How many times have you watched someone nervously struggling to start a PowerPoint presentation by using the mouse to click on the little bitty icon in the lower right hand side of the screen? The cursor is shaking all over the screen as they attempt to click on the icon that looks like a screen projector. When I am in the audience and someone is struggling with this, I become just as nervous as the presenter and I often want to shout “F5, just hit the F5 function key and we will all feel better!”
PowerPoint offer several ways to begin a full screen presentation. One way is to click on the little bitty projector screen icon in the lower right hand corner of the screen. Another way is to click on the Slide Show tab and then click on Begin show from the beginning. You could also save your presentation as a PowerPoint Show or .pps file. In this format, double clicking on the icon will open your presentation in “show” mode without going to the edit screen first. Finally, you can just hit the F5 key and you can begin your presentation with ease.