PowerPoint has tons of keyboard shortcuts...
Just not the one I’m looking for.
Spin up any PowerPoint file you have and start up the slide show. While in SlideShow mode press F1 for a list of keyboard shortcuts you can do while presenting. Some are fairly good, like “B” or “W” to white or black out the screen. You can also change the pointer to an pen (Ctrl-P) and draw on the screen with the mouse (or stylus if you have a tablet).
While all those are nice I’m looking for one that just turns off all animations or timed slide changes. They have “S” which will stop/restart an automated slide show which is close to what I want. The issue with it is as soon as you move on to the next slide it automatically restarts the automated changes and will move on. You have to stand next to the keyboard and hit “S”, then talk about the slide, then advance the slide and hit “S” again.
Here’s the scenario I’m working from: I have an automated slide deck for the pre-session slides for CINNUG. If you’ve ever been you’ve seen them. This works great as I have them running about 15 minutes before the session starts so people can see them as they come in. Then when it is time to start the meeting I’ll usually want to point out a few slides with interesting announcements on them. This is when I want the automated deck to be “un-automated”.
Currently I have to two options:
-
- Use the “S” key and hit it between each slide I want to talk about. But this means I have to stand next to the machine and behind the tables. Oh, and remember to press the button.
- Stop the slide show, configure it via Slide Show Setup to not use timings, then restart.
Why can’t there just be a shortcut key to do this?