Introduction

There are many things to keep in mind when giving a presentation. How long will it last? What will you say? If you're not in the same location as your audience, how will they view it? Fortunately, PowerPoint offers tools to help ensure your presentation goes smoothly.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to rehearse and record slide shows in advance. You'll also learn about alternative presentation options, such as creating a video of your presentation or presenting your slide show online to remote audiences. Finally, you'll learn how to customize your presentation with hidden or rearranged slides.

Optional: Download our practice presentation .

Rehearsing slide show timings

Rehearsing timings can be useful if you want to set up a presentation to play at a certain speed without having to click through the slides to present it. Think of it as a tool to help you practice presenting your slide show. Using this feature, you can save timings for each slide and animation. PowerPoint will then play back the presentation with the same timings when you present it.

Rehearsing is often one of the last steps in creating a well-polished presentation. If you've never presented a slide show, you may want to review our lesson on Presenting Your Slide Show to become familiar with the basics.

To rehearse timings:

1. Select the Slide Show tab, then locate the Set Up group.
2. Click the Rehearse Timings command. You will be taken to a full-screen view of your presentation.

   
   

   The Rehearse Timings command
3. Practice presenting your slide show. When you are ready to move to the next slide, click the Next button on the Recording toolbar in the top-left corner. You also can also use the right arrow key.

   
   

   Navigating to the next slide using the Recording toolbar
4. When you have reached the end of the show, a dialog box will appear with the total time of your presentation.

   
   

   Verifying the new slide timings
5. If you are satisfied with your timings, click Yes .

If you need more than one try to get the timings just right, the Recording toolbar has options to let you take a break or start over on a slide. To pause the timer, click the pause button on the toolbar. No actions taken while the timer is paused will be included in the timings. To re-record the timings on the current slide, click the repeat button.

Recording your slide show

The Record Slide Show feature is similar to the Rehearse Timings feature, but it's a bit more comprehensive. If you have a microphone for your computer, you can even record voiceover narration for the entire presentation. This is useful if you plan on using your slide show for a self-running presentation or a video. Your mouse won't show up on screen in recorded slide shows, so if you want to point out details on screen you can use PowerPoint's laser pointer option.

To record a slide show:

1. Click the Slide Show tab, then locate the Set Up group.
2. Click the Record Slide Show drop-down arrow. Select either Start Recording from Beginning or Start Recording from Current Slide .
   The Record Slide Show command
3. A dialog box will appear. Select the desired options. Remember, you can only record narration if you have a microphone attached to your computer.

   
   

   Recording options
   
4. Click Start Recording . Your presentation will open to a full screen.
5. Perform your slide show. Make sure to speak clearly into the microphone if you are recording narration. When you are ready to move to the next slide, click the Next button on the Recording toolbar in the top-left corner or use the right arrow key.

   
   

   Navigating to the next slide using the Recording toolbar
6. When you reach the end of the show, PowerPoint will close the full-screen view.
7. Your slide show timings and narration are now included in your presentation. The slides with narration will be marked with a speaker icon in the bottom-right corner.

   
   

   Slides with narration

To point out details during your recording, press and hold the Ctrl key and the left mouse button. Your cursor will show up as a laser pointer . Simply move your mouse to indicate the desired details. Release the Ctrl key when you are finished pointing out things on screen.

To remove narration or timings from a recorded slide show:

1. Click the Slide Show tab, then locate the Set Up group.
2. Click the Record Slide Show drop-down arrow.
3. Hover the mouse over Clear , then select the desired option.
   Clearing timing on all slides

Sharing presentation options

PowerPoint offers several options to enhance or even totally change the way you deliver presentations. Instead of presenting your slide show normally, you can choose to present it as a video , or even present it live online so others can view it remotely. No matter how you choose to give your presentation, you can enhance it by customizing your slide show to remove or reorder slides. All of these options can help you give a polished and professional presentation

Exporting a presentation as a video

The Create a Video feature allows you to save your presentation as a video. This can be useful because it lets your viewers watch the presentation whenever they want. To make sure your viewers have enough time to view each slide, you might want to rehearse the timings or record your slide show before using this feature.

To create a video:

1. Click the File tab to access Backstage view .
2. Select Export , then click Create a Video . Video export options will appear on the right.

   
   

   Creating a video
3. Click the drop-down arrow next to Computer and HD Displays to select the size and quality of your video.

   
   

   Selecting a video size and quality
4. Select the drop-down arrow next to Use Recorded Timings and Narrations .
   • Choose Don't Use Recorded Timings and Narrations if you don't have or don't want to use recorded timings. You can adjust the default Seconds to spend on each slide: in the box below the drop-down menu.
   • Choose Use Recorded Timings and Narrations if you have already recorded timings and narrations and want to use them in your video.
   Selecting recorded timings and narration
5. Click Create Video . The Save As dialog box will appear.
6. Select the location where you want to save the presentation, then enter a name for the presentation.

   
   

   Saving the video
7. Click Save . As PowerPoint creates your video, a status bar will appear at the bottom of the PowerPoint window. When the bar is complete, your video is ready to view, send, or upload.

   
   

   The status bar marking the time until the video is complete

In addition to emailing your video, you can upload your video to free video-sharing sites like YouTube . YouTube offers guides to creating an account and uploading videos . Once your video is uploaded, you can give the link to anyone you want to see it.

Presenting your slide show online

Presenting a slide show online is surprisingly easy. All you and your viewers need is an Internet connection—they don't even need PowerPoint. Once your viewers are connected, you can start the presentation as you normally would.

Please note that you cannot edit your presentation or mark it with a highlighter or pen while you are presenting a slide show online. You also cannot use PowerPoint to speak to your audience. Plan to communicate with your viewers through teleconferencing, or pre-record your narration.

To present online:

1. Select the Slide Show tab, then locate the Start Slide Show group.
2. Click the Present Online command.

   
   

   Clicking Present Online
3. A dialog box will appear. Click Connect . A status message will appear as PowerPoint prepares your online presentation.

   
   

   Clicking Connect
4. A link will appear. If it's not already selected, select the link.
5. Click Copy Link to make a copy of the link or Send in Email to send an email with the link to your viewers.
6. Click Start Presentation .
   Copying the link
7. Present the slide show as you normally would, using the mouse or keyboard to advance the slides.
8. When you are finished, click End Online Presentation .

   
   

   Ending the presentation
   
9. A dialog box will appear to confirm that you want to end the presentation. Click End Online Presentation .

   
   

   Confirming the end of the presentation
   

Customizing your slide show

Sometimes you might want to hide a slide while still keeping it in your presentation. For instance, if you are presenting a slide show to more than one group of people, hiding or even rearranging certain slides could help you tailor your slide show to each group you present it to. You could also choose to create a shortened version of your slide show to present when you're short on time. The Custom Slide Show feature allows you to create and name different versions of your slide show with hidden or rearranged slides.

To create a custom show:

1. Select the Slide Show tab, then locate the Start Slide Show group.
2. Click the Custom Slide Show command, then select Custom Shows .

   
   

   Clicking Custom Slide Show
3. A dialog box will appear. Click New .

   
   

   Creating a new custom slide show
4. The Define Custom Show dialog box will appear. Locate the Slide show name field, and type in a name for your custom show.
5. In the Slides in presentation: area, check the box next to the slides you want to include in your custom show.
6. Click Add to add the slides to the Slides in custom show: box. If necessary, use the up and down arrows to reorder the added slides.

   
   

   Adding slides to the custom show
7. Click OK .
8. Select Close to exit or Show to view your custom show.
   Closing the Custom Show dialog box
9. To play the custom show at any time, click the Custom Slide Show command, then select the desired presentation from the drop-down menu.
   Playing a custom slide show

Hiding slides

Sometimes you may just need to hide a few slides without rearranging the entire slide show. You can hide slides by selecting the desired slide and then clicking the Hide Slide command on the Slide Show tab. To unhide a slide, simply click the Hide Slide command again.

Challenge!

1. Open an existing PowerPoint presentation. If you want, you can use our practice presentation .
2. Use the Rehearse Timings feature to record slide and animation timings for the presentation. If you have a microphone attached to your computer, use the Record Slide Show feature.
3. Create a custom slide show from your presentation.
4. Create a video of your presentation.