PDF & PowerPoint

Bring your prepared slides into the same service as your songs, Bible passages and other media. Add a PDF for static pages, or play a .pptx presentation directly with supported animations and videos. Microsoft PowerPoint is not required for direct playback.

Add a PDF

Choose Add media or .txt to copy a PDF into your collection, then drag it from the Library into the service. You can also drop the file directly into a deck section.

Select the cue to review its pages under Subitems. Start at a particular page with its play control, or present the cue and advance one page at a time. A PDF keeps your slides as static pages; animations and embedded videos do not play inside it.

Add a PowerPoint presentation

  1. Open your collection and service in Presenter.
  2. Choose Add media or .txt and select your .pptx file, or drag the file from Finder or File Explorer into Presenter.
  3. In Import PowerPoint, choose PowerPoint playback. Presenter keeps the original presentation in your collection.
  4. If you added it to the Library, drag it into the right place in your service. Dropping it directly into a deck section inserts it there.

Use .pptx for direct playback. Older .ppt files use the PDF conversion route; save a copy as .pptx in PowerPoint when you want direct playback.

Preview and present

Select the PowerPoint cue and open its Slides controls. Use the previous and next slide buttons or select Slide N to preview a particular slide. The preview is muted.

Use the slide's play control to start presenting from that slide. While presenting, choosing another slide in the Slides controls immediately shows it on the output and starts its animation sequence from the beginning.

The normal presentation advance control moves through supported click animations before continuing to the next slide. Going back reverses those steps. A direct slide selection jumps to that slide instead of stepping through its animations.

Check the presentation on your equipment

Run through the slides, click animations and videos on the computer and displays you will use for the service. Supported effects and media may look or behave differently from PowerPoint. Check sound on the live output; the muted preview is for preparation.

Fonts available on the presentation computer affect the result. If a font is missing, install a font you are licensed to use or choose the PDF route for static slides. Presenter does not include Microsoft's proprietary fonts.

Use PDF for static slides

For a presentation that works better as static slides, import it again and choose Compatibility backup → Convert to PDF. You can also export a PDF from PowerPoint yourself and add it to Presenter.

A PDF preserves static pages, not animations or embedded video playback. If Presenter finds embedded movies during conversion, choose Extract movies to save them separately or Skip. Add the movies as separate video cues when needed. Preview the converted pages before presenting.

Conversion requires a supported conversion setup, such as LibreOffice on the presentation computer. If conversion is unavailable, export a PDF from PowerPoint before adding it to Presenter.

Use the PDF route when people need to follow the slides in Remote Viewer. Native PowerPoint slides appear on Presenter outputs; Remote Controller can navigate them, but Remote Viewer needs PDF pages.

For arranging slides with the rest of your service, see Deck Builder. For copying files and keeping a portable collection, see Library & sources.