The more confident and effective your presentation, the more you can focus on your content and captivate your audience. This article will provide you with important tips and helpful advice on navigating a PowerPoint presentation.

You'll probably already be familiar with some of the tips described in this blog post, but you can certainly benefit from some of the techniques you learn here in your next presentation. The relevance of some tips might seem unclear at first glance. But if you're not controlling your presentation while standing at your computer, but rather using a wireless mouse, for example, it can be extremely useful to know how to return to the beginning of your slide presentation with a single mouse click.

Part 1 – From the start of the presentation to standard help functions

• Using shortcuts during the presentation
• The help menu is accessed via the F1 key.
• Notes on the "hidden" dialog menu and the context menu
• Switch programs during the presentation
• Working correctly with hyperlinks
• Use interactive buttons

The next posts:

Part 2 – Creating your own navigation menu and a break slide

• Create your own navigation menus
• Effective use of the slide master in the navigation menu
• Displaying a "pause image" at any time

Part 3 – Orientation – for the speaker and the audience

• Incorporation of section slides to orient the audience.
• Keep your agenda “always in view”
• Do you work with two monitors?

Part 4 – Presenter View and other features of PowerPoint 2013/16

• Using the presenter view in PPT 2013/16
• What's new or different in the new versions?
• More tips & tricks

1) Use of shortcuts during the presentation

With a few hotkeys, you can quickly perform actions before and during the presentation.

Start of the presentation

Start of presentation from the active slide

Ending the presentation (If you have just reached the last slide, a black screen will appear.)

There are many ways to jump back and forth within the presentation. Get into the habit of always using the same keys to perform the actions.

During the presentation, you can advance to the next slide using the left mouse button, the RETURN key, and the SPACEBAR. Alternatively, you can use the down arrow key and the Page Down key. Similarly, the up arrow key and the Page Up key will take you back one slide.

You can also (carefully) turn the mouse wheel in the appropriate direction (this is often prone to errors, as you are frequently standing in front of the laptop at this moment, or with very smooth-running mouse wheels, you turn them much too far, and the corrections make you look unprofessional). Pressing the N key (next), the P key (previous), or the Backspace key will take you to the previous slide.

If you give a lot of presentations, you should consider getting a so-called "presenter," which offers many of these functions wirelessly, so you don't have to sit at your laptop or use a mouse. Some of these devices also have a fairly long range, allowing you to be near or even behind the audience. (Advantages: From there, you see things from the audience's perspective.) , You break down the standard situation of "speaker here – audience there", you can directly perceive your audience and perhaps their position, and thus you loosen up the atmosphere.)

With You will always be taken to the first slide. You can also get there in presentation mode by holding down both mouse buttons simultaneously for about 1-2 seconds.

With the button Always come to the end of the presentation.

You can also jump directly to a specific slide in your presentation by entering the slide number and then pressing RETURN. The drawback is that you need to know the slide number. However, this method can sometimes be very quick for getting to slide 1. Enter a number higher than the number of slides in your presentation to jump to the last slide.

With this combination All slide numbers will be displayed in a separate menu, which you can then select as desired. You can close this menu again by pressing ESC.

Furthermore, these shortcuts, as well as the features described here, are (almost) identical in PowerPoint 2016. If there are any changes regarding this topic in the new version, you can find information about them in Part 4 of this blog series. Part 4 will also cover the presenter view in particular.

Sometimes the mouse pointer gets in the way on the slide. (With the button) You can show and hide the mouse pointer, or it will automatically reappear when you move the mouse. If you press the Ctrl key while moving the mouse, the mouse pointer will remain hidden during that movement. If you press the left mouse button after pressing the Ctrl key, you will see the mouse pointer as a colored ring.

Occasionally, it becomes necessary to give longer explanations without the slides in the middle of a presentation. To prevent the audience from being distracted from the current slide, you can turn off the screen by pressing the [key]. (white) or turn the comma white. This is particularly useful when providing additional explanations on a pinboard or flipchart, as it further illuminates the room.

In other cases, this isn't so convenient, because you might want to work with an interactive whiteboard or something similar. In that case, you can't use the screen with the Switch to black by pressing the (black) button or by pressing the dot.

Pressing one of the four buttons again will return the normal screen.

An interesting solution is the key dar.

For example, if you have hidden a slide in your presentation (click on the slide in the slide overview and right-click > Hide Slide ), it would normally be skipped when the slides advance sequentially. However, you might be anticipating a specific question during a presentation and want to show a particular slide (balance sheets, etc.). In that case, press the H key and you will be taken to the next hidden slide!

2) The help menu with the F1 key

Since you don't use all the shortcuts all the time, you'll probably forget one or two. PowerPoint offers a built-in help function for this.

In presentation mode, you can use the button Display the standard help menu and read the most important tips for navigation and other actions under the "General" tab.

(You can learn more about the help menus in PowerPoint version 2016 in Part 4.)

Clicking on the other three tabs in the menu above will offer you further options/help, which you should definitely try out so that you can use them appropriately at any time later, depending on your needs and desires.

3) Notes on the "hidden" dialog menu and the context menu

When presenting, you can right-click and a context menu with similar functions will open. Here you will find some of the action options shown above, which can then be selected directly with the mouse. (On the right in the example: Go to slide 13).

In the lower left corner of your screen, there is an additional small menu box that you only see when you move your mouse cursor close to the icons there. Here you can also go forward or backward one slide, activate the pen, or turn on the context menu shown earlier.

4) Switching programs during the presentation

For complex presentation topics, you may need to switch to other programs, such as Excel or Word, several times. There are several ways to do this.

Using the key combination In presentation mode, the taskbar will appear at the bottom of the screen. Here you can select the application you need. Once you have finished working in that program, you can either close or minimize it to return to your presentation. You can hide the taskbar again by clicking outside of it with your mouse.

Another possibility is the combination. Here you can see all open programs listed at a glance, including their filenames (!). This allows you to select the next application more quickly and efficiently. Simply hold down the ALT key and repeatedly press the TAB key to move to the next program, or click on the desired application with your mouse. Once you've finished working in the other program, you can repeat this key combination to return to your PowerPoint presentation.

TIP: Before you begin your presentation, you should completely close all unnecessary programs, as it can be disadvantageous if the entire room discovers important or unpublished information or sees which internet pages are currently open.

An unusual tip :

In workshops and training courses of all kinds, it often happens that you show a slide but want to immediately add changes or additions directly to it. This is very easy:

• Stay in presentation mode.
• Press ALT + TAB to switch to your PowerPoint file (the currently presented slide will be displayed).
• Enter the corrections.

Pressing ALT + TAB will take you back to your presentation and show you the corrected areas.

5) Working correctly with hyperlinks

You are probably familiar with the standard hyperlink in text form from the internet and many software products, e.g., www.presentationload.de . This method of accessing another application is, of course, also applicable in PowerPoint.

However, the following conditions must generally be observed:

• Hyperlinks are only enabled in presentation mode.
• The formatting must conform to the classic style of an internet address so that it is directly converted into a hyperlink.
• Only after the text input is completed with a RETURN key will the hyperlink be automatically recognized as such. By default, the entire link is underlined.
• In presentation mode, you can always see immediately, even if the text is not underlined, whether it is just plain text or a hyperlink – in the case of a hyperlink, an interactive button, etc., the mouse pointer turns into a hand.

A) Here, only the text was written – without a RETURN statement at the end. The link would not work in presentation mode.

B) The hyperlink is underlined and immediately recognizable as such.

C) When you move the mouse pointer over the link, it changes into a hand and the complete target address is shown again as a so-called quick info.

Clicking with the mouse will immediately jump to the specified address. If you don't have a mouse connected, you can use the TAB key to move to the (next) hyperlink and press RETURN to activate it. To show you which hyperlink you are currently viewing, each element is indicated by a dashed border.

Change the color of the hyperlink / text

Select the hyperlink. Then, in the ribbon, click Design > Themes > Colors > New Theme Colors . The menu shown below will appear. Here you can define the hyperlink's color as well as the color change after clicking the link. Give your theme a new name and save it.

The color of the hyperlink display depends on the set design, meaning you shouldn't be surprised if you insert slides into a different presentation and the links are displayed in a different color.

Delete the underline on the link

If you don't want the hyperlink to be underlined, you can easily achieve this with a simple trick. Click within the text of the web address. Right-click to open the context menu and select "Remove Hyperlink ." Then, click around the entire text box and select "Insert Hyperlink" from the context menu. Finally, enter the web address in the field below. This way, the hyperlink refers to the entire text box, not just the text itself, and there will be no underlining!

Another workaround can be used if the hyperlink needs to be within the body text.

Place a rectangle over the entire text (shown here on the left in gray and smaller as an example). Then select "No border" and set the fill color to 100% transparency . The shape will then be invisibly placed over the text (here over the last/right part of the web address). When you then hover over the text in presentation mode, the mouse pointer will change back to a hand. Viewers will not initially see that there is a hyperlink at all.

ATTENTION: In older PowerPoint versions, it may happen that the link cannot be activated when the setting > No Fill is selected , as the fill is not clickable; therefore, it is always better to work with > 100% transparency .

This technique of using a virtually invisible area as a link can be applied in a variety of ways. More details will follow in upcoming blog posts.

Two important points to note beforehand, which we will discuss in more detail later in this blog series:

• If you jump to another slide of the same presentation within PowerPoint, you can assume that you have also inserted a link on the target slide to return to the original slide – or use > Last Viewed Slide , because otherwise you cannot return to the original slide.
• If you switch to another application or website, you can return in various ways.

Working with the "Quickinfo"

If you have set a hyperlink to an external website, in presentation mode, when you move the mouse pointer (hand) over the button, the address you specified in the menu > Edit Hyperlink will be displayed by default.

A) This internet address is listed in the menu.

B) This exact address is shown in the tooltip when you hover your mouse pointer over the button (arrow).

In some cases (e.g., for data protection reasons), you might not want this display. In that case, you can quickly work around it as follows: In the menu , click Edit Hyperlink and then the button > Tooltip . You can now enter your own text.

A) Here again is the button > Quick Info

B) In this case, after the tooltip was displayed, only a space was pressed during text input. You will then only see this small rectangle next to the mouse pointer.

C) You can also enter a longer, custom text.

Absolute and relative hyperlinks

First of all: Contrary to earlier definitions, the terms "link" and "hyperlink" are now synonymous. Anyone familiar with links will know this difference. In PowerPoint, the situation is slightly different than you might expect. Basically, you can work with a relative or an absolute target address.

For example, if you want to link to another document located in the same folder as your presentation, a relative hyperlink only contains the file name. This is sufficient because the rest of the path is identical for both documents.

With an absolute hyperlink, the complete path of the file directory is taken from the "root directory" or network server, e.g.:

C:\\Users\NAME\Documents\PRESENTATIONLOAD\PresentationLoad\Filename.pptx

Absolute hyperlinks are always useful when you have documents stored in various file directories within a company and want to link them.

In contrast, relative hyperlinks are only useful if you are using documents in the same folder (the presentation).

This background information is particularly important if you want to burn your presentation, which contains hyperlinks, to a CD or distribute it on a USB stick. Within your company, all the established (absolute) hyperlinks work perfectly. However, if you play your presentation on a different computer, you won't be able to establish any connections because the directory structure on that system is completely different. Your linked files will also not be automatically copied.

If you want to work with your links in a different system, proceed as follows:

The safest way to solve this problem is to first put all documents belonging to the presentation into the same directory, define their links, and then distribute these files together with the presentation (!) . On the external system, you must maintain this configuration or update the links; otherwise, they will no longer work.

Nevertheless, it can happen that links posted on the external system do not work. Therefore, you should always test the links on the external computer before each presentation to resolve any potential problems before the presentation begins.

6) Use interactive buttons

Regardless of the options described above, you can insert buttons into your presentation that lead to a different application: these are called interactive buttons. These are offered by default in PowerPoint and are located at the bottom of the list of shapes.

These are pre-made shapes, some of which are labeled with an icon whose meaning is generally known: back, forward, to the beginning, to the end, document, return, help, etc. The last field in the row, on the far right, has no icon and is labeled "Customize." But it is ultimately just a frame showing an empty area.

A special feature is the "Last Viewed Slide" button, as the system saves your previous position. This allows you to jump back to a completely different part of your presentation at any time.

A) If you now select the first field on the left in the row, “Back”, you can place this shape anywhere on the slide and freely draw the shape as a square (with the SHIFT key pressed) or rectangle.

B) Next, the menu of the so-called "Action Settings" opens with the "Mouse Click" tab. Here you can see that "Hyperlink to" is already selected and the field below it says "Previous Slide".

The process works in the same way if you select a different interactive button from the shape row – the respective function is always already selected.

However, if you click on the small arrow to the right of the text box, you'll see that you can also select other actions. This includes actions that are normally represented by a different button in this row. You should avoid this if possible, though, because it's very confusing if you think you're going back a slide and something else happens instead.

However, you can also navigate to a specific slide in the active presentation, a web address, or another file by selecting this option. This means that, unlike the procedure described in point 4, clicking this button/form will take you to a different application. If it's a PowerPoint presentation, simply press ESC after you've finished, and you'll be back in your first presentation. For other programs, you'll need to minimize or close them to return.

You can design the shapes of the interactive buttons however you like.

A) This is what the original button looks like.

B) Here, the fill has been changed twice (blue, gray). The icons within the buttons are automatically set off from the main fill and filled with a matching color.

C) In some cases, it is appropriate to work with only a white outline.

D) You can also insert text into all interactive buttons (just like a standard PowerPoint shape). However, pay attention to the readability of the text, and therefore also to the size of the button and the color of the fill and font.

E) In this respect, the "Customize" button offers a significant advantage, as it has no predefined icon. This allows you to design your own button. A subtle 3D design can enhance the button's appearance.

F) In this form, a link to a website can look more appealing than a simple internet address embedded in the text.

TIP: Once you've designed a button, you can simply copy it. This way, you can quickly create your own suitable buttons. You only need to change the text content, color, and/or link depending on the purpose, to build a library of different buttons that you can then use in various presentations.

A) The rectangular shape served as the starting point. It was copied, and then a rectangle with rounded corners was selected using > Drawing Tools Format > Edit Shape > Change Shape . The first shape was then converted into an arrow. Additionally, you could, for example, keep all buttons that jump to specific slides in your presentation in a uniform color. This will further improve clarity when navigating.

B) Here, only the name of the address and, of course, the URL itself have been changed for the various buttons. Keep all your links to internet addresses in this design; you will quickly recognize the meaning of each button during presentations – even if they are labeled differently.

Copying an interactive button to another presentation produces different results. If it's a complete web address, the address is copied, and the hyperlink works in the second presentation as well. However, if you're only navigating within a presentation, the button unfortunately won't work automatically in the new presentation. The link only works if you explicitly edit the hyperlink and reselect the desired slide. (See the explanations above regarding relative and absolute hyperlinks.)

SUMMARY:

• With the interactive buttons, you can quickly create shortcuts to other files or applications after a short learning curve and make good use of the pre-made icons. However, you usually need custom graphic solutions for your buttons, which are better achieved with a different approach.
• If you have followed the above explanations carefully, then you can surely already imagine which solution is better, because: You can add a hyperlink to (almost) any shape, image or graphic!
• Furthermore, a custom-created hyperlink can be edited more easily. More on that in the next section.

We hope you enjoy trying it out!