How to Have Two PowerPoint Sessions Running at the Same Time in Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint was created in 1985, primarily for engineers to present diagrams.

Use features built in to PowerPoint and some common keyboard shortcuts to make yourself more productive, even when you're working with more than one presentation simultaneously. You might want to move seamlessly from one PowerPoint file to another while you're giving a presentation, or you might be editing two different PowerPoint files and need to share information between them. Both situations require running multiple sessions of PowerPoint at the same time.

Instructions

Working on Presentations

1. Open the first presentation you want to work on in PowerPoint.

2. Click on the "File" tab and then click "Open." Browse to the location of the next PowerPoint file you want to work with and double-click it. It will open as a second PowerPoint window on your computer.

3. Arrange the windows so you can work with both sessions simultaneously. Click on the "View" tab and then click "Arrange" in the "Windows" section. The PowerPoint windows will be arranged to fill your screen. From here you can drag slides or object from one presentation to the other, as if they were in the same window.

Giving the Presentations

1. Open all of the presentations you want to have available as you speak. Click on the "File" tab in PowerPoint and then click "Open." Browse to the location of the presentation you want to open and double-click on it. Repeat this for all the presentations you want to give.

2. Select the window with the last presentation you want to use. Press "F5" on your keyboard to start the slide show. Press "Alt+Tab" on your keyboard to see the other windows open. Hold "Alt" and press "Tab" until you've highlighted the window for the second-to-last presentation you want to give. Release both keys and then press "F5" again. Repeat this process for all the slide shows you want to give.

3. Press "Alt" and then "Tab" until you've selected the first slide show you want to give. It should be at the beginning of the windows you've selected. Press "Alt" and then "Tab" again until you've selected the second slide show. Continue until you've selected all the slide shows in order and then return to the first slide show. You've set up your "Alt+Tab" queue so that all your presentations are in the order you want to deliver them.

Tips & Warnings

• Quickly arrange PowerPoint windows using the Windows 7 Areo Snap feature. Drag one window all the way to the left side of the screen and release. It will snap to fill the left half of your monitor. Do the same for the presentation on the right.

• Press "Alt+Esc" to move through the slide shows on your computer without using the Alt+Tab pop up. To your audience it will appear as if you just selected the next slide in one presentation. Note that Alt+Esc always takes you to the next window in the Alt+Tab queue, so you can move between presentations, only from beginning to end of the queue.

References

• Microsoft Office: Open and Work with Multiple Presentations
• Microsoft Office: Familiarize Yourself with the Ribbon in Office 2010