Let your presentation do your work for you with the help of looping slides. To create an interesting introduction, prepare a set of slides to loop before you begin. This is especially useful when you’re delivering a long pitch. You can loop slides to create an intermission while you and the audience take a short break. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to loop selected slides in PowerPoint 2013 on Windows 10. You can also save them as separate decks and link them to your main presentation.
Engaging and Interactive
Play a looping set of slides as an introduction to fill in dull moments by displaying messages while your audience settles in. First, save this set of slides as separate PowerPoint documents. The advantage of having separate files is that you don’t need to hide the other file in the slides or have a button to activate them. In addition, you can use a remote to advance the slides yourself to give you more control. For this guide, we’ll have three sets of files. The first set is your Main Presentation, the second set contains your Introduction, and the last set of slides will be your Intermission. The second and third presentations will be embedded within the main presentation as Slide Objects.
Looping Introduction and Intermission
First, make sure that the slides automatically transition to the next. Do this by going to the ribbon. The ribbon is the menu located at the top of PowerPoint. 1. Once you see the ribbon, go to the Transitions tab > Advance Slide settings. 2. Look for the Advance Slide setting and set how long you want each slide to appear. In this case, we set each slide to appear for two seconds before it can move on to the next.3. To loop the introduction slides, go to the ribbon and select Slideshow > Set Up Slide Show.4. A dialog box for “Set Up Show” will appear, then choose “Loop continuously until Esc” under the Show options category. This option will ensure that the slides loop and that you don’t go to the Main Presentation by accident. You’ll need to press the ESC button to end the loop. You also need to use these same settings for the intermission deck so that the slides loop and play continuously.
Linking Introduction and Intermission
Here’s an image of the main presentation file:We will insert the Introduction PowerPoint in the 1st slide, and insert the Intermission PowerPoint in the 3rd slide as objects. The Introduction PowerPoint will be inserted into the first slide as an Object.5. Go to the ribbon and click on Insert> Object.6. A dialog box called “Insert Object” will pop-up, then click “Browse…” to add the location of the Introduction PowerPoint.Warning: If you move the linked presentations elsewhere, PowerPoint won’t be able to locate the file. Manually link back if you make any changes to the file’s location. Once you click OK, the file will be embedded into the slide, similar to the image here: The Introduction PowerPoint can then be resized to fit the slide. Insert the Intermission PowerPoint in the 3rd slide using the same steps. You should end up with an image like this after embedding and resizing the PowerPoint files in your Main Presentation: To avoid confusion, the Introduction and Intermission PowerPoints will be called Slide Objects. Click on the Introduction Slide Object in the 1st slide.7. Select the Animations tab on the ribbon and select these options: Add Animation > OLE Action Verbs> Show.8. Click OK and repeat the same actions for the Intermission Slide Object in the 3rd slide. And that’s it! You now have a presentation with a looping introduction and intermission! Test your Main Presentation file and press F5 to run the slide show from the beginning. The looping introduction should play immediately. Notice that clicking on the slide or pressing the arrow keys won’t affect the animation, but pressing the ESC button ends the loop and returns you to the main presentation slides.
Letting It Run Itself
Give your audience something interesting to look at while they wait for you to begin. A looping introduction will grab their attention and build up anticipation for your talk. You can even have slides loop in the background while you take a break. These will help you keep track of time because they can serve as a visual guide for you and your audience. Have fun and loop selected slides to suit your presentation needs.
References
“Adding Multiple Sets of Looping Slides to PowerPoint.” ThoughtAsylum. Accessed October 13, 2015. www.thoughtasylum.com/blog/2014/5/30/adding-multiple-sets-of-looping-slides-to-powerpoint.html Finkelstein, Ellen. “Create a Looping Introduction.” PowerPoint Tips Blog. May 14, 2003. Accessed November 25, 2015. www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/create-a-looping-introduction Harkins, Susan. “Add a Looping Introduction to a PowerPoint Presentation.” TechRepublic. November 24, 2008. Accessed November 25, 2015. www.techrepublic.com/blog/microsoft-office/add-a-looping-introduction-to-a-powerpoint-presentation
