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PowerPoint vs Other Presentation Tools: Which is Right for You?

When it comes to creating impactful presentations, there are numerous tools available in the market. However, one of the most popular and widely used applications is Microsoft PowerPoint. While PowerPoint has been the go-to choice for many professionals and educators, it’s important to consider other presentation tools as well. In this article, we will compare PowerPoint with other presentation tools to help you decide which one is right for you.

PowerPoint: The Classic Choice

Microsoft PowerPoint has been around since 1987 and continues to dominate the presentation software market. It offers a wide range of features and functionalities that make it ideal for creating visually appealing slideshows. With its user-friendly interface, anyone can quickly learn how to use it effectively.

One of the key advantages of PowerPoint is its compatibility with various operating systems, including Windows and Mac. This means you can easily create presentations on one device and present them on another without any compatibility issues.

PowerPoint also provides a vast library of templates, themes, and design elements that allow users to create professional-looking presentations in no time. It offers a plethora of customization options, allowing you to tailor your slides according to your specific needs.

Prezi: The Dynamic Alternative

Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software that takes a different approach than traditional slide-based tools like PowerPoint. Instead of using slides, Prezi allows users to create dynamic presentations on a virtual canvas where they can zoom in and out and navigate through content freely.

This unique feature makes Prezi an excellent choice for storytelling or when you want to present information in a nonlinear format. It enables presenters to create engaging visuals that captivate their audience’s attention from start to finish.

Additionally, Prezi offers seamless collaboration features that allow multiple users to work on the same presentation simultaneously. This makes it an excellent choice for teams or individuals who need real-time collaboration capabilities.

Google Slides: The Collaborative Solution

Google Slides is a web-based presentation tool that is part of the Google Workspace suite. Similar to PowerPoint, it offers a range of features to create visually appealing presentations. Its intuitive interface and easy-to-use tools make it accessible to users of all skill levels.

One of the standout features of Google Slides is its collaborative capabilities. Multiple users can work on a presentation simultaneously, making it ideal for team projects or remote collaboration. It also allows for real-time commenting and editing, ensuring seamless communication among team members.

Another advantage of Google Slides is its integration with other Google Workspace apps such as Google Docs and Sheets. This integration allows users to import data directly from these apps, saving time and effort when creating presentations.

Keynote: The Mac-Friendly Option

If you are an Apple user, Keynote is the presentation software designed specifically for you. Keynote offers a sleek and modern interface with powerful tools that allow users to create stunning presentations effortlessly.

One of the key advantages of Keynote is its seamless integration with other Apple devices and software. You can easily create presentations on your Mac and present them using your iPhone or iPad without any compatibility issues.

Keynote also provides a wide selection of pre-designed templates that cater to various presentation styles. Additionally, it offers advanced animation and transition effects that can enhance the visual appeal of your slideshows.

Choosing the right presentation tool depends on your specific needs and preferences. PowerPoint remains a solid choice for its versatility, while Prezi offers a dynamic alternative for nonlinear storytelling. Google Slides excels in collaborative capabilities, especially for remote teams, while Keynote provides an excellent option for Apple users seeking seamless integration across devices.

Consider the features, ease-of-use, collaboration options, and platform compatibility when deciding which presentation tool suits you best. Ultimately, selecting the right tool will empower you to create impactful presentations that engage and impress your audience.

This text was generated using a large language model, and select text has been reviewed and moderated for purposes such as readability.

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What is Presenter view?

Get an overview of Presenter view and learn what's required to use it in PowerPoint.

Ensure that the computer you are using for your presentation supports the use of multiple monitors. If the computer has multiple input ports, such as DVI, VGA, HDMI, ir DisplayPort, it should support multiple monitors. Most modern desktop computers have multiple monitor support built in; if not, you'll need two video cards.

Overview of Presenter view

Presenter view lets you view your presentation with your speaker notes on one computer (your laptop, for example), while the audience views the notes-free presentation on a different monitor.

Note:  PowerPoint only supports the use of two monitors for a presentation. However, you can configure to run a presentation on three or more monitors that are connected to one computer. Check your computer manufacturer’s website for up-to-date information about multiple monitor support for your computer.

Presenter view offers the following tools to make it easier for you to present information:

You can use thumbnails to select slides out of sequence and create a customized presentation for your audience.

Speaker's notes are shown in large, clear type so that you can use them as a script for your presentation.

You can darken or lighten the screen during your presentation and then resume where you left off. For example, you might not want to display the slide content during a break or a question and answer period.

In Presenter view, icons and buttons are large enough to navigate easily, even when you are using an unfamiliar keyboard or mouse. The following illustration shows the various tools that are available to you from Presenter view.

1. The slide number (for example, slide 1 of an 8-slide presentation)

2. The slide you are currently showing to the audience

3. The speaker's notes, which you can use as a script for your presentation

4. Click to go to the previous slide

5. Click to go to the next slide

6. The elapsed time of your presentation, in hours and minutes

7. Click to view thumbnails of all slides in your presentation

8. The pen, laser pointer, or highlighter tool

5. The pen or highlighter

6. Click to display a menu that enables you to end the show, darken or lighten the audience screen, or go to a specific slide number

7. Click to go to the next slide

8. The elapsed time of your presentation, in hours and minutes

9. Slide thumbnails that you can click to skip a slide or to return to a slide that you already presented

Set up Presenter view

Use Presenter view in front of an audience

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Presenter View in PowerPoint

How to Use Presenter View in PowerPoint

• You can use thumbnails to select slides out of sequence and create a customized presentation for your audience.
• Preview text shows you what your next click will add to the screen, such as a new slide or the next bullet in a list.
• Speaker’s notes are shown in large, clear type so that you can use them as a script for your presentation.
• You can temporarily black out the screen during a presentation and then resume where you left off. This can come in handy during breaks or question and answer periods.

Start Presenter View

• Click the Options button.

The Presenter view fills the screen. The same presentation tools are available below the slide, and it also shows the current time and a thumbnail of the upcoming slide. At the bottom of the screen, use the arrows to move forward or backward in the presentation.

Command Buttons

At the top of the Presenter view, there are command buttons.

• Show Taskbar : Show or hide the Windows taskbar.
• Display Settings : When projecting, swap which display shows the presenter view or duplicate the slide show on both screens.
• End the Slide Show : Return to Normal view.

The timer is located at the top-left corner of the current slide. It keeps track of how long Presenter view has been running.

• Click the Pause button to temporarily stop the timer.

The Notes pane gives you a large look at any notes added to the slide. In Presenter view, you have the flexibility to change the display size.

End Presenter View

You can close Presenter view without ending the presentation entirely.

• Click the Options menu.

You return to the regular slide show view.

To close Presenter View and end the presentation, just press Esc .

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Home Blog PowerPoint Tutorials How to Work with Presenter View in PowerPoint

How to Work with Presenter View in PowerPoint

Not all presenters have excellent memory recall or the ability to speak flawlessly to the audience without any cues. However, many of them are good at hiding it by using Presenter View in PowerPoint. It is a presentation mode that enables the presenter to hide speaker notes and presentation controls from the audience while leveraging the various handy features offered by PowerPoint.

How to Use Presenter View in PowerPoint

To start using Presenter View, ensure it’s enabled before you begin your slideshow. If you are new to this feature, we recommend using this option to familiarize yourself with the various navigation options for this presentation mode. This might also be helpful if the PowerPoint templates you are accustomed to using might have animations that you might want to preview in this mode to understand when to give the next visual cue.

How to Enable Presenter View in PowerPoint

To enable PowerPoint presenter view, go to the SlideShow tab and make sure the Use Presenter View option is enabled. This will ensure that you can access Presenter View when you switch your slides to SlideShow mode.

Adjust Display Settings

You can swap between the presenter view and slideshow mode or duplicate the slideshow to exit the Presenter View from the Display Settings menu from the top toolbar.

Navigate Slides in Presenter View

Like any standard PowerPoint presentation in SlideShow mode, you can navigate between slides by using the arrow keys or with a presentation remote. Presenter View also provides slide navigation buttons to move the slides back and forth.

View Taskbar in Presenter View

The Show Taskbar option at the top enables viewing the taskbar. This can be helpful if you require using the taskbar, such as to view your battery charge, see the time, enable or disable another app from the taskbar menu, etc.

Reset or Pause the Timer

Once you start your presentation in Presenter View, a timer starts showing how much time you have spent in slideshow mode. This is an excellent way to understand how much time you have consumed for your session and to keep an eye out for good timekeeping. You can also hit Pause or reset the timer anytime.

Change the Size of the Speaker Notes

How to view notes in PowerPoint while presenting? If you have any speaker notes added to your slides, they will appear in Presenter View on your screen. You can increase or reduce the size of the text via the two options at the bottom of the speaker notes pane.

Using Annotation Tools in Presenter View

PowerPoint annotation tools can be accessed from the bottom toolbar in Presenter View. The Pen and Laser Pointer Tools button gives you access to the pen, ink colors, laser pointer, and eraser and also allows you to show or hide the mouse pointer via Arrow Options .

View All Slides in Presenter View

If you need to go back and forth to find a relevant slide for an ongoing discussion or query during your presentation, you can view all slides in Presenter View via the See all slides option.

Zoom Slides using Presenter View

PowerPoint’s Zoom feature lets presenters quickly pick a portion of the slide to zoom into. Presenter View allows you to leverage this feature by instantly selecting a portion of the slide to enlarge it after selecting Zoom into the slide option. To exit the Zoom mode or hit the Esc key.

Black or Unblack SlideShow

Sometimes, you might want to turn the screen blank for a while, such as during a mid-presentation break. The Black or Unblack SlideShow option blanks the slides for your audience while continuing to show you all navigation options via Presenter View.

Toggle Subtitles in Presenter View

One of the most revolutionary features introduced by Microsoft for PowerPoint over the past decade has been Live captions. This feature enables subtitles by converting speech to text as you present. You can toggle Live subtitles on or off while in presenter view to help your audience read what you speak.

Toggle Camera in Presenter View

Like subtitles, you can also toggle the camera on or off in Presenter View.

End Slideshow in Presenter View

There are different ways to end or exit a SlideShow from Presenter View. You can hit the Esc key or click End Slide Show . Similarly, you can click the three dots at the bottom and select End Show .

More Slideshow Options

Other than the various visibility prominent menus available to navigate, annotate, and present your slides, you can also find a few additional options via More slideshow options , which are accessible via the three dots at the bottom toolbar. These include adjusting the position of the subtitles, turning your screen white or black, ending the slideshow, etc.

How to Use Presenter View on a Single Screen

While Presenter View can be enabled to work with dual monitors, you can also use Presenter View on a single monitor with remote meeting apps like Zoom. A simple method for switching to Presenter View on a single monitor is to click the three dots ( More slideshow options ) at the bottom in SlideShow mode and select Show Presenter View .

You can also switch to Presenter View on a single monitor anytime using the ALT+F5 hotkey.

The presenter can easily manage a PPT in presentation mode, with the utility to view speaker notes, annotate or zoom slides, toggle subtitles or camera on or off, and keep your audience engaged via better slideshow management. However, if you’re new to this presentation mode, a bit of practice might help you avoid confusion when presenting before an audience in Presenter View for the first few times.

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How to use Presenter View in PowerPoint

• Categories: PowerPoint productivity , Presentation skills
• Comments: 1

Think of PowerPoint’s Presenter View like the cockpit of an aeroplane (or airplane for our American readers!). Like an experienced pilot, you have all the controls you need at your fingertips when you’re navigating your slides, whether you’re presenting online or in person, helping you give a seamless presentation and leave your audience seriously impressed.

Presenter View in PowerPoint works best if you have two monitors. On one monitor, you can display your slides for your audience to see. On the other, you have your own private view (which isn’t visible to your audience), where you can see your notes and the upcoming slide while you’re presenting.

How to start using Presenter View in PowerPoint:

– Open your presentation. – Select Slide Show in the top ribbon. – Make sure Presenter View is selected in the Monitors section. – Choose from the dropdown menu which monitor you want your presentation to appear on. (Presenter View will automatically appear on whichever monitor you don’t choose.) – When you’re ready to start presenting, click From Beginning in the Start Slide Show section of the PowerPoint ribbon, or click the Slide Show icon in the bottom right of the screen, or hit the Alt + F5 keys on your keyboard to start your presentation in Presenter View.

PowerPoint Presenter View’s most useful features (by number!):

• This is your current slide. This shows you what your audience can see. This should be the same content that is displayed on your other monitor. The timer in the top-left corner lets you keep an eye on how long you’ve spent on the slide so far, helping you to pace your presentation. You can pause or reset the timer using the icons to the right.
• Here you can see your speaker notes. While we don’t generally recommend that you read out your speaker notes like a script (because it can make you sound like a monotonous robot and make your audience disengage very quickly), it can be useful to have some prompts in the speaker notes so that you know what happens with each mouse click and so that you don’t forget the key points on each slide. You can use the font icons in the bottom left of this panel to make your speaker notes larger or smaller.
• The tracker shows you how far through your presentation you are. Click the forward or back arrows to navigate to your next or previous animation. Hitting the forward or back keys on your keyboard will do the same thing.
• This is a preview of your next animation or next slide. This shows you what’s coming up next, which helps you to transition seamlessly from one slide to another.
• The Pen and laser pointer:  This allows you to write on or highlight a particular part of your slide as you present. Adding ink annotations while you’re presenting won’t change your original slides – you can choose whether to keep or discard your annotations when you end your slide show.
• The See all slides tool: Click this to view thumbnails of all the slides in your presentation without your audience seeing. This means you can jump straight to a specific slide without flicking through all the slides in between.
• The Zoom tool:  Use this to magnify a specific part of your slide. This is handy if you need to draw your audience’s attention to a particular detail.
• The Black or un-black tool:  Use this to blank out the screen the audience sees. This is helpful whenever you want to release your audience’s attention from the slide content and back to you (e.g., during a Q&A). You can choose whether you want the blank screen to be black or white by clicking on the More slide show options icon at the far-right end of the toolbar.
• Toggle subtitles:  Use this to turn automated subtitles on or off. You can adjust subtitle settings (such as language and where the subtitles appear on your slide) by clicking on the More slide show options icon.
• Click Show taskbar to open another program on your private monitor. This can be useful if you need to pull up another document without changing what your audience sees.
• Select Display settings to swap the monitors your slides and Presenter View appear on.
• Click End slide show when you’ve finished presenting. Hitting the Esc key on your keyboard will also close Slide Show mode and Presenter View.

And there you have it! Now you know everything there is to know about PowerPoint’s Presenter View. Give it a try next time you present – you might find it helps you to navigate and deliver your slides more confidently.

And for more tips on presenting, check out our ULTIMATE guide to presentation skills .

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Also you can resize the sections (next slide preview, notes etc) if necessary: https://imgur.com/a/2NnYECf

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