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I can't pause a PP presentation.

Anonymous
2023-08-18T17:10:42+00:00

I'm running the most recent (June 2023) update of Mac 365 on Mac OS High Sierra, 11.7.9. I'm building a PP presentation in which slide changes will be manually operated through the keyboard. At various times I wish to pause the presentation (white or black screen) for discussion. Support articles/forums suggest I should be able to do this using W or B keys, or Comma (,) or Period (.) keys. None of these suggestions work. Suggestions?

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | MacOS

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  1. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 436K Reputation points
    2023-08-19T02:41:13+00:00

    Thanks for providing the additional info (although it's best to exclude or at least mask the email address since this is a public forum accessible to the bad guys as well as the good ones).

    Since Big Sur & Office are fully updated, when did you last restart the Mac?... That would be the next consideration.

    Do you have any keyboard helpers or utilities that provide keyboard control? As a troubleshooting step start the Mac in Safe Mode then launch the program to see if you have the same result.

    If the issue persists in Safe Mode, restart normally, then create a new Standard User Account to see whether the the behavior occurs when logged in as that user.

    Please provide detailed descriptions of all results.

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  2. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 436K Reputation points
    2023-08-18T21:04:57+00:00

    First, you need to supply the specific Version Number of the software. Vague allusions such as most recent can vary greatly based on type of License as well as other variables. Additionally, there have been 4 updates to Mac Office since June, Version 16.76 being the most recent.

    All of those keyboard commands work as expected here, so if you haven't updated Office since June I'd suggest that to be the first step.

    Other than updates, the one possibility that comes to mind is that the presentation has been set to run in Kiosk mode [Slide Show> Set Up Show> Browsed at a kiosk (full screen)]. That mode kills the keyboard by the very nature of its intent.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-08-18T21:53:51+00:00

    And I also confirmed it's not running in kiosk mode...

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-08-18T21:50:59+00:00

    I haven't checked all the other keyboard commands, but simple keyboard functions such as ESC and the Arrow keys work perfectly.

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