share a powerpoint presentation on microsoft teams

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How to Share a PowerPoint Presentation on Microsoft Teams

In recent years many remote meeting tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom have become the norm for regular remote meetings. If you’re new to Microsoft Teams, the chances are you are still finding your way around various options. One of the most common questions a Microsoft Teams newbie might ask is how to share PowerPoint on Teams.

What is Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams is a messaging app by Microsoft for online collaboration and remote meetings that comes integrated with Microsoft 365. It provides a real-time workspace where end users can collaborate via chat, Teams Channels, Live calls, etc. Microsoft Teams also integrates with other Microsoft products like PowerPoint and OneDrive, enabling instant file sharing via the cloud.

Why use Microsoft Teams to Present Your PowerPoint Presentations?

Many organizations use Microsoft Teams for online collaboration and remote meetings. Organizations with integrated Microsoft products like its Windows operating system, Microsoft Office, and Azure Active Directory prefer Teams as the primary internal and external communication app. Organizations use Microsoft Teams to provide secure accounts to employees, with two-factor authentication and data encryption. These accounts are integrated into the Active Directory, providing scalability and control for IT administrators to offer people within an organization an online collaboration platform that can be securely used within the limits of the organization’s data protection policies.

While there are many alternatives to Microsoft teams, such as Zoom and Google Meet, the integration of teams with other Microsoft products, such as Azure, Microsoft Office apps, and OneDrive, makes it attractive within a secure enterprise environment.

How to Present PowerPoint in Teams?

How to present your PowerPoint slides on Microsoft Teams, let us tell you there are at least two methods for sharing presentations. This includes sharing a PowerPoint file directly and presenting your slide deck before one or more meeting participants, or perhaps PowerPoint templates or Google Slides templates to help a colleague design a slide deck.

How to Attach and Share Your PowerPoint Slides on Teams

To share a PowerPoint file on teams, go to an ongoing conversation or meeting window and click Attach files . This will provide you with the option to either fetch a file via OneDrive or from your device. This option can be used for sharing PowerPoint files and other types of files, such as documents, spreadsheets, videos, compressed files, etc.

When sharing a file, you can add a message optionally before hitting Send .

The recipient and the sender can download the file, open it in a browser, or copy the file link for further sharing.

How to Present Your PowerPoint Slides on Teams

Method #1: use the share button in powerpoint.

You can also directly present your slide deck via Microsoft Teams by sharing your screen to start a Live presentation during a remote meeting instantly. Suppose your organization uses Microsoft Teams regularly. In that case, the chances are you will be using it for presentations during remote meetings; therefore, it’s essential to know how to use the screen-sharing option to present online.

Method #2: Share Screen to Present a PowerPoint Presentation

Another way to present a PowerPoint presentation on Teams is by sharing the screen with your audience. If you share your screen, this will show the audience whatever is visible on the entire screen on your device.

Pros of sharing your screen with the audience to present a presentation:

• It is easier to activate
• You can easily switch to other windows besides the PowerPoint presentation and also share them with the audience

Cons of sharing your entire screen on Teams for presenting:

• If you have confidential data in other windows, you may want to avoid switching the windows and keep only the Slideshow window in front.
• You may accidentally switch to other windows, and your audience can lose focus of the presentation.

Method #3: Share PowerPoint Window to Present Your Slides

If you intend to hide parts of your screen, you can simply share the relevant PowerPoint window so that your audience can only view the presentation. During a Live call, click the Share button and select your screen or window to share.

5 Features to Make the Most from Your Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation Sharing in Teams

Microsoft Teams offers a wide array of features that make it a robust remote meeting and online collaboration app since it leverages the full force of Microsoft 365 and other Microsoft products.

1. Translate Slides into a Different Language

This is a private feature that individuals can use to translate slides in their language instantly. As a presenter, you can ask your audience to use this feature if they deem it convenient to help bridge a gap that might exist due to a language barrier.

Slides can be viewed in a different language via More actions > Translate Slides . From the drop-down list, you can pick a preferred language.

2. Use Live Captions

Microsoft Teams supports Live Captions / Closed Captions (CC) to help persons with disabilities, including those suffering from hearing impairment. Closed Captions can also be helpful for people to translate or view text in a preferred language.

Turn on Live Captions: To enable Live Captions on Teams, go to More options > Turn on live captions . Translate Spoken Language: To translate Live Captions, go to Captions settings > Change spoken language .

Turn Off Live Captions: You can turn off Live captions anytime via More actions > Turn off live captions .

3. View Slides in High Contrast

Viewing slides in high contrast on Teams can have several benefits. For example, it helps you focus on the content and is also helpful for people with visual impairment. To configure your slides to appear in high contrast, follow the steps below:

1. Launch your PowerPoint presentation.

2. Click on the Present tab at the top of the window.3. Go to More action > View slides in high contrast .

4. Annotate your Slides in Real Time

Like any standard remote meeting app, Microsoft Teams also provides a number of handy annotation options to help you make the most out of your PowerPoint presentations. You can click on Start annotation when sharing your full screen during presentations to start annotating slides.

Powered by Microsoft Whiteboard, this powerful feature enables one or more meeting participants or the presenter to annotate presentations. It can also be a helpful feature when you’re looking to collaborate online during a Live presentation.

5. Pop Out the Window

You can separate the presentation window from the Teams window to make it easier to work with the two. This feature can be handy when working with multiple monitors or separating the two windows from uncluttering your screen. You can use this option by clicking on the Pop-out option from the toolbar during a screen-sharing session.

How to Stop Presenting on Teams

When presenting your slide deck, you can also present your PowerPoint presentation using any view, be it as a SlideShow or in Normal view. Once you’re done presenting, click Stop Presenting to conclude your session. Furthermore, you can also choose to enable or disable your camera and computer sound when presenting your slides.

To turn off screen sharing during a remote meeting, you can click Stop Sharing .

Present in Teams Button in PowerPoint is Missing. How to Fix it?

Some users might have used the Present in Teams option to share a PowerPoint presentation during a meeting. Suppose you are wondering why the Present in Teams button in PowerPoint Presentations is missing. In that case, this option isn’t available for anyone using the free version of Teams, as only users with a paid subscription, such as a Business Standard or Business Premium Plan. Furthermore, you must share your PowerPoint presentation with OneDrive to use this option. To use the Present in Teams option, upload your PowerPoint presentation to OneDrive. You can do this via File > Save As > OneDrive .

Once done, the Present in Teams button will become available to instantly launch your presentation for sharing during a Teams call.

5 Tips to Make your Presentation a Success on Microsoft Teams

Presenting PowerPoint in Teams can require being mindful of a number of things. This includes accounting for brevity to ensure your presentation does not take more than its designated time, using slides that are suitable for remote meetings. Below is a list of 5 tips to make your presentation successful using Microsoft Teams.

1. Check Your Audio and Video Settings

One of the most annoying problems faced during remote meetings is technical failures such as no or low audio quality. This becomes even more annoying when the meeting organizer or a presenter during their session faces the issue, wasting precious time. This is why you must check your audio and video settings beforehand to ensure everything works correctly. If you need to play a video during your session, make a test call with a colleague and get feedback if the sound and video quality are up to the mark.

2. Make Sure Your Slides are Clear and Concise

Presentations delivered via Microsoft Teams will often take place during scheduled remote meetings. This means that you will have to account for the designated time given for your session, which is why you must ensure that your slides are clear and concise.

3. Use Animations and Transitions Sparingly

Since remote meetings will be attended by participants using different types of computers and mobile devices, some animations and transitions might not be suitable. This is because they can cause Teams to slow down, or the slides might not display appropriately via screen sharing. For example, 3D animations , GIF animations , and objects with elaborate PowerPoint animated sequences might cause issues when displayed via Teams. 

4. Keep Your Slides on Topic

One of the banes of remote meetings is how a discussion can go off-topic very quickly. This is why it’s best to ensure that your slides remain focused on the topic and additional discussions are discouraged during the presentation session.

5. Use Team Members’ Names Sparingly to Call Out Specific Points

Calling out team members for their opinion or advice during a remote meeting can quickly lead to a very lengthy and off-topic discussion. This is why it’s best to call out team members’ sparingly. If you have been using Teams or other remote meeting apps long enough, you would have learned by now that for some topics, it’s best to ask participants to schedule a separate meeting so that the ongoing discussion remains on track.

Other Issues to Troubleshoot while presenting a PowerPoint presentation on Microsoft Teams

Someone has already set up Teams for your organization’s error

If you’re using a premium subscription for Microsoft Teams managed by your organization’s IT team, you might get an error when logging in to Teams. In such a case, you might get the following error:

“Someone has already set up Teams for your organization.”  

If you see the error message mentioned above, this means that your account isn’t ready yet, and you need to contact your organization’s IT team to ask when your account might be ready for use.

We’re sorry–we’ve run into an issue error.

Another prevalent issue is when the following error message appears:

“We’re sorry–we’ve run into an issue.”

This is a generic message, and usually, it can be resolved by clicking the Restart button that appears below the error. In case the issue isn’t resolved after restarting the Teams app, ensure your Internet connection is working. More often than not, the issue is associated with the Internet connection. If the issue persists, you can clear your cache , reinstall Teams or contact your IT support team. The error can also occur if there is an outage affecting Microsoft products or if there is a configuration issue for Microsoft 365 accounts associated with your organization.

Final Words

Using Microsoft Teams to share a presentation file is easy enough. However, when presenting a PowerPoint presentation in Teams, you must decide how to present your slide deck. If you need to switch back and forth between your slides and another document, spreadsheet, or browser window, it might be best to share your entire screen. However, if you wish to focus only on the slide deck, sharing your Window can help you avoid sharing the rest of your screen with the audience.

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A successful PowerPoint presentation extends beyond just the content—its delivery is just as important, especially in a virtual space like Microsoft Teams.

In Microsoft Teams, you can choose to present your slide deck by sharing your entire screen, PowerPoint window, or using the Microsoft Teams' PowerPoint Live feature. Let's explore how you can use each of these three methods and discuss their pros and cons.

Method 1: Share Screen

Sharing your screen in Microsoft Teams is pretty easy and straightforward. It's best to minimize or close unnecessary tabs before joining the Microsoft Teams meeting to avoid exposing sensitive information. Once you're confident in your screen's content, follow the steps below:

• A red border appears around your desktop, indicating you're sharing your screen.

• Present your PowerPoint slideshow.

Sharing your screen is a straightforward method, especially when you want to present other documents besides your PowerPoint slideshow. However, the downside is that you may accidentally reveal sensitive information.

Method 2: Share PowerPoint Window

If you want only to present your PowerPoint slide deck, it's best to share just that window. Here's how:

• A red border will appear around your PowerPoint window, indicating you're sharing just that window.
• Launch your slides in slideshow mode and start presenting.
• Open the Microsoft Teams window and click Stop sharing when you're done presenting.

Sharing just your PowerPoint window prevents accidental display of sensitive desktop content. Even if you switch windows, viewers only see the PowerPoint presentation.

However, this method also has its limitations. One of the main limits is that you can't view your PowerPoint speaker notes without the audience seeing them as well. You also can't access Microsoft Teams features like the chat and reactions during your presentation.

Additionally, If your network connection has low bandwidth or slow upload speed , sharing your screen can result in a blurry and stuttering presentation for the audience. Thankfully, the PowerPoint Live feature provides the solution to these issues.

Method 3: Use PowerPoint Live

Presenting with the PowerPoint Live feature is easy and provides additional benefits. Your audience only sees the slides, while you get to see all the extra controls that come with the presenter view. When using the presenter view in your presentation, you have a few helpful tools at your disposal:

• You can easily adjust the font size of your slide notes to make them more readable.
• To navigate between slides, simply click on the corresponding thumbnail.
• You can use the laser pointer, pen, or highlighter tools to draw attention to specific areas of a slide.
• Use the Standout layout to place your camera feed on the slide without the background.
• Use the Cameo layout to insert yourself into the slide, provided you've set up Cameo to record customized camera feeds .

Here's how you can use PowerPoint Live to share your presentation:

• When it's your turn to present, click Share .

• When you're done presenting, click Stop sharing in the top toolbar.

The PowerPoint Live feature tackles the limitations of sharing your entire screen or PowerPoint window. It also comes with really cool features like co-presenting and allowing attendees to click on links in the presentation.

Your Audience's View When Using PowerPoint Live

In addition to the main slide view, your audience also has access to the slide navigation, grid, and more options controls (the three dots icon below the slides).

This means they can navigate the slides at their own pace and change specific slide settings to suit their preference without affecting your view and that of others. If you find this non-ideal for delivering an engaging presentation , you can disable the audience's navigation control. To do so, enable Private view in the top toolbar.

By default, each meeting attendee joins as a presenter. This means they can share their own content or control someone else's presentation. If that's not what you want, you can change each person's meeting roles in Microsoft Teams to prevent it.

Deliver a Seamless Presentation Experience in Microsoft Teams

Presenting your PowerPoint slides in Microsoft Teams might seem tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's a piece of cake. Practice makes perfect. So before your next Teams presentation, familiarize yourself with your chosen method to ensure an effective delivery.

• Productivity
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft PowerPoint

Apr 6, 2021

Try presenting in Teams meetings from PowerPoint

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Hello Office Insiders, I’m Lishan Yu, a program manager on the PowerPoint team. You might have heard that we announced the PowerPoint Live in Teams feature at Microsoft Ignite last month. Today, I’m excited to show you how to check out this new experience, and start presenting in Teams meetings from PowerPoint.

Presenting in Teams meetings

Presenting in a meeting used to be as simple as clicking Slide Show in your PowerPoint deck. Nowadays, even though you may not be in the same room as your audience, we believe your flow to present should be as easy and intuitive – clicking the Present in Teams button in PowerPoint is the only step you need to take to present the deck in your Teams meeting!

How it works

Give the feature a try next time you need to present in a Teams meetings:

• Join a Teams meeting or an ad-hoc Teams call.
• Open your presentation in PowerPoint for Windows.
• Click the Present in Teams button in the top right corner.

Scenarios to try

Ready to take the PowerPoint Live feature for a spin? Try some of the scenarios below.

As a presenter :

• After clicking the Present in Teams button in PowerPoint, notice that you can see both the chat and your content at the same time in Teams (and don’t feel like you’re missing out on the discussion).
• Take advantage of features like grid review and slide notes to present more effectively.

As an audience member :

• If you joined late, move back through the deck and quickly catch up without having to ask the presenter to stop and recap what was already shared.
• Interact with and experience the richness of the content being presented such as better video quality, live web links, and more.
• Make any adjustments you need to more fully enjoy the presentation (i.e., use high-contrast mode).

Requirements

In order to try out the feature, you will need to:

• Have the latest Teams desktop app installed.
• Store the presentation on OneDrive for Business or SharePoint.
• Join a Teams meeting before clicking the Present in Teams button in PowerPoint for Windows.
• Be using an Office 365 E3/A3, Office 365 E5/A5, or Microsoft 365 for Government license. 

Availability

This feature is rolling out over the next several days to Insiders running Beta Channel Version 2104 (Build 13926.20000) and later.

We’d love your feedback, so please let us know how you think. To get in touch, do either of the following:

• Inside the app, select the Help button in the top-right corner of the app.
• Respond to this post or tweet at @OfficeInsider .

Learn what  other information you should include in your feedback  to ensure it’s actionable and reaches the right people. We’re excited to hear from you!

Sign up for the Office Insider newsletter and get the latest information about Insider features in your inbox once a month!

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How to share your screen and PowerPoint in Microsoft Teams

Categories: Microsoft 365

Sharing your screen, presentations and whiteboards in Microsoft Teams is a great way to make your Teams meetings more effective. And fun… After all, who doesn’t like a cheeky post-meeting game of hangman to secure the office bragging rights for the day? 🏆

Microsoft Teams brought many teams together and has been the tool that brings projects from start to finish. But sometimes, clients will require our IT support services to show them the ropes - especially with sharing screens and PowerPoint presentations in Microsoft Teams. 

In this article I’ll show you precisely how you can do these things on Microsoft Teams:

• Share your entire desktop,
• Share a specific window,
• Share a PowerPoint presentation, or
• Share a whiteboard that your team can “collaborate” on 🙂

Sharing Screen Content in Microsoft Teams

You've got a handful of options at your disposal when you want to share content in a meeting, let’s get clear on what the options look like and the best scenario for each. 👇

Select the share your desktop option if you want to share your entire desktop screen in Microsoft Teams.

Note: This is the equivalent of having someone look over your shoulder and will include visibility of all your notifications, reminders, and other desktop activity.

Tip : Choose this option when you need to share multiple windows simultaneously. It’s a good idea to disable your notifications or set your computer to do-not-disturb mode first.

Select the share your screen option if you want to present one of your open windows in the Microsoft Teams app. An example might be a spreadsheet, webpage or word doc.

Note : This option will exclude notifications, reminders or desktop activity outside the shared window.

Tip : Choose this option if you only need to share one thing and want to keep the rest of your screen private.

Microsoft Teams have built in the capability of sharing your PowerPoint presentations. This interactive method of sharing allows your team to interact with your presentation by skipping forward and backwards through your slides, without disrupting your flow as the presenter.

Tip : Choose this option whenever you share a PowerPoint in Microsoft Teams and want your audience to be able to move through the presentation at their own pace.

Note : As the presenter, you can disable the ability for others to browse through the slides if you wish.

Each Teams meeting has a whiteboard where meeting participants have space to ink together. Select the share your whiteboard option if you want to open the virtual whiteboard that everyone can collaborate on in Microsoft Teams.

Tip: Choose this option if you want to brainstorm with your team and have your ideas attached to your meeting. Also great for a quick game of hangman, tic tac toe or dots and crosses. 🙂

How to share your screen in Microsoft Teams

• While in a meeting, chat or group chat click the share icon
• Choose if you’d like to share your entire desktop or just one specific window
• When you’re done sharing click the stop sharing Icon

How to share your PowerPoint presentation in Microsoft Teams

• Choose from one of your recently opened PowerPoint slide presentations. Alternatively, click Browse to navigate to your PowerPoint file
• Your team members will be able to navigate through your presentation by default. (Optional turn off this feature by clicking the eye icon to turn off participant navigation). And that's how to share PowerPoint on Teams
• And when you’re done sharing, click the stop sharing icon

How to share your whiteboard in Microsoft Teams

• Select the whiteboard option from the menu
• Everyone will be able to grab a pen and interact with the whiteboard

If you need further help with PowerPoint or any of the Microsoft 365 productivity tools, your friendly neighbourhood IT support guys are willing to help. 

Microsoft Teams Training Resources

- Microsoft Teams Quick Start Guide for New Users

- Microsoft Teams for Beginners: 101

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Sharing a powerpoint presentation in teams.

For: Staff Application: MS Teams Tagged: Microsoft Teams , web conferencing

To share an online presentation, you can either share your screen with PowerPoint open on your PC or upload your presentation directly into Teams . There are several options for screen sharing and configuring your PowerPoint files when presenting online. You can choose to display your entire desktop or just a specific application on your PC. You can also configure Teams to utilise multiple displays to host a presentation (where multiple monitors are available).

This guide covers:

Share your screen in teams, powerpoint presentations with multiple displays, upload a presentation file into teams.

During a Teams meeting, select the Share Content icon at the top of the window to initiate screen sharing. You will be presented with a window displaying all the available options for sharing. This window will list any displays connected to your device (i.e., Desktop 1, Desktop 2), which will broadcast everything on the selected desktop.

Sharing your entire screen may be the best option if you intend to switch between applications during your presentation. When sharing media, like a video or audio clip, toggle the option to Include computer sound .

Teams will also list options for sharing any specific windows currently open on your PC, allowing you to only broadcast a specific application and hiding the rest of your desktop from view. If you want to only display your presentation file, ensure the PowerPoint presentation is open prior to clicking the Share Screen button .

Upon sharing your screen, the Teams interface will minimise so you can better view your shared content. There will be a small Teams window at the bottom of your screen where you can see the active speaker and use basic meeting controls.

There will also be a bar at the top of the screen allowing you to give control of the presentation to another participant or Stop presenting . If this bar disappears, hover your cursor at the top of your screen and it will unhide. Click the ‘ Pin ’ icon to keep the bar visible at all times.

Please note: If you are sharing your web browser, Teams will broadcast any tab open on your screen to participants. Keep this in mind if you need to access personal information such as your email account.

When delivering a Teams presentation with multiple displays (i.e., two monitors connected to a PC or a laptop with external monitor), you may want to take advantage of the second display to monitor participants. By adjusting your PowerPoint settings to disable ‘Presenter View’ , you can utilise an additional display to open the Chat and Participants windows, or to view participant videos.

To disable Presenter View, open PowerPoint and select the Slide Show tab and then click Set Up Slide Show .

In the options window, under Show type , select Browsed by an individual (window) , and click OK .

When ready to present, click Play from Start to expand your presentation view. Rather than taking over both displays, your presentation will now display in a window that can be expanded and moved between your screens.

Select Share content in Teams and select your PowerPoint presentation from the list of windows to share . Open the main Teams meeting window after sharing your screen and move it to your second display. You can now monitor the chat and manage participants whilst presenting.

If you do not want to share your PC screen when presenting, you can upload and share a PowerPoint file directly in Teams. This can be advantageous when you do not have a strong internet connection or if you have multiple presenters who will need to control the slides during the session.

Click the Share content icon at the top of the meeting window and select Browse my computer to upload a file (or select Browse OneDrive if your presentation is located in your QMUL Office 365 account).

In the file browser , locate the presentation file on your PC and click Open . It may take a few moments for Teams to upload and convert your presentation file.

When the presentation has been shared, you will have a set of PowerPoint controls at the bottom of your slides. Use these options to move between slides , open grid view to quickly jump between slides, select a laser pointer , or one of the pen tools to annotate your slides.

Click the ‘ … ’ More actions icon to switch between single slide and presenter view, or to view the slides in high contrast mode (which may be helpful in certain instances for accessibility purposes).

In presenter view, you will see any presenter notes displayed on the right side of your presentation.

At the top of the window, there is a ‘eye’ icon which you can click to toggle to allow or prevent participants from moving through your shared presentation on their own . Click Stop presenting to end the presentation.

Did this answer your query? If not, you can raise a ticket on the online Helpdesk or email: [email protected] . Alternatively you can also request a particular guide or highlight an error in this guide using our guides request tracker.

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How to share PowerPoint slides in Teams meetings

The powerpoint live feature in teams ensures a professional presentation that has built-in accessibility features for you and your audience.

• Set up and join your Teams meeting as usual

Enable Include computer sound if your presentation has audio content that you want to share (including embedded videos, narrated sections or music)

• If your presentation is not listed then select Browse OneDrive or Browse my computer and locate the PowerPoint file you want to share
• Wait for the presentation to start on all attendees devices - it can feel like this is taking a long time, but it usually completes in 5 to 10 seconds

• Use the Presenter mode options at the top of your Teams screen to switch between Content only (just your slides) and Standout (your video is shown in the bottom-right corner of the slides)
• Select More actions    just below your slides to show/hide your notes and slide preview, select high contrast mode, or translate the slides. These actions only affect your view, each attendee can select their own independent settings
• Options to change the font size of your notes are displayed to the bottom-right of the current slide

Prepare with a quick practice-run

A quick practice before the live session will give you confidence in using Teams to present. Here's how:

• Open Teams and select Calendar   
• Select Meet Now    > Start meeting > Join now
• Close   the prompt to Invite people to join you
• Now select Share    and follow the instructions above

Further information

Video tutorial.

A short video tutorial on How to use PowerPoint Live in Teams by Breakwater IT

Other presentation formats

PowerPoint Live is only available for files saved in the latest PowerPoint (PPTX) format, used in PowerPoint 2016 and newer. If your presentation is in another format then try saving it as a PowerPoint file, either in the application you used to create it or in PowerPoint.

Sharing PowerPoint from a Mac

To share a PowerPoint file in presentation / slideshow mode on a Mac you need to give Teams permission for Screen Recording (see Sharing content on a Mac , about half-way down). You only need to do this once, the setting remains in place for future presentations.

Related links

• Overview: Microsoft Teams
• Top tips on running webinars in Teams
• Microsoft Teams collection

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You can have your PPT cake and eat it too

PowerPoint is likely one of the most popular apps shared during a Teams meeting. There’s a reason when you bring up the share options, PowerPoint takes up more than a third of it. People present slides all the time. But are they using PowerPoint to its potential when they use Teams? Most people do not. To view a video version of this post (lots of video demos!), press play below. (You should watch it, actually.)

PowerPoint has a lot of really great features and while this isn’t a PowerPoint best practices post, I do really appreciate PowerPoint for many of its professional features, like smooth transitions (Morph can be amazing), slide notes, non-distracting animations, screen annotations, and especially presenter view.

Well, if you’ve ever tried to present a slide deck in Teams, you’ll know that some of these features can be hard to find depending on which method you use to share your slides. There are three main sharing options and these are the only three I’ll cover today.

The three options—and I’m going to stick to this naming convention throughout the post—are The Teams Built-In Share, Desktop Window Share, and Presenter View Share.

TL;DR: For the most part, you want Presenter View Share. Launch your slideshow like you would normally. Alt-Tab to your meeting and share the window (not the screen) , Alt-Tab back to your presentation, right-click, and select Use Presenter View . That's it! Below is a more in-depth review of this way and the most common other ways to share slide decks during a Teams meeting.

Teams Built-In Share

Teams Built-In Share is the first option we’re going to discuss and it uses the built-in PowerPoint option. The sharing drawer shows you all your recent PowerPoint files. Though note that they’re only ones you’ve accessed in SharePoint or OneDrive; you don’t see anything from your local device or other cloud locations like Google Drive. Whether you know it or not, this method makes use of PowerPoint for the web—or formerly known as PowerPointOnline—so you’re getting the “Lite” version of PowerPoint when you present. That can work in many situations, especially if your slides are simple and straight forward.

There are a couple major upsides to this method. First, everything stays right in Teams and you have full control of your computer and its screen, unlike normal presentation mode with PowerPoint, where it completely takes over your screen. The other is that your viewers can actually choose to jump ahead or backward in your slides at their own pace without impacting what others see, which is a benefit you don’t get from any otherPowerPoint sharing option. You can disable this if you want to keep them on the slide you’re presenting, though. I generally don’t like people being able to jump slides on their own; it's usually more a distraction than a benefit. So for me, this isn’t a compelling feature.

The major downsides to this method are that you’re stuck with PowerPoint Lite: animations and transitions are sometimes really poor—and yes, animations and transitions are incredibly powerful for your message when they’re used correctly. But more importantly to me, you don’t get presenter view, so no annotations, no notes, and you have absolutely no idea which slide or animation is coming up next (unless you practice your slides a lot, but let's be real: you probably cobbled them together right before the meeting). Those downsides are the reason that I never use this method, even if it is right up in my face when I want to share a slide deck in Teams. The only way you’ll find me using Teams Built-In Share is once presenter view is built into PowerPoint for the web. 

Desktop Window Share

Desktop Window Share, the second option, is a nice little hack for sharing your presentation from the desktop app, complete with all the slick transitions and animations you’d like. You won’t get presenter view with this method, but you will get safety and comfort of all the full-fledged features in the desktop app and it won’t take up your whole screen while you’re presenting. Though it will include a little chrome in the top toolbar.

This method is similar to what people use when they set up kiosks for people to browse at expos or stores, except in this case, it doesn’t take up the whole screen. To present this way, you need to toggle a setting. Jump into the Slide Show tab in PowerPoint and click Set Up Slide Show . Select Browsed by an individual and click OK.

Now when you present this slideshow, it’ll show your entire slide in its own window, without the rest of PowerPoint showing. It’s like a mini PowerPoint presenter mode. To share this window, jump to your Teams meeting, click Share , and select PowerPoint under the Window section. Handy.

Presenter View Share

Note: This feature seems to have been recently removed from PowerPoint on macOS; I haven't been able to test it on Windows to confirm any impact there. I've reached out to Microsoft for some explanation or insights on this. I'll provide an update when I have one.

And lastly, Presenter View Share is my favorite way to present a slide deck during a Teams meeting and it’s really the subject of this post. Presenter View Share gives you all the features of the desktop app—because that’s what you’re using—including presenter view. That means you get notes and annotations, can see the upcoming slide, and can jump around slides as much as you want.

This technique is actually stupidly simple, but it’s not obvious at all. To share your presentation this way, it works best if you’re only using one monitor. If you have a second monitor, I’d actually recommend disconnecting it. And that’s coming from someone who always uses two monitors. The reason for that is the feature isn't available when you have two monitors because you'll already have presenter view on one of them and you can't share PowerPoint as a window when you have two monitors because the app takes up two windows and becomes essentially disqualified from being shared as a window (the only way to share the slides is by sharing the whole screen, which is less private).

First, have your PowerPoint file open and start the presentation the way you normally would. Now, Alt-Tab (Command-Tab on Mac) back to your Teams meeting and share the PowerPoint window—not the whole screen. Alt-Tab back to PowerPoint. And here’s where the magic happens: right-click on your slide and click Use Presenter View . And that’s it!

Wait, you’re worried that the people on the other end are seeing presenter view? They’re not. In fact, they didn’t even see you right-click because the menu isn’t part of the window. For them, nothing happened. While on your side, you just went from low fi to high fi in a matter of two clicks. From here you can do all the stuff you want through presenter mode and everyone on the other end will only see slides.

So, why do I like this method the most? Because I get to have my cake and eat it too! Sure, the slides take up my whole screen, but that doesn’t stop me from jumping around my device all I want. Alt-Tab is your best friend. If you’re not an Alt-Tab person now, you will be moving forward, because it’s a great little trick for jumping between apps.

That means I can be taking notes about a potential customer in my OneNote app during a demo without them knowing. Or I can check in on the meeting itself to see if someone’s raised their hand or said something I need to respond to. All they’ll ever see is the current slide—even if you see another app on top of it—because all I’m sharing with them is the PowerPoint window.

Edit: Some folks have reported they can actually use two monitors and still are able to share the single presented-view of PowerPoint. I can't confirm this because on Mac, the Use Presenter View isn't available when you have two screens (the option is not available in the right-click menu). That said, if you use multiple monitors, you're a power user. So take 2 minutes to check with a colleagues to test if it still works in your situation to pull this off, but with the multiple monitors you're used to. So if one of your original thoughts was, "I can't not use two monitors", test before you knock it. 🙂

Frankly, I’ll never look back on any other presentation options again. At least until Teams Built-In Share—remember, I really mean PowerPoint for the Web when I say this—finally transitions from PowerPoint Lite to a full-fledged version of PowerPoint. Once that day comes, I may convert. But for now, I’m sticking to the desktop app because it’s a beast.

But what do you think? How do you present slides during Teams meetings? What tips do you have when you’re presenting? Share them in a comment below so others can learn some of your tips and hacks for better meetings in Teams.

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Share Slides in Teams meetings with PowerPoint Live

PowerPoint Live offers benefits over simple screen-sharing.

This article applies to: Microsoft Teams

PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams offers several benefits over screen-sharing your PowerPoint presentation window or editing window. 

• Seamlessly switch between presenters.  Unlike screen-sharing, where the presentation is shared from a single presenter, co-presenters can take control of the slide deck during their portion of the presentation. 
• The built-in presenter view provides all the tools you need for a successful meeting.  You can see the audience, control slides, and view notes all in one location. 
• Enhanced accessibility.  Audience members can use screen readers, live translation, and high contrast slides. 
• Special audience focus tools.  Use the laser pointer, pen, and highlighter to draw attention to key points. 
• Option for attendees to go back or ahead.  If enabled, audience members can move between slides to review something they missed while the presentation continues. 
• Smoother transitions to video or audio.  Play high-quality embedded video and audio without having to change to a browser, media player, or other outside app or window. 
• Instant attendee access to links.  Audience members can open links and videos in the presentation on their own devices. No more waiting for you to circulate the presentation after the meeting. 

For more information, see Microsoft’s  Share slides in a Teams meeting with PowerPoint Live  and the Microsoft blog post  Introducing PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams . 

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