I just fell in love.
If you hook up a projector to your laptop, you can configure the projector to be a second screen rather than a copy of what’s on your laptop display. When you do, your presentation shows up on the projector, but your laptop display shows something else – Presenter View. This has been around for several versions of PowerPoint on both Windows and Mac, but the new Office 2011 for the Mac just kicked it up a notch.
Here’s what my laptop screen shows while I’m presenting:
At the top, there’s a bar showing how far into your presentation you’re currently at – giving you an at-a-glance idea of whether you’re on track. There’s buttons for Swap Displays (for easier dual-monitor setup), Tips (showing the keystroke shortcuts like B to black out the audience screen), and Exit Show.
On the left, “Step 3” is the current slide that the audience is seeing.
To the right, “One Approach: Wait” is the next slide that the audience will see. This helps you build better segues.
At the bottom left, there’s my slide notes for the current slide.
At the bottom right, I can type in meeting notes live without exiting my presentation. This is great when someone asks me a question that I want to address later, or if there’s something I want to add to my presentation the next time I give it.
Move your mouse to the bottom of the screen, and PowerPoint pops up thumbnails for your slides, giving you a quick way to jump around from slide to slide without the audience getting dizzy:
Even if Office 2011 doesn’t bring any other improvements, that’s enough for me. This is the kind of tool that helps me be a better presenter. YAY!
If you’re an MSDN or TechNet subscriber, you can download Office 2011 for the Mac through your subscriptions downloads. Amazon’s selling Office 2011 for $175 today.
109 Comments. Leave new
That’s amazing. I was talking to someone at SQL Saturday this past weekend about this very thing. It was along the lines of: “I wish PowerPoint would allow me to see my notes while they view the screen.”
I’m so going to use this next time I present.
That definitely melted a little bit of my face off.
I haven’t done a presentation in so long (I think the last one I did was with PPT 2003), I have no idea how much of that is new for 2011 or if some of it is Windows side in 2010. If half of that stuff is, I’ll be a damn happy camper.
The current & next slide, timer, and slide notes are available in Office 2007 & 2010, but I haven’t seen the progress bar, meeting notes, or keyboard shortcut tips.
timer is for the entire presentation, correct? Not just the current slide?
That’s excellent stuff, thanks for the heads up!
Jon – yep, the timer’s for the entire presentation. With Keynote you can put a clock on there instead, but PowerPoint doesn’t have that, unfortunately. I’d rather have a clock, but I can’t be picky. 😀
I have to try this out before my next SQL Saturday.
Thx for the tip!
See you at SQL PASS! Woohoo!
Brent,
Office 2010 Powerpoint Presenter View on Win 7 shows your progress with a slide counter, timer, and a clock. I’ll send a pic via Twitter so you can see.
Took a few minutes to setup. Have to use Extended Desktop for it to work.
This is the key thing. If you don’t use Extended Desktop, you end up only using a small part of the monitor!
Anyone else having a problem seeing the images? Tried Firefox and IE,same thing….
I am having problems with the images in Chrome for Mac as well.
I used PowerPoint for Mac 2011 today to give a presentation. It was great. Brent, you are correct, the progress bar at the top of the screen is priceless.
Brent-
What do you do for demos? I’ve stayed away from falling for this view due to the need to jump from SSMS to PowerPoint. That would leave me needed to either watch the projected screen with the audience or switching from extended to clones screens.
Great question! Whenever possible, I do my demos as screenshots. I know, the hard-core people in the room will boo, but I’ve found that I can usually teach most of the audience most of what they need to know without diving into SSMS. I’d rather show someone a perfectly zoomed & cropped image than make them suffer with ZoomIt bouncing around all over the place.
However, when I need to do demos, I lump them together in one very long stretch – I do slides, then demos, then slides again, and I only cut over once. I *abhor* presentations that are slides-demos-slides-demos-slides-demos-slides – did you *really* need those slides in the middle, or could you have just talked without the crutch of PowerPoint?
But that’s just me. 😀
Oh no. This latest version of Office for Mac has just destroyed the single killer function of PowerPoint for Mac that it had over Keynote – the ability to scroll through all your slides while in a presentation, without changing the slide that’s projected, and choose another slide, even if it’s 30 slides on. This was brilliant, especially if like me you have large banks of slides that you choose parts of in different talks or lectures, or if you change your talk in response to audience questions, or to the changing flow of a presentation, or to differing audience responses. I’m going to reinstall the last version just for this….
Jon – it’s still there. Just move your mouse to the bottom of the Presenter View screen.
Oh, thanks, Brent! I really appreciate your sharing that. I feel dumb to have missed it.
OK – so now I get it. Drop down to the bottom of the screen and a POP UP bar appears with all the slide thumbnails and a scroll bar. I eat my words… cool feature 🙂
But hold on a minute – what if I want to turn this function off so I can prepare something on my laptop in another presentation while still showing the Powerpoint presentation in the projector? Or if I want to take real notes in word or something while the projector shows the presentation? How do I turn this nice (but not always wanted!) function off? Anyone?
Sorry – should have typed “…in another APPLICATION…”
Reece – you can turn presenter view on and off by configuring your laptop to use split screens or a single screen.
When I try this, I get the “presenter” view on the projector. Have for a long time used presentation view but 2011 defaults to presenter view as soon as I plug in mac dongle and shows both screens on the projector. Is there a toggle?
I’m with you Neil, doesn’t seem to be a way to turn it off. If I set up separate screens before starting powerpoint and kicking off a presentation I still get the two Powerpoint views. When I stop the I need to find the toggle if there is one because this is very frustrating.
Sorry guys if this sounds like a broken record, but is anyone able to help Ned and I with our question? Is there a way (when connected to an external display/projector) to prevent Powerpoint 2011 from going into Presenter View on my laptop screen while Presentation mode is activated on the external display? We want to be able to stop Presenter mode coming up so that we are still free to use a different application on the laptop screen while presenting on the projector from Powerpoint.
Any ideas?
Having just switched to Mac, and being used to doing this on my previous computer, I would love to know… have been Googling for days trying to find the answer. So if anyone has figured this out PLEASE share!
Reece & Neil – no, you can’t run a different application on the laptop screen while you’re presenting on the projector with PowerPoint.
At the risk of sounding like a jerk, when you’re presenting, you should only be focusing on the presentation. Presenting isn’t one of those things you can do while multitasking.
Sorry Brent
One of the principles of usability is flexibility, i.e. the software should not demand the user works in a specific way.
As others have explained, not all presentations are the presenter speaking to a silent audience, often presentations are a dialog, particularly when presenting to a client.
Cam – I’m sorry that PowerPoint doesn’t meet your needs. If you find software that does, please feel free to add it as a note here. Thanks for your feedback, and good luck with your search.
Hi Brent,
thanks for the response and a final ‘answer’. I think the risk was fulfilled! You need to put yourself in the shoes of someone presenting some work and having to record feedback from a client at the same time. Yes you can record notes in the Powerpoint file, but that’s not where you want them. Project management rarely happens using powerpoint. It’s a nice feature to be able to record notes while you present on the .pptx file, but quite naive to think that it’s a good solution for more than about 20% of the time. For me the auto Presenter Notes function is a pain in the you know what.
Thanks for getting us an answer though Brent!
Cheers,
Reece
Reece – I *am* in that position all the time. Put your notes in the Presenter Notes screen, and when you’re done, copy/paste those into the app of your choosing.
And you’re right, project management should NEVER happen using PowerPoint. If you’re doing project management, put your project management tool up on the screen. Your audience probably doesn’t like PowerPoint either. Edward Tufte’s class is really mind-opening for this kind of thing.
Stumbled upon this discussion while trying to find some way to turn Presenter Tools OFF in preferences, so that I don’t have to manually turn the feature off every time I open a presentation.
There are times when I like to have the Presenter tools on, and I have enjoyed this feature for several years (going back to PPT 2003). But I want to run the program myself, not have Microsoft programmers decide that I will grow to like something. And, in fact, the sticking point for me is when I want to overlay PPT with I>Clicker, a “multi-tasking solution” that used to be very simple is now unnecessarily complicated.
Thinking of dumping PPT for this very problem’s intractibility.
Are you aware of a way to turn the over-ride off in Preferences?
Roger – all you have to do is disable multi-monitor support in Windows so that the audience sees the same thing you do. Most modern laptops have a hotkey for this, like Function-something. Check with your laptop manual for details.
Brent,
Thanks for the tip. I’ll give it a try.
Hey brother, i have a question:
I used to Present with Powerpoint 2010, with P2010, you can do anything you want althought you are presenting, but with P2011, you can’t, and not able to write more on pages or repair powerpoint when you are presenting.
So, How can i do ? Borther ? Plesase
Raul – PowerPoint 2010 is a Windows program, and PowerPoint 2011 is a Mac program. You might have some things confused there.
Ok, Ok, that’s right.
I have a parallel 6.0 soft for Mac and i can use Windows Program for mac
Anyway, Thanks you very much ^^
Brent, in PowerPoint 2011’s Presenter View, is it possible to change the size of the two images on the screen: current slide and next slide. Sometimes smaller type on the next slide is hard to read. (I’m 20-20 corrected).
The problem we have is different. On a 11″ Mac Air the slides can be difficult to read due to the small size of the screen. You should be able to turn off the presenter options.
Question:
Using a Mac and PowerPoint 2011. I accidentally swapped the screens (meaning the audience sees my presenter view with two windows, timer, etc. And I am looking at full screen on my laptop). Been Googling for solutions, but I can’t seem to change it.
Anyone solved this problem yet?
Many thanks.
Yuri – just click the Swap Display button at the top of the presenter view screen.
Just had the same thing some days ago, and the problem is that my mouse doesn’t appear on the screen where my presenter view is now projected, so it is impossible to swap display. I had to go with the mirror view and lost all the advantage of this new function.
Any other way to swap display?
I’m having the same exact problem. Clicked “swap display” to see what would happen… BUT… the mouse doesn’t appear on the screen for me to be able to click the “swap display” button the second time.
Any help anyone?
I am having the same problem, can’t swap back now that Presenter Mode is on the audience screen.
and….ever since doing this, my laptop’s desktop wallpaper resorts to default Mac starry sky not my selected photo.
VERY frustrated.
not to mention Presenter view now crashes PPT 2011 every time I try it.
In PowerPoint 2011, just click Slide Show in the menu bar, then Set Up Show. Click on the Screen button at the bottom. Click on the monitor you’d like to show the presentation on.
I found that you had to move the mouse while looking at the projected image on the screen (e.g. you won’t see the mouse moving on your laptop screen) until you get it onto “swap screen”. Click on this and you should have the single screen up front and the presenter’s view on your laptop.
I found that you had to move the mouse while looking at the projected image on the screen (e.g. you won’t see the mouse moving on your laptop screen) until you get it onto “swap screen”. Click on this and you should have the single screen up front and the presenter’s view on your laptop.
How do you turn the damn presentation view off? I have two moniters connected and I want to view my damn slides on one moniter in a slide show view and use my other moniter write notes on a different applications. This is ridiculous because there is NO way to turn it off when two moniters are connected.
Tyler – set up Windows so that you’re outputting the same thing to both displays.
How do you configure the projector to be a second screen? This looks awesome!
Thanks in advance
Chris
G’day, In presenter view I have lost the ‘next slide’ view. The space in the top right is blank where it used to be. Can anyone help me get it back. I love this function.
best wishes
andrew
The answer is simple….when you find it out….
Steps
1. Go into Powerpoint Preferences
2. Turn on Ribbon Preferences
3. When you see the Ribbon on the Powerpoint screen ( Home, Themes, Tables, Charts, SmartArts, Transitions, Animations, Slide Show, Review) — Click on Slide Show.
4. To the Right you will See “Setting for Two displays” ( 1. Presenter View 2. Mirror Show) —
5. Click on Mirror Show and you will be out of Presenter View.
Thanks. The solution is quick and sane.
Just got Office 2011 — I’m a university professor and so the Presenter View is very helpful for seeing what’s next, timing, etc. Tried it in this new version for the first time in my class today though and the Presenter View kept showing on the large screen instead of just on mine. I have “mirroring” turned off. Any idea of what’s going on? Do I have a preference checked that I should not or something like that? Thanks in advance for any help you can give me…
Hi Jennifer,
What you have to do is on the ‘large screen’ using your mouse, go to the ‘swap view’ (I guess it is ‘swap view’, the first icon towards the center -top side – of the large screen) and you have the presenter view on your screen and power point slide on the ‘large screen’.
Hope you have figured it out by now, but just in case if you need it…
I have the same problem. On my computer it switches as soon as I project it on the screen. Then the ‘swap’ button shows up on the projected screen but not on my computer, so I can’s swap them. I’d love to find out how you did it once you figure out how to do it. Please email me directly britta.hanks@bsd7.org if you figure it out. I have been trying for months.
Britta
I have this problem too, a student swapped my screens while doing a presentation (he actually admitted that he just ‘clicks on things’ if something goes wrong!) and now I’m having trouble swapping it back as the mouse icon doesn’t appear on the projector screen where the ‘swap’ button is – very useful!
Any solutions much appreciated…
I would love to be able to use the Presenter view with my new MacBookPro – but Powerpoint doesn’t see the projector as a 2nd screen – so it won’t let me use dual view of Presenter View. I went through all the settings on my projector (Epson PowerLite 84+) and I don’t see where I could change that. Right now I am limited to either both the laptop and projector showing Presenter or Slideshow, but not Presenter only on my laptop. 🙁 Any help would be much appreciated.
Catherine – click on the Apple logo at the top left of your screen, then System Preferences, then Displays. On the Arrangement tab, uncheck the Mirror option.
The Arrangement tab doesn’t show up. Could it be that I am using a USB cord to connect and not the DVMiniDisplay cord (I think that’s what it is calle – it has a lightening bolt)?
Ah, yeah, that doesn’t sound like a typical display. Try using a normal display cable like VGA or DisplayPort.
Thanks – I will definitely try that.
Brent, I am a teacher and used the presenter view a little. Then a student used my computer and now what I see on my laptop is switched w. what is projected on the wall, meaning I see the current slide on my laptop and they see the presenter view on the wall. I can’t click ‘swap displays’ on the top b/c that’s on the wall and not on my laptop. do you know of a short cut to swap screens?
Britta – why can’t you use your mouse or trackpad to move the pointer over to the wall and click on Swap Screens?
Because the mouse shows up on my laptop but not on the wall. the ‘swap’ button is only on the wall, not on my laptop (because they are reversed). It won’t let me click the swap before I connect it to the projector. Complicated, but I’m hoping you can help me. Please let me know if I need to explain it a little better.
Britta – if the projector is too dim to see your mouse, then plug in a monitor and do it.
I developed a Jeopardy! game using Office for Mac 2011. Everything works fine in Slide View. When I switch to Presenter View I get a problem. The hyperlinks change colors when clicked on the Jeopardy! slide but none change on the Double Jeopardy! slide. I checked the settings and they are correct. If I go back to Slide View the problem persists. So, in summary, all works fine in Slide view, but hyperlink color change quits on Double Jeopardy! slide when using Presenter View. After that it no longer in works in Slide View. Somehow Presenter View breaks something. Any suggestions?
JJK – sorry, you’ve got me there. Have you contacted Microsoft for support?
No, but I did discover something last night. I completely redid the Double Jeopardy! slide last night and deleted the old one. Voilá, it worked flawlessly when I ran it through using the Slide View. But, then I checked it using the Presenters View and the hyperlinks failed in DJ! I returned to Slide View to run the program but it too didn’t change the hyperlink colors in DJ. So at least I know now that the problem lies in Presenters View. I need to use the Presenters View because the presentation is highly technical and I need to be able to see the answers before they appear.
Sorry that I posted this twice. I was weary from messing with this last night and had forgotten that I had already posted. 🙂
My query is about Presenter View in Powerpoint 2011 for Mac.
The picture of the Presenter’s screen that you show (and which is shown in Help) is not what I see on my Mac. On my Mac, only the current slide is shown, not the next slide, the clock is in a different place etc. These differences would be understandable if the format of the Presenter’s Screen were CUSTOMISABLE. However, as far as I can tell it is NOT customisable (unlike Apple’s Keynote). Am I missing something?
Thanks
Richard Dawkins
I am getting exactly the same problem with a small image of the live slide. This makes Presenter view pretty useless. The slide notes are huge (which I don’t use) and the scrolling slides at the bottom only show up when the mouse is over them, which makes them also pretty useless. It used to work perfectly with the previous OS. Is it related to MAC OS X version 10.7.1?
The problem goes away if you shrink the notes. Below a certain size, the next slide returns. I learned this after several lousy lectures, not knowing what to expect next.
Thank you! Not obvious that they could be shrunk, but not work a treat: back to the previous useful functionality.
I don’t think dimness is the issue. Have you tried looking for a swap icon on your laptop? My Toshiba had one, I think it’s FnF5. Or go into display properties and I believe there is an option there.
I am a new mac user and thought it was me! This swap screen button is a real time waster! How I overcame was to remove the mirror display button in preferences then my mouse worked on the projector view. don’t know how but it did when i scrolled over to the right. that enabled me to click on the swap screen button again. Never again!!
I just started using PowerPoint a couple of weeks ago. The first couple of tries were pretty rough, but I sat down and read Office 2011 for Dummies, and I thought I was going to be able to do Presenter view on my MacBook Pro while projecting Slide view on the screen at the front of the room. I did all the things the book suggested, but it didn’t quite work, and the more I tried to correct it, the worse it got. Now it’s gotten so bad that I can’t get Presenter View on the computer at all, regardless of whether the projector is connected to it or not, and when I try to use the projector, I get Presenter view on the screen at the front of the room, and Slide view on my computer. This is really a mess, and I’ve got to do a presentation on the weekend. Is there any way you can help?
D Woods – you should be able to swap screens using the “Swap Screens” button at the top of the presenter view display that’s showing on the screen at the front of the room.
I really enjoy the Office Products. But I’ve recently switched from PC onto a MBC 2011 (early) and I’m finding that I like the PC version of PPT presentations better. The reason is because on the PC side, you can edit the slides while also being in Presenter mode. So the audience will see corrections or edits in real time. In the Mac side, I need to close the presentation and edit, and then bring it up again. Now I’m not a CEO or anything that needs to have perfect slideshows, but it would help while I’m teaching my science classes!
Does anyone know if this feature exists on the Mac side?
I am having the same problem…I like editing in real time. Please help!
is it possible to increase the size of the thumbnails in Presenter View?
Ned – sort of. You can grab hold of the top of the notes area and drag it up and down, and that changes the thumbnail sizes of the current and next slides.
Yes I am getting that. But what about the band of thumbnails across the bottom? They are so small on my Macbook Air that it is hard to navigate through them when I am giving a talk. The previous version of Powerpoint for Mac had much larger thumbnails. The problem is bad enough that I am thinking of switching to Keynote which I am much less good at.
Ah, sorry, the other thumbnails – no, those aren’t adjustable.
Oh thanks anyway. I hope there will be a new version of Powerpoint for Mac soon.
On a MacAir running PowerPoint (Office 2011), the Presenter View must have a bug. I know what it is suppose to look like – http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/using-powerpoints-presenter-view-in-office-2011-fo.html – this is what it looks like on my desktop Mac. But on the MacAir, there is only one tiny postage stamp image and the tiny ones along the bottom, along with plenty of room for notes. I have tried everything and nothing seems to work. They were baffled at the Apple Genius Bar. My only solution right now is to uninstall it and reinstall the older version of PPT. I would rather it just work correctly. Please advise. Thanks.
Hmm – sorry, can’t help you there. It works fine for me on an Air. Have you tried contacting Microsoft support?
Presenter View works fine on my Air too. You say you have plenty of room for notes. That might be your problem. Try decreasing the note space, which will make the image of the current slide and the next slide bigger. Hover your cursor on the top edge of the note area until you see a double arrow with a line through it. Drag that upward.
Thank you so much! I tried this and it worked. Very much appreciate the help!
Could you tell me how to get out of “Projector view?” (my term for the enlarged appearance of everything on my computer when my laptop is attached to a projector.) My MacBook had been stuck with this appearance since I practiced a PowerPoint presentation two days ago. (I disengaged from the projector, shut down the comp and closed PP to no avail) Thanks!
It sounds like your Mac has changed your resolution. You can switch it back in the System Preferences. I can’t say that’s ever happened to me, so if you are still having problems, I would try contacting either Microsoft support or Apple support.
Michelle, as Jeremiah says, go to Systems Preferences. Then Display. If you have Mountain Lion, you will have to pick “scaled” to see a list of resolutions. Pick a larger choice than what you have now. If you don’t like the new one you can go back or choose a 3rd one.
Fixed!!! Thank you so much Jeremiah and Ned – took me two seconds 🙂
I have been using presenter view for quite some time but just this week have run into a problem. The presenter view on my mac screen is showing the screen currently on the classroom projector screen, but on the computer instead of seeing the next slide that area is black. I still have the notes section, the slides at the bottom of the mac monitor. It is very odd, everything looks exactly how it always has except the waiting slide is not visible. The area is there for it, but the area is black.
Any suggestions?
Been using PP 2008 on my MacBook Air for years with no problems. Just got a new Air and Office 2011 last week. Relearned all the new PP changes, put together a brand new PP for a presentation I had to give yesterday to 150 teachers. On site, we hooked the Mac via my new VGA adapter to the VGA cable, and got a black screen with vertical lines running down it. Changed the resolution (though I don’t actually know what it should be now–what should it be for a PP presentation on an Air, do you know?), nothing. Changed the resolution many times–at one point, got a picture of my Mac desktop on the big screen, but with a wavy line running through it, and it wouldn’t see my PP when I went into Presentation mode.
Thinking maybe it was the projector, high on the auditorium ceiling, we set up another DLP projector onstage. The same black screen appeared. I called Apple Support. The guy was awful. Said he had no idea what was wrong. Said I should call Microsoft. Said he had no idea of what the resolution was supposed to be on an Air.
In desperation, with 15 minutes to go, I borrowed a PC Notebook, which hooked up immediately, projecting on the screen with no problem at all. The program was hell, as the Notebook didn’t have a presentation mode, and I could only see the current slide. Since it was a brand new speech (with 300 slides), I had no idea what was coming next. Winged it pretty well, I thought, but my head was exploding.
I do lots of speeches/workshops with all different DLP or LCD projectors. Was it the brand new VGA adapter? I called Apple today, the day after, & the guy was very helpful. He said to hook up my Mac to a projector with the VGA adapter, go under the Apple, and run Software Update in case there’s a firmware update for the VGS adapter. Haven’t done it yet, but will try.
Reading your list of comments, I’m now panicked thinking I’m going to have this problem again, plus the Presentation Mode problem. Any advice on things to try or explanations of why the projector wouldn’t recognize my Mac? I’d be most grateful for all ideas. My usual programs are 5 hours with 700 slides, and if this happens again, my goose is cooked. Thanks for any help you can offer.
VGA screen resolution isn’t any different with my Air than with my MB Pro. 1024 x 768 always works. Did you try pulling out the adapter and plugging it back in?
You bet. Numerous times. 1024 X 768 was what I used on my old Air. When I tried a higher resolution yesterday, the big screen then showed what was on my Mac desktop for a minute, but with a big wavy stripe on it, and then reverted to black stripes again.
Did you try “Detect displays”? Press the option key when in the Display section of system preferences to see the button
Hi Ned–I know we did but I can’t recall anything happening when we pressed the Detect Displays button. I still need to try this out on my own DLP projector at home but I’m on deadline with a book due a week from Monday, so haven’t had time to set everything up. I’ll post on how it goes when I do. Thanks so much for your thoughts on this.
Apparently there is a firmware update that handles some projector problems: See http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1497
Excellent! Thanks, Ned. I’ll check it out.
Hi
I’ve tried setting this up but I only see a very pixal’ated of my screen saver on the projector and my screen view has gone all strange. When I try and remove it, I can no longer get my normal screen to project – help??? I have Windows Vista and PowerPoint 2010
I’ve got a new weird Mac PowerPoint problem that I don’t know how to solve and I’m hoping someone has experienced/fixed this vexing disaster. Here’s the lowdown.
I’m using a MacBook Air, version 10.7.5, that I purchased new in October, 2012. I bought the new Office 2011 for Mac and had it loaded on the machine. In November, I put together my new PowerPoint files for my all-day children’s lit. seminars across the US. I have 6 files, each holding about 150 slides and weighing in at between 10 and 53 mg. I used them at my seminars for three weeks, 5 days each week, with no problems.
Three weeks ago on a Monday, I opened my first PowerPoint file, put it in presentation mode, and began my seminar. I use a Kensington clicker, and was a couple of minutes into the seminar, when it stopped working. I assumed it was the clicker. I changed the batteries, but it still wouldn’t advance my slides, though the laser pointer was still working and the little piece that goes into the USB port flashed each time I pressed the advance button on the clicker, so I assumed the problem was not with the Kensington.
I shut down PP and restarted my Mac. It worked for a few minutes and then stopped. At first I could advance my slides by pressing the space bar, the right and left arrows on the keyboard, and the touchpad, but soon those stopped functioning as well. Soon, the only way to advance my slides was to put my cursor on the little white arrow on the slide on my computer screen and click. As time went on, the slides advanced slower, sometimes taking 3-5 seconds before they changed. Mind you, doing a 5-hour presentation tethered to a computer, advancing 700 slides by hand, was not what I’d call optimal.
That night, I shut down my computer. On Day 2, it all worked normally again. Unfortunately, the rest of the week, it did not. When I got home after my frustrating week on the road, I took the Mac to the Apple store’s genius bar. The tech folks said they weren’t that conversant with Office, as it’s not a Mac product, but they figured that reinstalling Office would help, which they did. (They said if that didn’t work, they could reinstall my hard drive, in case the Mac was the problem, and not the Office program.) I then went to the Microsoft store in the same mall, and the guys there had no advice for me either. I had been having trouble with Word, which freezes far too often, even when I’m doing something as simple as cutting and pasting text, or dragging a piece of text from one part of a page to another. They thought maybe both programs were corrupted somehow. They agreed that reinstalling my Office from my disks would solve the problem.
When I then tried the Mac in presentation mode, it seemed fine, but I wasn’t connected to a DLP projector at the time. Word continued to misbehave, not responding, and having to be restarted several times a day.
Back on the road I went this week, fingers crossed that my Mac would behave. No such luck. It worked for a minute or two and then I had to advance every slide by hand, clicking the little white arrow. Sometimes, though, the touch pad would work, though it sometimes advanced 2 slides instead of one. I’m now trying to figure out just what could be wrong here. Is it my Mac? My Office program? A bit of both?
Thanks for any and all ideas.
Judy Freeman
Is there a way to use Hyperlinks to a file on my desktop without Powerpoint (Mac 2011) quitting the presentation to show the link. Every time I click on the link to show a calculation pop up or a comment regarding a location on a map Powerpoint stops. I find it very annoying and it looks unprofessional. Thanks.
mac: PowerPoint 2011- I am having issues with screen resolution changing when using Presenters mode. Everything is fine when using Mirror image but when we go to Presenters view the image is far too big for the screen. Setting Display preferences to our usual 1024×768 does not change the image in Presenters view. I have looked through everything I can possibly think of trying to find a resolution setting in PowerPoint that over rides the display pref. This happens with a number of different laptops in a number of venues so it an issue with PP software. Can anyone shine some light on what I may be running into?
Hello Brent, is there a way to change the size of the thumbnails in 2011 for Mac at the bottom of presenters view as there is in 2008?
Bill – off the top of my head, no.
I’m curious, is there a “Meeting notes” function in Powerpoint for Windows? I use a Mac at home but there are PCs in my classroom hooked up to the a/v system. I’m really missing the ability to make notes about what to change in the future, since I teach the same classes multiple semesters and want to be able to know what worked and what didn’t.
Dr. S – not that I’m aware of. I use a pad of paper for that.
I am using Powerpoint 2011 on a MacBook Pro.
When I go into Presenter View everything looks fine except the “Next Slide” display.
The Next Slide is there but is white, black or blank….. Does anyone know how to the fix this? I really need it to display what is upcoming for my presentation.
Any help would be amazing!
[…] deck, I like broadcasting a second smaller (like 1080p) monitor, and using my main monitor for the PowerPoint presenter view and the attendees’ Slack […]