If you’ve ever found the popup toolbar distracting while presenting a slideshow in Microsoft PowerPoint, you’re not alone.

Fortunately, PowerPoint offers a setting to disable this feature, providing a cleaner and more focused presentation experience.

  • Open PowerPoint
  • Go to > FILE > then, select OPTIONS

From the PowerPoint Options dialog box:

  • On the left column go to ADVANCED
  • On the right, scroll to the SLIDE SHOW section
  • Disable SHOW POPUP TOOLBAR

  • Click OK to apply the changes
  • Done!

Important Notes:

  • App-Level Setting: This is an application-wide setting, meaning it applies to all presentations you open or create in PowerPoint. You won’t need to disable the popup toolbar for each presentation individually.
  • Accessing Presentation Controls: Even with the popup toolbar disabled, you still have access to all the same presentation controls by simply right-clicking anywhere on the slideshow screen. This brings up a larger overlay menu with all the necessary options, but it’s not persistent and disappears after selecting.

By disabling the popup toolbar, you can deliver a more polished and distraction-free presentation. Should you ever need the toolbar back, you can easily re-enable it by following the same steps and checking the Show Popup Toolbar box again.

Hope this PowerPoint tutorial helped. Enjoy presenting with a cleaner interface!

-Christie @ TLC