Presenter View in PowerPoint 365 for Mac

Presenter View in PowerPoint 365 for Mac is a purpose-built view that accompanies Slide Show view. This view is beneficial in an environment that has at least two displays such as a laptop and a projector, or even two monitors attached to your desktop system. The projector or the secondary display then shows the actual slides, in what is commonly called Slide Show view. However, you see Presenter view on the laptop or on the primary display.

Figure 1 below shows Presenter view. Notice that you get to see much more than just the slide. Rest assured that the audience viewing the projector or secondary output only sees the slide!

Figure 1: Presenter view in PowerPoint 365 for Mac

While Presenter view in older versions of PowerPoint had to be manually turned on, newer versions of PowerPoint automatically detect if you have two displays, and turn on Presenter view. You should however still check and ensure that this view shows up on your primary display and not on the secondary display. We show you how you can swap displays using the Use Slide Show option later in this tutorial.

If you are using only a single display, you can still choose to change to Presenter view from within Slide Show view. Hover your cursor over the bottom left area of the slide to find five watermarked navigation icons. Click the fourth icon, and from the resultant menu, choose the Use Presenter View option, as shown in Figure 2, below.

Figure 2: Use Presenter View option

Alternatively, you can access the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon and click the Presenter View button as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3.

Figure 3: Presenter View button

Either of the above options brings up PowerPoint 365's Presenter View, as previously shown in Figure 1, and again in Figure 4, below.

Figure 4: Presenter view interface

We explain all these features, and more next, as marked above in Figure 4.

A. Toolbar

Here you find three options:

1. End Show: Closes Presenter view and returns to Normal view.
2. Use Slide Show: This option, when clicked closes Presenter view and returns to the Slide Show view.
3. Tips: Brings up the Slide Show and Presenter View Tips window, as shown in Figure 5.
4. 
   Figure 5: Slide Show and Presenter View Tips window

B. Timer

Shows above the Slide Preview area, as shown in Figure 6, below. The Timer determines the time elapsed since the slide show started. Additionally, PowerPoint provides two buttons for Pause/Resume and Restart.

Figure 6: Slide Preview and Timer

C. Preview area

This shows the active slide (see Figure 6, above). The same slide is simultaneously displayed full-screen on the projected screen (secondary display).

D. Next Slide

Towards the right of the Preview area, you'll find a preview of the next slide.

E. Notes pane

This section displays the notes (if there are any) for the current slide. Here you'll find two buttons to Make the text larger and Make the text smaller (highlighted in red within Figure 4, earlier on this page).

F. Navigation

Click the Previous Slide or the Next Slide arrow buttons to navigate to those slides. Also, the area in between shows which slide is active out of the total number of slides.

G. Slides pane

The bottom area of Presenter view shows thumbnail views of all slides in the active presentation. You can click any of these slide thumbnails to make it the active, projected slide.