To poll your question with your participants simply enter slideshow mode and run your presentation.
A quick way of entering slideshow mode in PowerPoint is by pressing the F5 key on your keyboard. This will take you to the start of your presentation. You can use 'Enter', 'Right Arrow' or 'Spacebar' to advance to the next slide.
There are 3 stages to running an interactive slide in PowerPoint.
- Ready
- Poll open
- Results
1. Ready
When your interactive poll slide is on screen this is the first stage that displays the text of the question. A control box will display on screen.
By default, this box appears in the top left corner of the screen. You can alter the setting of this box in the preferences menu in the PowerPoint ribbon.
This control box is an indicator and a good reminder that this slide contains an interactive question. When you advance the slide the interactive poll will move to the second stage.
2. Poll Open
Once the poll is open the control box will change and display the number of respondents that are voting.
When ready to close the poll simply advance the slide as you normally would by pressing the 'Enter' key.
3. Results
When closing the poll, the results will be calculated and displayed in the presentation and on all connected devices.
PowerPoint short cuts
PowerPoint has some simple, yet very effective keyboard short cuts to allow you to take the focus off the screen, jump to a supporting slide or run an ad-hoc audience vote WITHOUT needing to exit ‘slide show’.
Whilst in 'slide show' simply…
- Hit ‘B’- to turn the screen black
- Hit ‘W’- to turn the screen white
- (Press the same keys again to return to the presentation)
- Enter the slide number you wish to display and hit ‘Enter’ to ‘jump’ to a slide. Great for ad hoc polls or hidden slides!
Troubleshooting
