The trade show floor is buzzing. Your team is engaged in promising conversations, but dozens of potential leads are walking past your booth without a glance. In the corner, a dark screen sits idle. This is where a silent, compelling, and continuously looping presentation becomes your most underrated salesperson—working tirelessly to capture attention and deliver your core message, even when you can’t.
The same goes for a corporate lobby, a retail kiosk, or a waiting room. An unattended screen is a missed opportunity. But creating a presentation that runs on its own requires more than just hitting “play.” It demands a specific technical setup and, more importantly, a complete shift in design thinking. We’re moving beyond the boardroom deck and into the world of broadcast.
Quick Answer
To loop a PowerPoint presentation, you need to configure two main settings. Given that most viewers grant a screen just a few seconds of their attention—a Nielsen Norman Group study found users leave web pages in as little as 10-20 seconds—getting these settings right is crucial.
- Enable Continuous Looping: Go to the Slide Show tab, click Set Up Slide Show, and in the dialog box, check the box for Loop continuously until ‘Esc’.
- Automate Slide Timings: Go to the Transitions tab. In the ‘Timing’ group, uncheck ‘On Mouse Click’ and check After. Enter a duration (e.g., 10 seconds). Click Apply to All to set a uniform timing for every slide.
- Activate Kiosk Mode: For public displays, select Browsed at a kiosk (full screen) in the ‘Set Up Show’ window. This prevents accidental slide advances from touches or mouse clicks.
Why Your Sales Deck Won’t Work on a Loop
The first mistake we see companies make is repurposing their standard sales presentation for a kiosk loop. It’s a logical first step, but it’s almost always the wrong one. A presentation designed for a human presenter relies on that person to provide context, elaborate on bullet points, and answer questions. It’s a script.
An unattended presentation has no script. It has to stand completely on its own. Think of the environment: it’s noisy, viewers are distracted, and there’s no audio to guide them. Dense slides packed with text and complex charts become incomprehensible walls of information. A slide that a salesperson might spend three minutes explaining needs to be understood by a passerby in under ten seconds.
This is where our 13+ years of experience at PitchWorx really comes into play. We had a client in the logistics space who put their 40-slide investor deck on a loop at a major industry conference. The slides were full of financial projections and market analysis. Over two days, they saw almost zero engagement at their secondary kiosk. For the next event, we helped them convert it into a 10-slide, visually-driven loop focusing on their three core services with powerful imagery and minimal text. The difference was immediate—it started conversations and drew people in from the aisle.
The Technical Setup: A Flawless Loop in 5 Steps
Getting the technical side right ensures your presentation runs smoothly all day without any manual intervention. Here’s the exact process to follow in modern versions of PowerPoint:
- Open ‘Set Up Slide Show’: Navigate to the “Slide Show” tab on the main ribbon. Click the “Set Up Slide Show” button. This opens the control panel for your presentation’s behavior.
- Choose Kiosk Mode: Under “Show type,” select the third option: Browsed at a kiosk (full screen). This is the most important step for a public display. It not only loops the show but also prevents the audience from accidentally advancing slides by clicking the mouse or touching the screen.
- Enable the Loop: In the “Show options” section, make sure Loop continuously until ‘Esc’ is checked. While Kiosk mode often enables this by default, it’s good practice to verify it.
- Set Automatic Timings: Now, you need to tell PowerPoint when to advance each slide. Go to the “Transitions” tab. On the far right, in the “Timing” group, uncheck “On Mouse Click” and check the box next to “After:”. Enter the number of seconds you want each slide to display before moving to the next one. A good starting point is between 00:07 and 00:15.
- Apply to All Slides: Once you’ve set your desired timing, click the Apply to All button. This ensures a consistent pace across your entire presentation. You can then go back and adjust the timing for individual slides that have more or less content.
For a deeper dive into these settings, Microsoft offers official documentation on their support page for creating self-running presentations, which can be a helpful resource for troubleshooting specific versions.
Designing for Distraction: How to Create Kiosk Slides People Actually Watch
A flawless technical loop is useless if the content isn’t engaging. For an unattended display, you aren’t just competing for attention; you’re designing for an audience that is actively distracted. The principles are closer to billboard design than traditional presentation design.
Brain Processing Speed
60,000x
The brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. Source: Forbes
Our ‘Rule of Three’
3 Seconds
A viewer should grasp the core message of a kiosk slide in three seconds or less.
Here are the core rules we follow when designing looping presentations:
- One Idea Per Slide: This is non-negotiable. Don’t try to explain your pricing model and your company history on the same slide. Give each key message its own dedicated screen.
- Huge, Legible Fonts: Assume your audience is viewing from a distance. Use large, clean sans-serif fonts. If you have to shrink the text to make it fit, you have too much text.
- Visuals First, Words Second: Use high-impact photography, custom icons, and simple data visualizations to tell the story. The text should only serve as a headline or a brief caption. Let the imagery do the heavy lifting.
- Tell a Simple Story: A good loop has a clear beginning, middle, and end. Start with the problem your customers face, introduce your solution, show the key benefits, and end with a clear call to action (e.g., “Ask us for a demo” or “Scan the QR code to learn more”).
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Over the years, we’ve been called in to fix hundreds of looping presentations. The same few mistakes appear again and again.
- Unmuted Audio/Video: The most common and disruptive mistake. A video with sound suddenly blaring across a quiet lobby or a noisy trade show floor is a recipe for disaster. Always double-check that all embedded media is muted before you deploy the presentation.
- Complex Animations: While PowerPoint animations can be powerful, complex fly-ins or intricate sequences often fail on different display hardware. They can lag, look jerky, or break entirely. Stick to simple, clean transitions like Fade or Push.
- Wrong Aspect Ratio: You designed the presentation in a standard 16:9 widescreen format, but the display at the venue is a vertical 9:16 monitor. Suddenly, your beautiful design is warped and unreadable. Always confirm the exact resolution and orientation of the display screen beforehand.
- Forgetting a Call to Action: The loop finishes… and then just starts over. The viewer is left wondering, “What now?” Your final slide is your most important. It should clearly state the next step you want the viewer to take.
A well-executed looping presentation is a powerful asset. It transforms a passive screen into an active marketing tool. It requires a thoughtful blend of technical precision and clear, visually-driven communication. If you’re looking to create a kiosk presentation that not only runs flawlessly but also actively captures attention and drives engagement, that’s a challenge we’ve been solving for over a decade.
Ready to turn your idle screens into lead-generating assets? Our team specializes in creating visually stunning, strategically sound presentations for every context. Explore our presentation design service to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do I make a PowerPoint loop on a TV?
The process is the same. First, set up the presentation to loop continuously using the ‘Set Up Slide Show’ options. Then, save the file as a “PowerPoint Show” (.ppsx). This file type opens directly into presentation mode. Load this file onto a USB drive, plug it into the TV’s USB port, and use the TV’s media player to run the file. Most modern smart TVs can play .ppsx files.
2. Can I loop a PowerPoint that contains videos?
Yes. When you insert a video, select it, go to the “Playback” tab in the ribbon, and set it to “Start Automatically.” You can also select “Loop until Stopped” if you want the video itself to loop while the slide is displayed. Most importantly, ensure the video is muted for public displays.
3. How long should my looping presentation be?
There’s no perfect length, but shorter is almost always better. Aim for a total loop time of 1 to 3 minutes. This translates to roughly 6-15 slides, assuming an average display time of 10 seconds per slide. The goal is for a viewer to grasp your entire message quickly as they walk by.
4. What is the best way to save a PowerPoint for looping?
For maximum reliability, save your file as a “PowerPoint Show” (.ppsx). When you double-click a .ppsx file, it immediately launches into full-screen slide show mode instead of opening in the editing interface. This prevents anyone from accidentally altering the presentation and ensures it always starts correctly.
5. Will my animations and transitions work in a kiosk loop?
Yes, but simplicity is key. Simple transitions (like Fade) and basic entrance animations (like Appear or Fly In) are generally reliable. Avoid overly complex, multi-step animations, as they are more likely to lag or fail on different computers or display systems. Always test the presentation on the actual hardware you’ll be using.
