Loop a PowerPoint Slide Show

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PowerPoint slide shows are a great way to present information in an engaging, visual format. Whether you’re giving a business presentation to clients or teaching a class, PowerPoint allows you to showcase your ideas with images, animations, videos, and more.

One useful PowerPoint feature for presentations that will run unattended, such as at a trade show booth or event kiosk, is the ability to loop your slide show. Looping means setting your presentation to play continuously, from start to finish, then automatically starting over again from the beginning.

Here’s how to loop a slide show in PowerPoint.

Set Up Slide Show Looping

  1. Open your PowerPoint presentation and click on the Slide Show tab
  2. Click on Set Up Slide Show
  3. In the dialog box, check the box next to Loop continuously until ‘Esc’ Loop dialog box
  4. You can also adjust slide transition timings here if needed
  5. Click OK to save the looping settings

Once looped, your presentation will now automatically repeat until someone presses the Esc key.

Tips for Effective Looping

Here are some tips to make your looping presentation more polished and professional:

  • Keep slides simple – Since no one will be there narrating, don’t overload slides with too much text or complex graphics. Use more images and less words.
  • Use video sparingly – Video can be engaging but eats up bandwidth. Use short video clips only when essential.
  • Check timings – Make sure slide transitions occur at a good pace. Rehearse timings using PowerPoint’s Rehearse Timings feature.
  • Consider audio – Adding subtle background music can help set the mood and fill in silence.
  • Minimize builds – Animations that build text incrementally won’t work as well without a presenter explaining each step.
  • Use kiosk mode – Enable full screen kiosk mode for the cleanest unattended display.

Creative Uses for Looping Presentations

Looping PowerPoint slide shows open up some unique presentation possibilities:

Trade Show Booths

Run an endless looping slide show at your booth to showcase products, services, company culture, testimonials, and more. Add your branding and contact info to the slides.

Digital Signage

PowerPoint works great for dynamic digital signage. Loop a presentation on a lobby TV or department display screen to highlight news, events, metrics, and rotating content.

Museum Kiosks

Museums often have interactive kiosks and displays. Loop a PowerPoint on the history of an exhibit or details on featured artwork.

On-Hold Messaging

If your phone system offers customizable on-hold messaging, why not loop a PowerPoint presentation? Share your brand story or product information with waiting callers.

Share Your Looping Presentation

Once you’ve created your looping slide show masterpiece in PowerPoint, there are a couple ways to deploy it:

Presentation Mode

Run your looping presentation using PowerPoint itself in a kiosk or unattended setting:

  1. Copy the file onto the device’s hard drive
  2. Open PowerPoint and select your presentation
  3. Enable Presenter View
  4. Click From Beginning to launch the looping show

Video Export

You can also export your presentation as a video file and play that video on loop instead:

  1. Save a copy of your file as a MP4 or MOV
  2. Upload the video file to your playback device
  3. Set the video to loop playback continuously

This gives you more flexibility on where and how to display your looping content.

Looping slide shows are a creative way to repurpose PowerPoint decks. Give attendees something to watch at that trade show booth or set the mood in the lobby with an eye-catching display.

Just remember to keep it simple and test thoroughly. An effective looping presentation should be able to tell your story, even without you there to present it.

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