How to Deliver a Powerpoint Presentation to a Non-live Audience

     Whenever you create a PowerPoint, it is very likely that you are using that PowerPoint to deliver a presentation to a live audience. But what if you're not presenting live? Let's say you're a teacher who teaches an online class where you upload PowerPoint lectures, or maybe even an employee who needs to share a PowerPoint to other employees who can't attend your presentation. PowerPoint not only has the tools to assist in live presentations, but also when you're not presenting to a live audience.

    In the Slide Show tab in the ribbon, there is a feature named Custom Slide Show. This feature allows us to give a presentation on slides we choose to include. By clicking on that button and creating a new custom slide show in the window, you can manually select which slides you want to present and even reorder them to your liking. To run that custom slideshow, click the Custom Slide Show button again and then click the one you just made. If you simply want to hide a slide, you can just click the Hide Slide button as well.

    The Rehearse Timings feature is incredibly useful no matter if you're presenting live or not. When selected, it displays a timer to see how much time you spend on a slide (which can be paused), giving you an opportunity to rehearse your slides over and over. It will also show the time you've spent overall in your presentation. It even gives you the choice if you want to save the your timings if you want to play the slideshow automatically.

    Lastly, the Record Slideshow option is quite similar to the Rehearse Timings feature, except that you narrate and annotate your slides as part of the recording. You get a laser pointer, pen, and highlighter to annotate. This would be something you would see a teacher use when giving an online lecture, using the laser pointer to point to what they're talking about and the pen to write whatever they please.

    If you decided to record your slideshow and want to upload a video of it, click the File button at the top left, then Export, and then Create a Video. Here, you can choose the video compression quality as well as the recorded timings and narrations if you chose to save them. If you don't want to use narrations or annotations, click on the dropbox and select Don't Use Recorded Timings and Narrations. All slides will then spend however much time as you choose in the dropbox below.

    So whether you're teaching an online class or posting a PowerPoint presentation for employees who can't attend your presentation, PowerPoint has all the things you need in order to present a PowerPoint to a non-live audience.