Presentation Mode vs. Presenter View

Modified on Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 9:07 AM

When you're creating the slide deck in PowerPoint, you're in what's called a "Design Mode", but when you're presenting the content to your audience, you're in Presentation Mode (or Slideshow Mode). However, there's a third term - Presenter View, which describes a screen with extra controls shown on the primary screen, while the presentation content (slides) are shown on the extended monitor (e.g. projector, LCD monitor, etc...). Here's the Presenter View that you might see on your primary monitor:

Presentation Mode can be engaged via the Slideshow tab on the PowerPoint Ribbon:

Figure 1: You can choose to start the presentation from the beginning, or from the current slide.

Starting from the beginning can be also engaged with F5 key from the keyboard and starting From Current Slide can be invoked by Shift + F5.

As well, you can use a small icon in the bottom-right corner of your screen (where the zoom slider is) to start the Slideshow from the current slide:

Figure 2: It's easy to miss the little guy. Find the "From Current Slide" shortcut in the bottom-right corner of your PowerPoint window.

Presenter View option is also available on the Slideshow tab of the Ribbon:

Figure 3: In the current version of EZ-VOTE (v2), you need to turn this option off, as the software is not compatible with it. EZ-VOTE v3, will resolve this issue and allow you to do much more than just present in PowerPoint.

Extended/Projector Screen Setup

Even if you can't use the Presenter View, you can still use Dual Screen or Extended Screen setup where your primary screen (laptop) shows something other than what the audience sees on the projected screen.

In order to set up an extended screen in Windows, simply connect the projector and the system should automatically switch to dual screen setup.

However, if it doesn't happen, just press the "Windows" key and "P" (as in "Projector").

Figure 4: Another option is a right-click on the desktop, select your Display Properties or Screen Resolution menu and change your screen options

At this point, go to PowerPoint Slide Show tab and choose the display (monitor) which you want to present the content on via the Monitor drop-down:

Figure 5: Select the monitor to show to the audience. The EZ-VOTE Control Bar will continue to show on the primary screen.

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