How can you show the slide to the audience without them seeing your notes?

The PowerPoint presenter view is the ideal tool for your presentation. The PowerPoint presenter view is the ideal tool for your presentation. It allows you to display your speaker notes and slides on your computer while presenting. Meanwhile, your audience will see the presentation without your notes on another screen or projector.

What is PowerPoint presenter view?

The PowerPoint presenter view is a presentation mode that allows presenters to see a preview of the next slides as well as their speaker notes. The advantage of this mode is that your audience will only see the current slide and nothing else.

PowerPoint presenter view: advantages

Presenter view offers a number of features that can help you streamline and improve the flow of your presentations:

1. You can add notes to each slide. This gives you more freedom and you won’t have to struggle with clumsy index cards. You can individually design the notes for each slide and, when you switch slides, you’ll see that slide’s notes as well.

2. You always see the current slide number (e.g., slide 5 of 13). That way, you can begin preparing for the next slide.

3. A preview image on the side of your presentation always shows you the next slide.

4. A timer notifies you of how much time has elapsed. This is especially helpful if you have a limited amount of time to present.

5. You can use the pen tools to mark, highlight and augment your slide content. These freehand markups can even be saved afterwards.

6. You can view a thumbnail overview of all your presentation slides. This lets you choose slides freely and jump from slide to slide.

7. You can use the magnifying glass to enlarge individual sections of the current slide. The virtual laser pointer allows you to highlight specific points.

8. During breaks and discussions, you can fade to a black screen and don’t have to turn off the projector. This allows you to restart the presentation in less time.

How to set up PowerPoint presenter view with a projector 

PowerPoint presenter view requires two separate monitors. This often includes a projector. Here’s how to properly set up a projector:

1. Connect your laptop to the projector. Make sure the laptop isn’t switched on.

2. When you turn on the laptop, the projector will recognize it as a second screen.

3. When you start Microsoft PowerPoint, you should see the same image on both screens.

4. Now press the Windows + P key combination and then select Extend. Click on the check mark to the right of Presenter View in the Slide Show tab.

5. You’ll now see the different views on your two monitors. As the presenter, you’ll see the presenter view while your audience will see the current slide.

6. Normally, presenter view is automatically displayed on the correct monitor (namely, yours). If it still appears on the audience screen, set it to Primary Monitor in the Monitor drop-down menu. Presenter view should now run on your monitor.

How to disable PowerPoint presenter view  

To disable presenter view during your presentation, simply uncheck the Presenter View box in the Slide Show tab.

Update slides

PowerPoint presenter view allows you to update slides during your presentation. Dies This is really useful if you’ re in a team working on your presentation and changes are still being made, possibly right up to the last minute. To activate this setting, go to Set Up Slide Show from the Slide Show tab and select Keep slides updated.

Pro tip: Use shortcuts during your presentation

Shortcuts are keyboard combinations that allow you to quickly access certain PowerPoint functions. Here are five useful shortcuts which can simplify your presentations, especially in presenter view:

• Fade to the next slide by pressing the Enter key or the right or down arrow keys.
• To go back to the previous slide, press either the up or left arrow key.
• To jump to the last slide of your presentation, press the End key.
• If you want to skip slides during your presentation, press the slide number on your keyboard + Enter.
• To make your screen appear white or black, select either W or the comma key for a white screen and B or the period key for a black screen. These functions can be especially helpful when you want to make sure that the audience’s entire attention is on you and not the screen.

For more useful shortcuts to make working with PowerPoint easier, feel free to check out our blog.

Use PowerPoint presenter view for better presentations

Presenter view makes it much easier for you to present and navigate your presentation. Thanks to many useful features, you can make your presentation more fluid and hold your audience’s attention.

Feel free to contact us at with any questions about presenter view and PowerPoint in general. We’ll help you out.