In this blog series I’m exploring some of the perils of using Microsoft Teams; with it’s ever-changing feature-richness, it can be hard to keep up and make good use of the platform.

Deadly sin number 5 is one I’m sure you’ve heard before: “next slide please” – urggggh.

Here’s the scenario: numerous people have contributed to the slide deck that is being presented in a Teams meeting, BUT – only one person on the call is driving the slides. This means that unless the slide-driver is very canny, each presenter will likely say “next slide please” when they’re moving on. In my opinion, it interrupts the flow of whoever is presenting. As an attendee the more you hear “next slide please” the more boring it gets!   

Presenters and meeting hosts should be brave and use PowerPoint live during meetings. (Go on, I dare you!)

It’s actually nothing to be scared of – and it means that each presenter can control the ebb and flow of their slides in the deck.

Once the meeting has started, the main presenter can open the saved presentation and click on the ‘Present in Teams’ button that should have appeared on the top right of the PowerPoint window:

You’ll get a prompt to make sure that’s actually what you want to do:

And then voila – your slide deck is presented into the meeting:

The notes are only there for you as a presenter to see – your meeting attendees won’t be able to see them. Attendees will be able to scroll through the slides, but you can turn this option off if you like.

You’ll get cool presenting functions like laser pointers and highlighters too, which are useful to keep people’s attention.

Co-presenters can request control of the slide deck at any time using the ‘request control’ button at the top of the meeting screen, and then the next presenter can request control once it’s their turn.  

Hey presto, no more need for “next slide please” and hopefully more engagement in your meeting. Give it a try!  

Oh – one thing to note, sometimes people leave it to the very last minute to update their slides for the deck (no naming and shaming here but… you know who you are). If you are one of those people, once the presentation has started, any edits that you make to the deck behind the scenes will not show up during the meeting, the presentation would have to be stopped and started again for your edits to show.

Check out the Microsoft Support pages for more info on the presenter and audience experience of PowerPoint live during a Teams meeting.