Guidance on using two PowerPoint Windows to enable facilitation by using PowerPoint more interactively to capture people’s ideas and observations.
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Powerpoint allows you to open up two windows on the same file. This is surprisingly useful in that it allows you to present one window in Slideshow mode, while working behind the scenes in edit mode in the second window.
The shared slideshow window presents a clean, professional uncluttered view of the proceedings, while the ‘private’ edit window enables you to add new text and make changes.
Benefits of opening two PowerPoint windows
Virtual Flipcharts make extensive use of this facility. The flipchart that people see on your webcam or shared screen looks just like a normal flipchart. A clean focused view free of all of the menus, ribbons and borders.
Conversely you have full access to all these tools in your private edit view, and can easily capture their comments as they offer them. And whatever comments you add to the edit window, magically appear simultaneously in their shared slideshow window.
We call it a slideshow window, because it behaves like slideshow. But PowerPoint call it Reading View, and it has three important advantages over the normal Slideshow option:
- It has a smaller format so you do not lose a whole screen.
This means that you can position it out of the way. - You can click elsewhere on your screen without it causing
a pause in any animations or videos in the slideshow. - You are not restricted to a landscape format, and can therefore
combine your slideshow with other images
How to set up a second PowerPoint window
Setting up the second window is surprisingly easy. Once you have opened your file in PowerPoint, simply click on the View menu item (1) to open up the View ribbon. And then click on the ‘New Window’ button (2). You now have two PowerPoint windows on the same file.
Then in one of those windows, on the View ribbon, click the button for ‘Reading View’ (3).
If you are using this approach with Virtual Flipcharts, you can resize the window so that it fits tight to the Flipchart design.
You now have a number of options:
- If you are working on your own, you can work in the edit window. And you can use the Reading View window to keep you on track through its timer animations.
- Or, if you are working with your team, you can present your Reading View window through screen (window) sharing. And you can update it through the edit window.
- And, if you want to use the Virtual Flipchart in your webcam in order to keep the discussion more natural, you can share it via OBS, mmhmm, or other virtual webcam software.
Track your progress to ensure the efficacy of this strategy.