If you use PowerPoint to deliver presentations, you can configure specific slides to loop. You may be wondering why one would want to do this. Imagine this scenario, which all presenters go through — audience members begin to arrive for your presentation, take their seats and wait patiently, as others arrive, for you to begin speaking.

Before your presentation even begins, you have an opportunity to capture your audience’s attention by having a preview of your presentation on the screen in a continuously loop until you’re ready to begin. You don’t even have to create a separate set of slides to do so.

To set up a preview of your presentation:

1. Add the previewéintroductory slides to your presentation.
2. Select the introductory slides, from the Slide Show menu, click Slide Transitions.
3. From the Advance Slide section, select the Automatically After option and type in the number of seconds you want between slides.
4. Deselect the On Mouse click option.
5. From the Slide Show menu, click the Choose Set Up Show option.
6. Select the Loop Continuously Until Esc option.
7. Select the Using Timings, If Present option.
8. Click OK.

Once you’ve completed the steps above, you need to add in a button that will end the preview and begin the main presentation.

1. Switch to Normal view and select the last slide in your preview.
2. From the Drawing toolbar, select Auto Shapes.
3. Click Action Buttons.
4. From the Shapes drop-down list, click Action Button.
5. Add an AutoShape to the slide.
6. Select the button. From the Slide Show menu, click Action Settings.
7. Select Slide from the Hyperlink To drop-down list.
8. Within the Hyperlink To Slide window, select the first slide in your main presentation.
9. Click OK.

With your preview now ready, you can start the presentation as you normally would. When you’re ready to begin the official presentation, click the action button you created in the previous steps.

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