How To Stop PowerPoint From Moving To The Next Slide

We have all been there. We are showing off our PowerPoint and the slide continues on when we aren’t completely done. It is frustrating when this happens, especially when you don’t know how to disable it.

You can disable it though. It only takes a few minutes to adjust the settings within your PowerPoint program. You just need to follow the steps in this article and you will be good to go for when you present your slides.

How To Stop PowerPoint From Moving To The Next Slide

Stopping your Powerpoint from moving from one slide to the next is not difficult. It should only take you a matter of minutes and even quicker when you know how to navigate through the Microsoft program. 

The steps to follow depend on whether or not you are doing the entire presentation or if you are doing an individual slide. You can do either or. 

How To Edit Individual Slides

Sometimes you just want to edit the individual slide instead of the entire presentation. This could be because you have more information to explain to your audience or maybe there are more texts to go over. No matter the reason, here are the steps to editing an individual slide:

  1. Open your Microsoft PowerPoint program.
  2. Find the slide that you want to edit from the left thumbnail list.
  3. Click on “Transitions” under the “Advanced Settings” options.
  4. Look for the option “After.”
  5. Unclick the box next to the “After” option. 
  6. You can also change the option for clicking the mouse for the next slide.
  7. Save the PowerPoint before you close the application.

Now you can present your PowerPoint knowing that the slides you need to last longer will do so while the others will continue to automatically transition to the next slide. You can adjust this at any time if you realize you need to make these edits.

How To Edit The Entire Presentation

If you just want to control the rate at which you go from slide to slide, you can edit so the entire presentation won’t automatically move on. You don’t have to do each slide individually. Here are those steps:

  1. Launch PowerPoint.
  2. Open the slide show you want to edit.
  3. Click on the “Slide Show” tab in Microsoft.
  4. Choose “Set Up Slide Show”.
  5. Select “Manually” in the advanced setting menu and then “Ok”.
  6. Save the slide show before exiting the program.

This will change the settings for the entire slide and not just an individual slide. You don’t have to spend extra time sifting through the slides yourself. Always remember to save before you exit your PowerPoint document. If you don’t, the edits won’t be saved and you will have to adjust the settings once again.

How To Edit The Timing Of A Slide

Sometimes you may just want to change the time of the slide without having to turn off the automatic slide transitions. This way you don’t have to manually change the slide which sometimes can disrupt the flow of the presentation.

Editing the timing won’t take you more time than if you were to take off the automatic timing unless you want to change specific slides to be longer or shorter. Here is how you can change the time within your PowerPoint:

  1. Open PowerPoint program.
  2. Click on the “Transition” tab on the slides.
  3. You will find the “Timing Group” where there is a “Duration” box.
  4. Change the duration of your slides in the “Duration” box.
  5. Ensure you save the settings before leaving the document.

You can also change the type of transition and other features depending on what you want. You can be as unique and flashy or as simple as you want. You can choose what best fits the topic of your presentation.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Tips To Making A Smoother Presentation

Sometimes it is not the timing of the slide that is causing a disruption in the flow of your presentation. It could be that you need to make your presentation smoother for people to really follow along. Here are some tips to making a smoother presentation to catch your audience’s attention:

  • Limit the amount of text you have on your slides.
  • Break down text into short, concise chunks.
  • Add different types of multimedia like pictures, narrations, music, videos.
  • Add some color.
  • Try not to overdo it on a slide.
  • Don’t crowd the slide.
  • Try to only put the most important information on the slides.
  • Stick with a consistent theme.
  • Simple is sometimes best.
  • Ensure the theme matches the ideas and topic within your PowerPoint.
  • Practice your presentation aloud a few times.
  • Time your presentation before presenting it to an audience.
  • Don’t read from the slides the entire time.
  • Allow silence for information to sink in as well as to ask questions.
  • Don’t rush yourself or the presentation.

It is always good to be concise and straight to the point when you are creating a presentation. Only show the important information and you can add any other information verbally. You want them to focus specifically on the imperative information and adding that to the slides can make it more difficult for your audience to remember that.

Don’t overdo it either. You want to bring attention to the slides but you don’t want it to be so crowded with multimedia that you distract from the topic or just make it hard for your audience to concentrate on one thing at a time.

If you can’t seem to create a theme that works or just having trouble with some of the style of your presentation, you can look at websites that offer templates and pre-made design assets. They give you clean-cut items that you can put into your presentations.

Outro

Microsoft PowerPoint is pretty straightforward when it comes to editing. With a little exploration, you can learn all the ins and outs of the program so that you can make the best presentation. You can make something perfect for you, including the timing of your slides.