Trouble With Presenter View in Office 2019 Professional

Question

I just got Office 2019 Professional and am setting up Powerpoint for presentation. The older presenter view (and apparently other versions) have a line of thumbnails along the bottom of the presenter view on Powerpoint. All I can see, right now, in 2019 is an arrow forward and an arrow back to go from one slide to another. There is a place you can click on to see all slides, but it is not as convenient in having the thumbnails across the bottom of the presenter view. Any help?

Answer 1

Hi, Thadeus Callahan

In PowerPoint 2019, the thumbnail strip you remember may not appear in the same way depending on the Presenter View layout, screen setup, and build. The built-in Presenter View is mainly designed around the current slide, next slide, notes, timer, and navigation controls.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

First, check that PowerPoint is using the full Presenter View, not a simplified slide show screen. Open the presentation, go to the Slide Show tab, make sure Use Presenter View is selected, then start the show with Alt + F5. This can sometimes open the presenter layout more reliably than starting it from the normal From Beginning button.

If the main problem is quickly jumping around the deck, it is recommended that you add slide numbers to the slides before presenting. Then, during the slide show, you can type the slide number and press Enter to jump directly to it. This is often faster than using only the forward and back buttons, especially in a long presentation.

Another practical workaround is to organize the deck before presenting by using View > Slide Sorter or the thumbnail pane in Normal view. PowerPoint’s Normal view has a left-side thumbnail pane that can be widened or restored if it has been hidden, and Slide Sorter shows all slides as thumbnails for easier arranging before the presentation starts.

If you specifically need the old always-visible thumbnail strip during the live presentation, there may not be a setting in Office 2019 to bring that exact layout back. In that case, the closest options are to use slide numbers, keep a printed/second-screen outline nearby, or consider a newer PowerPoint version if that older presenter layout is important to your workflow.

Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you. 

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Answer 2

In Office 2019, Presenter View no longer shows a continuous strip of slide thumbnails along the bottom by default. Instead, it provides navigation primarily through the Previous/Next arrows and the See all slides command.

In Presenter View on Windows:

1. Start the slide show: on the Slide Show tab, select From Beginning.
2. In Presenter View, use:
   • Previous / Next to move between slides.
   • See all slides to display thumbnails of all slides, then click the slide to jump to it.

This “See all slides” thumbnail grid is the supported way in current versions (including Office 2019) to quickly jump around; the older always-visible thumbnail strip is not available.

If Presenter View appears on the wrong screen, use Display Settings → Swap Presenter View and Slide Show to switch which monitor shows notes vs. the audience view.

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References:

• Start the presentation and see your notes in Presenter view
• Give a presentation in PowerPoint
• Video: Deliver your presentation