How to use your remote to switch to another presentation in PowerPoint 2007 & 2010

A friend asked me, “How can I link to another presentation and use my remote to get to that presentation?”

Here’s the problem. You can easily link any shape to another presentation by hyperlinking it. I have instructions in my tip, “Link to other presentations and return to the original presentation.”

But to activate that hyperlink, you need to actually click the shape on the screen. This means that you need to go to your laptop, move your cursor onto the shape, and click.

What if you’re not close to your laptop and are using a remote to go from slide to slide? This is a common situation when you’re in a large room or just want to  move around among the audience members.

The solution is not obvious at all, so here are the steps:

1. Choose Insert> Object.  This opens the Insert Object dialog box.
2. Click Create From File. Then browse to, and open, the presentation. You’ll see an image of the presentation’s first slide.
3. Decide if you want the image to show. If it looks good and is a good indicator to the audience of what’s to come, leave it on the slide. Otherwise, select the icon and drag it off the slide.
4. Open the Animation pane. In PowerPoint 2007, choose Animations tab> Custom Animation. In PowerPoint 2010, choose Animations tab> Animation Pane.You might be wondering, why the Animation pane?
5. The image should still be selected. In 2007, click the Add Effect button> Object Actions> Show. In 2010, choose Add Animation> OLE Action Verbs> Show and click OK.

This puts the showing of the second presentation in the animation order. So when you click your remote, that presentation is displayed in Slide Show view. You can go through it and when it ends, you’re automatically back on the slide where you started.

If you know of a way to do this in PowerPoint 2003, please leave a comment! The options in 2003 are only Open and Edit, which don’t open the presentation in Slide Show view.