I learned this from investigating an e-mail forward I received during the Christmas holidays, but it’s a useful tip that others might like to hear.
When you’re giving a presentation, the last thing you need is more work, and I have seen numerous presenters struggle with the foreign laptop they’re on or try to get something up and running. Having your slides all ready to go on a thumb drive helps to make things go a little more smoothly and this tip will make your presentation automatically open up in slideshow mode.
It’s quite simple.
Let’s say your file is called presentation.ppt. To make it open in slideshow mode, you just have to change a single letter in the filename. Change the extension to pps instead of ppt (presentation.pps). When you open the file it will be in slideshow mode and you can begin talking, off to a smooth start in your presentation.
You can also make this choice when you save it, by using the file type drop-down menu and selecting Powerpoint Show (.pps)
» Comment by forbes on January 26, 2007 @ 4:08 amThat’s true, I forgot to mention that.
» Comment by dan on January 26, 2007 @ 8:30 amI did not find the option that Dan mentioned. I am trying to email my powerpoint presentation to staff and would like them to be able to open the attachment and have the presentation start without having to look for the icon to click on. HELP!
» Comment by Cynthia on April 27, 2007 @ 8:39 amActually, it was Forbes who mentioned the drop down box that I can not find.
» Comment by Cynthia on April 27, 2007 @ 8:41 amthere is no “drop down menu”, you just literally CHANGE the filename (after closing the file right-click on the filename and change it to “filename.pps” instead of “filename.ppt”.
» Comment by isaac pisors on March 18, 2008 @ 1:11 pmForbes was talking about when you’re saving the file. If you go to File -> Save As you get a dialog that has a “Save as Type” drop down menu. In this menu you can select PowerPoint Show (*.pps) to have the same affect. Both methods work.
» Comment by dan on March 18, 2008 @ 1:57 pmIt was very helpful. Thanks for that!
Cheers
Ali
» Comment by Mohammad Ali on October 16, 2008 @ 7:03 amThank you so much for the information for slideshow ….. I am thrilled that this worked…. thanks again
» Comment by Monique on June 30, 2009 @ 6:27 am@Monique You’re very welcome. Thanks for letting me know.
» Comment by Dan on June 30, 2009 @ 8:23 amI’ve made a PPT with 5 videos and 3 sound files and have saved it as a PPS. I plan on burning it to a CD the send it out. Is there a way I can send it without the videos and sound files on the CD and they all still work?
» Comment by Carla on July 20, 2009 @ 10:47 amNot that I know of. The PPT file references those videos and sound files instead of embedding them inside the file, so if you don’t include them, they won’t be displayed in the presentation.
» Comment by Dan on July 20, 2009 @ 11:00 amWould embedding the videos and sound allow me to do what I want?
» Comment by Carla on July 21, 2009 @ 11:12 amIf so I’ve tried to embed a video file using steps from the Interactive Media Center, Univeristy Libraries. I can’t seem to get the instructions to work by their steps. Have anyone ever gone to this web site?
@Carla Yes, embedding would put all the media into one file so you could burn it to a CD.
Cliotech shows three ways of doing it.
» Comment by Dan on July 21, 2009 @ 1:48 pmThanks so much! I now know how to make a slide show… I really thought it was that complicated. Hehehe! God bless you!
» Comment by Frances on September 3, 2009 @ 5:34 amIn the immortal words of Tiny Tim, God bless us, everyone
» Comment by Dan on September 3, 2009 @ 9:53 amDoes anyone know how to save a powerpoint slideshow and make the slides unavailable for edit? ie only available as a show
» Comment by jo on October 22, 2009 @ 7:12 am@jo Not that I know of
» Comment by Dan on October 22, 2009 @ 10:16 amThanks a lot. It helped me a lot.
» Comment by Meghna on November 15, 2009 @ 12:14 amThank you. It was very very helpful.
» Comment by govind on December 30, 2009 @ 2:40 pmHow can you make a presentation OPEN in slide mode, but also be able to edit?
» Comment by Cristy on May 10, 2010 @ 12:50 pmWhen I press ESC to get out of slide mode, the presentation closes.
Help?
@Cristy I don’t think you can. The only way to edit is to rename it back to .ppt.
» Comment by Dan on May 10, 2010 @ 1:12 pmSorry, it doesn’t work for me. I have saved it as a PPS file, have a slide with a transition in it and an embedded sound and when I click on the file, it still opens in Normal View. I’d attach it so you could see but there’s no provision for that. Any other hints? I’m using Powerpoint 2003. Thanks so much!
» Comment by Stu on June 2, 2010 @ 7:21 amPerhaps the default file handler for PPS files isn’t set up correctly. Open up an explorer window, and go to Tools -> Options, File Types tab and find PPS. Then click Advanced and make sure “Show” is in bold. If it’s not, select it and click the “Set Default” button.
» Comment by Dan on June 2, 2010 @ 8:29 amDoes a .pps filename extension also work for the newer versions of Powerpoint? Powerpoint 2007 and 2010 typically use .ppsx extensions.
» Comment by Mark on October 28, 2010 @ 3:41 pmI just tried with Powerpoint 2007 and pps still worked. ppsx didn’t.
» Comment by Dan on October 28, 2010 @ 3:51 pmI saved a powerpoint presentation in the slide show mode. When I uploaded the file in to Microsoft SharePoint and try opening the file it opens in the regular view. How do I get it to open in the slide show view?
» Comment by Kelly Jo on March 4, 2011 @ 1:18 pm@Kelly Jo Sounds like an issue with Microsoft Sharepoint. There may not be a way to have it start in slide show mode from a Sharepoint.
» Comment by Dan on March 4, 2011 @ 1:37 pmIt’s a pretty old post, however, there is a simpler way where you can save your powerpoint file with .ppt extension (editable).
To open a .ppt file in slideshow mode, simply invoke ppt with option /s. E.g. powerpnt /s path\to\your\file
» Comment by Bernard on June 22, 2011 @ 11:14 pmI am presenting a PP in slide show mode. Within the presentation, I have a hyperlink to another PP. The problem I’m having is this hyperlinked PP opens in presentation view and is not able to be edited. I would like the hyperlinked PP to open in “normal view” so that people can “save as” and just create their own PP using what has been supplied to them. Can this be done? How do I do it?
» Comment by Diane on August 11, 2011 @ 6:37 amThank you!!!!
» Comment by Christie on August 18, 2011 @ 1:20 pmThank you Dan (comment no.6) saved my life…haha
» Comment by Kaushik Morarji on August 21, 2011 @ 8:44 pmGlad I could help
» Comment by Dan on August 21, 2011 @ 9:00 pmHi thank you for the previous info – was excellent, is there a way to attatch a pps, so that when the email is opened it starts playing immediately?
» Comment by Michelle on September 14, 2011 @ 6:27 amI’ve been trying to figure out how to do this for over an hour!! I just wanted to go to bed. Now I can. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
» Comment by valerie c on November 3, 2011 @ 10:48 pmThank you. The answer was so simple. Yet, it took me an hour of searching on my own before I found your advise.
» Comment by Erlene on December 1, 2011 @ 10:51 pmI’m having trouble emailing a presentation that has been saved as a ppsx. When i open the file from windows explorer its opens in a show which is what i want, yet when i send it, my recipient clicks on the attachment and it opens in power point and it is editable. Any suggestion?
» Comment by Paul on December 6, 2011 @ 4:27 pmDoes anyone know how to ensure that a presentation opens as a slide show when it is saved in SharePoint? When the file is saved locally it opens as a slide show which is great but as soon as i upload to Sharepoint the file opens as a ppt despite the icon showing as a pps? I need to publish this document but dont want other to be able to edit it and jump from slide to slide. The document has particular hyperlinks to certain parts of the docuemnt so do not want the user to be able to scroll through or see all slides. Help please?
» Comment by David on December 7, 2011 @ 3:33 amWhat if I’m having the opposite problem- I’m on my laptop and can only open my pp presentations in slideshow. I cannot get to the template in order to edit the presentation. (on my work and home computers it opens first in the editing mode). Any suggestions?
» Comment by Laurie on January 9, 2012 @ 8:02 amI have created a slideshow, but even when I save it as a .ppsx, it just opens as a slide, not a slideshow. What am I doing wrong? Please help!!!
» Comment by Kimberley on February 7, 2012 @ 1:27 pm@Kimberley I don’t know. I just saved a .pptx file as a .ppsx by Saving As “PowerPoint Show” and it worked fine in Office 2007, opening up in slideshow mode. Just changing the extension didn’t work. I’m guessing it only works in earlier versions of Office.
» Comment by Dan on February 7, 2012 @ 1:53 pm