Slide Show View in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac

Have you created all your slides, and now you want to show them in front of an audience? Or perhaps, you want to use this slide deck in a webinar, or even see it yourself to understand how it looks 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, below.

Figure 1: Slide Show view

Start Slide Show

To access Slide Show view in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac, 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, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below.
2. 
   Figure 2: Slide Show button on the Status Bar
3. To exit Slide Show view, press the Esc key.
2. You can also access the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon, as shown in Figure 3, below.
3. 
   Figure 3: Slide Show tab of the Ribbon
4. Then, choose one of the following options (both of them are highlighted in blue within Figure 3, 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.


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End Slide Show

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

1. Press the Esc (Escape) key.
2. Right-click or Ctrl + click on the slide, and choose the End Show option in the resultant menu, as shown in Figure 4, below.
3. 
   Figure 4: 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 four watermarked navigation icons, as shown in Figure 5, below.

Figure 5: Navigation icons within Slide Show view

These icons are explained below, as marked in Figure 5, above:

A. Previous Slide

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

B. Pen Tool

Click on this icon to bring up a menu, as shown in Figure 6, below.

Figure 6: Pen options

The options within this menu are explained below:

1. Automatic: When selected, this option shows the pointer automatically.
2. Hidden: Selecting this option hides the pointer.
3. Arrow: This option shows the pointer arrow.
4. Pen: When you select this option, the pointer works almost like a virtual highlighter pen. You can actually scribble and annotate over your slide almost like writing on a whiteboard.
5. Pen Color: You can change the Pen color through the Pen Color menu option. Hover the cursor over the Pen Color option to open a sub-menu, as shown in Figure 7, below. Here, select a color for your annotations.


Figure 7: Pen Color Menu

C. More Options

This icon, when clicked, opens a menu, as shown in Figure 8, below, in which is similar to the right-click contextual menu, as shown in Figure 4, previously on this page, including Use Presenter View option to access the Presenter view directly, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 8.

Figure 8: The More Options menu

D. Next Slide

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

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, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 9, below.

Figure 9: Set Up Slide Show button

Alternatively, you can Shift + click the Slide Show button on the Status Bar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, previously on this page. Either of these options brings up the Set Up Show dialog box, as shown in Figure 10, below.

Figure 10: Set Up Show dialog box

In the Show type area, you can choose the Browsed by an individual (window) option, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 10, above. Turning on this option plays your presentation in a window, as shown in Figure 11, below.

Figure 11: Slide Show within a window

Also within the Set Up Show dialog box, you will find Browsed at a kiosk (full screen) option, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 10, 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.

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.