the following options (both of them are highlighted in red within Figure 4, above):
1. From Beginning: Starts the slide show from the first slide of the presentation. You can also use the F5 Function key.
2. From Current Slide: Starts the slide show from the active slide. You can also use the Shift + F5 shortcut key.

PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

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To exit Slide Show view, choose any of these options:

1. Press the Esc (Escape) key.
2. Right-click on the slide, and choose the End Show option in the resultant menu, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 5.
3. 
   Figure 5: End Show option

Remember that Slide Show view is purely a display view and no editing can be done on slides at this point of time. However, Slide Show view has some navigation and annotation options. If you hover your cursor over the bottom left area of the slide, you'll find seven watermarked navigation icons that you can see in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Navigation icons within Slide Show view

These icons are explained below, as marked in Figure 6, above:

A. Previous Slide

Click this icon to navigate to the previous slide (or press the P, Left Arrow, or Backspace keys).

B. Next Slide

Click this icon to navigate to the next slide (or press the N, Right Arrow, or Spacebar keys).

C. Pen and Laser Pointer Tools

Click on this button to bring up a menu, as shown in Figure 7, below.

Figure 7: Pen options

The options within this menu are explained below:

1. Laser Pointer: Directs the audience's eye with a bright colored point of light. You can set the Laser Pointer color within the Set Up Show dialog box. To access this dialog box, choose the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon, and then click the Set Up Slide Show button (highlighted in red within Figure 10, later on, this page).
2. Pen: Lets you draw or annotate with a pen.
3. Highlighter: Works almost like a virtual highlighter pen.
4. Eraser:Lets you erase any pen or highlighter marked areas (grayed out if there are no marked areas on the current slide).
5. Erase All Ink on Slide: Removes all ink markings (grayed out if there are no marked areas on the current slide).
6. Ink Color: Changes the pen color.

D. See All Slides

Click on this button to bring up the whole slide deck (see Figure 8), and choose any slide. With this option, you can easily switch slides in or out of sequence from a grid that only you see.

Figure 8: See All Slides screen

E. Zoom into the slide

With this tool you can zoom a part of the slide and then pan around. Zoom works more smoothly if you are using a tablet device such as Microsoft Surface.

F. Captions and Subtitles

Shows subtitles automatically generated from what you speak. This feature needs a connected microphone to work.

G. More Options

This icon, when clicked, opens a menu as shown in Figure 9 below in which some options are similar to the menu shown in Figure 5 above, including Show Presenter View to access the Presenter view, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 9.

Figure 9: The More Options menu

By default, Slide Show view works in full-screen mode but you can change that too. To do so, access the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon, and click the Set Up Slide Show button, highlighted in red within Figure 10.

Figure 10: Set Up Slide Show button within Set Up group

Alternatively, you can Shift + click the Slide Show button (shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, earlier on this page) on the Status Bar. Either of these options brings up the Set Up Show dialog box, as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Set Up Show dialog box

In the Show type area, you can choose the Browsed by an individual (window) option (highlighted in red within Figure 11, above). Turning on this option plays your presentation in a window, as shown in Figure 12. This is the exact equivalent of Reading view.

Figure 12: Slide Show within a window

Also within the Set Up Show dialog box, you will find Browsed at a kiosk (full screen) option (highlighted in blue within Figure 11, above). Turning on this option displays the presentation in full-screen mode but none of your navigation options such as a mouse click or the keyboard will let you move from one slide to another. To do so, you will have to add navigation options on your own using internal hyperlinks or Action Buttons.

If you are using a multi-display environment such as a laptop plus a projector, you can also use Presenter View in addition to Slide Show view at the same time.