Powerpoint 2010 too slow to update slides? Fix

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Here's how to fix very slow display of text and pics on Powerpoint 2010 / 2007 slides on the screen, whenever you change or even edit slides? A big annoyance - it affects productivity, as sometimes Powerpoint becomes unresponsive and won't refresh, redraw or update the screen at all unless you change slides away and back (only a workaround, and slows things down).

Below is a step by step 'howto' solution to solve this problem of the slow graphics rendering in Powerpoint (others have solved it by changing to the Windows 7 Basic theme, this suggestion has the same effect, on my system at least, and changes the theme for you when you use the shortcut icon concerned to launch Powerpoint):

1. Rightclick the shortcut icon that you use to start Powerpoint
2. Choose "Properties" from the menu
3. Now click the "Compatibility" tab (outlined in red below)
   
   
4. Make sure "Disable desktop composition" is ticked as shown (also outlined in red, above).
5. Then click "OK".

That's it. Worked for me on a Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit desktop, Powerpoint is a zillion times faster now. I hope it works for you too.

Thanks qwerty15!

Background - after a recent Windows update I started getting this problem of Powerpoint is displaying slides too slowly (and it seems a common problem) when moving between or editing slides.

Powerpoint - how to close the notes pane at the bottom

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In Powerpoint 2010, if you do a search and the text you're searching is inside any of the Notes to your slides, it will show the Note at the bottom of the slide in a separate pane.

The annoying thing is that there's no X to close that pane once you're done with it.

The simple solution? Move the mouse pointer over the divider tipbetween the slide, so that it becomes a double headed black arrow with vertical lines - as outlined in red in the pic below.

Then click and drag that divider down to the bottom of your window with your mouse.

That's it!

Powerpoint - how to get back the slides thumbnails list on the left

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In Powerpoint 2010, on the left there's normally a vertical display or pane listing thumbnails of all your slides vertically, outlined in red below, so that you can select or edit particular slides quickly (and copy/paste etc individual slides too).

If you click the X to close that vertical pane on the left, how do you get that pane or view back?

It's not at all obvious. But there are two possible ways:

• Click on the Normal button in the View menu (outlined in blue below), or
• Move your mouse pointer to the left border of the window until it becomes a double-headed arrow (see the red outline) - that's actually the divider, and if you click and drag to the right you can get the pane back!