E-mail this pagePowerPoint: Giving the Presentation
The final button in the Views
toolbar at the lower left of the PowerPoint
screen 
is the Slide Show
view, and while you are preparing your presentation, it provides a quick way of checking your work as it will actually appear in the slide show. Clicking on this button begins the presentation on the currently selected slide: if you've just opened a previously saved presentation file, this will start with the first slide.
When it comes time for finally giving your presentation, you can launch the presentation directly into the Slide Show view (rather than first opening it in one of PowerPoint's editing modes) by saving the presentation file as a PowerPoint Show using the File|Save As option and then specifying PowerPoint Show (*.pps) in the Save as type field, as illustrated below.
A PowerPoint Show file will automatically launch into the first slide of the slide show when its icon or filename is double-clicked.
Advancing through the slides is a straightforward matter of pressing the spacebar, each click of which will take you to the next screen event: this will generally be either the next slide or the next bulleted item, depending upon how (or whether) you have set your animations.
The down arrow key, the right arrow key, and a left mouse-button click all serve the same function as does the spacebar in advancing the presentation.
To return to a previous element (or slide), press the up arrow key or the left arrow key.
To turn the screen black, press the b key on the keyboard. Press it a second time to bring the screen display back.
To turn the screen white, press the w key on the keyboard. Press it a second time to bring the screen display back.
To draw on the screen while you are giving your presentation, right-click and select Pointer Options|Pen
This can be useful if you want to focus your audience's attention to some detail on the screen, but you'll want to practice this before doing it: it sounds easier to do than it actually is, and you won't want to start fumbling with a mouse in front of your audience. And you should also note that any drawing made on the slides in this manner will disappear when the slide is changed.
To go to a particular slide in the presentation, right-click and select Go|By Title and then pick the slide you'd like to see; alternately, you could click Go|Slide Navigator to bring up a dialog box listing of the slides in your presentation.
You'll find this a useful function only if you have given your slides appropriate titles. If you have deleted the title field from a slide, you'll see some odd blanks appearing in this list.
Finally, the most important tip for giving a presentation with PowerPoint is that it always makes sense to be prepared for something to go wrong with the presentation equipment. Don't let the success of the presentation hinge on the likelihood a bulb will never burn out: if the technology fails, you should be ready to carry on without it.