(This is the article for Windows. The Mac article is here.)
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Option A: Share the hidden Slide Show window
When you display your slides full screen in Slide Show mode you can actually switch to Presenter View and share the hidden Slide Show window in the Zoom meeting. This way your attendees see high-res slides while you see your notes and have all the expert features of Presenter View. You can watch how to do this in the video below.
Option B: Share the current slide portion of Presenter View Preview
Another option for using Presenter View in PowerPoint to present in Zoom with one screen uses a feature that was introduced in PowerPoint a few years ago called Presenter View preview and may only be available in modern versions of PowerPoint. This allows you to see what Presenter View looks like even though you only have one screen. This method also uses a feature of Zoom that shares a portion of your screen instead of the full screen. It will likely result in lower resolution slides being shown to the attendees which is why the above method is preferred. Here’s how you do this in a Zoom meeting.
Set up your presentation for Presenter View
Make sure that the presentation is set to display in the default of full screen Slide Show. On the Slide Show ribbon, click on the Set Up Slide Show button. In the dialog box, make sure the Show type is set to “Presented by a speaker (full screen)”.
Start Presenter View Preview
In PowerPoint, press Alt+F5 to start Presenter View preview at the beginning of your presentation. You will see Presenter View on your screen with the slide, your notes, and what the next slide/build will be.
Presenter View takes up the whole screen, so you will not see the controls for your Zoom meeting. Presenter View Preview always starts at the first slide. If you want to jump to a specific slide in the file, press Ctrl+- (hold the Ctrl key and press the minus key) to see thumbnails of all of the slides. Click on the one you want to display.
If you want your notes to be in a larger font, use the font controls at the bottom of the Notes section to make the text bigger.
Share a portion of the screen in Zoom
To return to the Zoom meeting control window, press Alt+Tab to move through the open windows until you select the Zoom meeting controls window.
In the Zoom sharing dialog, go to the Advanced tab and select the Portion of a screen option.
You will see a green rectangle on your screen. Use the vertical and horizontal dividing lines in Presenter View to make the size of the current slide larger. Use the sizing handles on the green Zoom sharing rectangle so that it only shows the current slide. Do this before others arrive in the Zoom meeting room so they don’t see you adjusting the display.
Present your slides
Make sure the focus is on the Presenter View screen by clicking on the arrow button in Presenter View to check that the slides advance. Then you can use the arrow keys to advance the slides during your presentation. You have access to all of the other regular Presenter View features such as laser pointer, drawing on the slide, or zooming in on a slide.
When you are done the presentation, stop sharing the portion of your screen in Zoom.
If you have a lower resolution screen, like 1366 x 768
If you have a lower resolution screen, like the common 1366 x 768 resolution, this method may make your slides look fuzzy because there are not enough pixels in the portion of the screen to make it clear for the attendees. This article explains how you can use a narrow format for your Notes pages which allows the Reading View window to be larger on the screen.
Video
This video demonstrates this method.
Dave Paradi has over twenty-two years of experience delivering customized training workshops to help business professionals improve their presentations. He has written ten books and over 600 articles on the topic of effective presentations and his ideas have appeared in publications around the world. His focus is on helping corporate professionals visually communicate the messages in their data so they don’t overwhelm and confuse executives. Dave is one of fewer than ten people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams communities. His articles and videos on virtual presenting have been viewed over 4.8 million times and liked over 17,000 times on YouTube.