Zoom Slide Control for presentations: allow others to advance your PowerPoint slides

In November 2021 with version 5.8.6 of the Windows & Mac apps, Zoom introduced an option that allows you to let someone else in the meeting control the movement of your slides. This is a great way to let each person in a group advance their own slides without having to say “Next slide please”. You and the person you want to control the slides must have version 5.8.6 or higher of the desktop app for this to work.

Turn this feature on in the web settings

This feature is not turned on by default. You need to login to your Zoom account on the Zoom website. Click on the Settings item in the left menu and then on the In Meeting (Basic) sub-section.

Scroll down until you find the setting named Slide Control and turn it on with the slider control.

If your Zoom account is administered by your organization, you may need to ask the administrator to turn on this setting for you.

Start the meeting and share your Slide Show

Once the feature is turned on, you can start a Zoom meeting. If you are the host and someone else will be sharing the slides, make sure you allow others to share content in the meeting.

This feature only works if you share your slides in a full screen method. For PowerPoint, you have to share the Slide Show window or the screen that is showing the slides full screen. You can use Slide Show mode or Presenter View to display the slides full screen. This feature does not work if you share the slides in Reading View in the PowerPoint window. For Google Slides, this feature only works if you are sharing your slides in full screen mode, it does not work if you are using Presenter View in Google Slides.

If you want to allow someone to control slides in Reading View in PowerPoint or in Google Slides Presenter View you will have to use the Zoom Remote Control option that gives full mouse and keyboard access to someone in the meeting.

Give Slide Control access to someone

After you have shared your screen or the Slide Show window, move the cursor to the top of the screen to reveal the Zoom control bar. You will see the Slide Control button.

Click on it and you can select who you want to give slide control to in the meeting.

After you have given control to someone you will see the notification from Zoom.

The other person can control your slides

When you give control to the other person they will see a notice letting them know that they can now control your slides and they will have slide controls in a small area in the lower left.

They can use their arrow keys or the on-screen controls to advance your slides just like you would.

Stop the Slide Control sharing

To stop someone from controlling the slides, click on the Stop Slide Control button on your screen (shown in the screen capture above). You will now be the only one to control your slides. You can use the procedure to now share the slide control with another meeting participant if you want.

Option to see your notes while showing slides from someone else’s laptop

Another way this feature could be used is to run the slides from someone else’s computer so that you can see your notes on your screen. If you only have your laptop screen and want to see your speaking notes, here’s what you could do. Send your slide file to someone else who will be in the meeting. Have them share the slides in full screen mode from their laptop. They give you control of the slides using the Slide Control feature. Now you can advance the slides while still seeing notes or other content on your own laptop screen.

Video

This video demonstrates this feature in Zoom.

1 or 2 screens?
Teams, Zoom, or Webex?
Windows or Mac?

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Where to go next
–>More articles on virtual presenting –>Training for your team on presenting virtually
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By Dave Paradi

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.