Powerpoint presenter view with external display on iPad Pro connected to MacBook Pro

Question

Hello,

I am unable to get PowerPoint on my iPad Pro (11" second generation) to treat my MacBook Pro (16", 2019) as an external display. I am connecting the iPad to the MacBook using a lightning USB-C cable, and viewing the iPad output using Quicktime.

I have an Office 365 account through work.

The iPad and MacBook are new to me.

I was able to get this setup working in the past (with an iPad and a 2016 MacBook Pro) . I would open PowerPoint on my iPad and the start presentation icon would show that the iPad was connected to an external display (instead of a triangle plat button it was slightly different--I don't recall the exact icon). Presentation mode would show on the iPad (with notes and slide previews), and through Quicktime I could view the presentation as if I were connected to a projector (the presenter notes and next slide wouldn't show).

I can't seem to get this to work with my new hardware.

Do I need to connect the iPad, start Quicktime, and start PowerPoint in a specific order (I remember it being finicky when I was doing this in the spring to record lectures).

Summary: how do I get PowerPoint to treat Quicktime (on a MacBook) as if it were a secondary display so that I can use presentation view without mirroring my notes.

Answer 1

This Apple page explains how to set up Sidecar to use an iPad as a second monitor. I haven't been able to test this, because my iPad is 5th Gen instead of 6th, but it may make it easier to get PowerPoint to see the iPad as a second monitor.

Answer 2

Hi John,

Thanks for the reply. I am trying to do the opposite of using Sidecar. I'd like to use the iPad as the primary computer and run PowerPoint on the iPad (so that I can take advantage of the better drawing interface).

Answer 3

You can hook an external monitor to an iPad pro. You can mirror (duplicate) an iPad display on a Mac. But I'm not aware of any way to use a Mac as a secondary display for Presenter view.

Answer 4

Maybe an update removed that ability? I was able to do it while recording lectures with an iPad and MacBook Pro this spring. When I used Quicktime (on the laptop) to display the iPad screen, PowerPoint "knew" that it was connected to an external display.