How to Use Laser Pointer in Powerpoint (Green, Red and Blue)

In this article, you will learn how to use the laser pointer in PowerPoint (or laser pen) that comes in three different colors: red, green, and blue. This laser pen feature is a built-in feature of Microsoft PowerPoint (you don't need to purchase or download anything additional) that you can use to highlight things during your presentations and webinars.

Powerful presentations help grow your business. Use a pointer to direct your viewer's attention to specific parts of your PowerPoint slide, helping potential or internal clients focus on key points of information.

Display a pie chart, for example, that points to data that increases the effectiveness of your presentation. Microsoft PowerPoint eliminates the need to purchase a physical laser pointer by including a virtual one to use when giving your presentation.

Maybe you may be interested: Advantages of PowerPoint over other presentation tools

Why is a laser pointer useful in a presentation?

The reason a laser pointer is useful during a presentation is that it allows you to focus your audience's attention on a specific aspect of your slide.

As you can see in the image above, we are using the laser pointer to focus everyone's attention on the fact that there has been a 100% growth in the graph. Similarly, during your presentation you could use this to highlight:

• Different rows in a table.
• The people on your team (how you talk about them).
• Ideas for a custom marketing campaign that you highlight.
• Anything really!

In essence, it allows you to control the ebb and flow of your presentation by pointing at things on the screen during your presentation.

How to turn on the laser pointer in PowerPoint

There are two different ways to use the PowerPoint built-in pointer. Let's start with just using the mouse, then we'll show you the PowerPoint shortcut.

To turn your mouse cursor into a laser pointer in your PowerPoint presentation, you need to do the following:

• Step 1: press F5 to start your slideshow.
• Step 2: Right-click on a slide to open the context menu.
• Step 3: opens pointer options.
• Step 4: select the laser pointer.

By doing so, your mouse cursor turns into a colored pointer that you can drag around your screen to highlight things in your presentation as shown in the image.

This works both in the Presentation view slideshow (F5) like in the Presenter view (Shift + F5).

Nota: The default color for the PowerPoint pointer is red, but you can convert it to a blue or green laser pointer as explained below.

How to turn off the laser pointer in PowerPoint

Once you turn on the pointer using the technique described above, the mouse cursor will remain in laser pointer mode until you manually turn it off. There are two ways to turn it off.

First of all, if you are sitting in front of your computer, the quickest way to turn it off is to press I on your keyboard. This will change the cursor back to a standard PowerPoint arrow.

An alternative way to turn it off (or change the mouse cursor to something else) is to simply:

• Step 1: In slide show view, on a slide, right-click.
• Step 2: Choose pointer options.
• Step 3: click Arrow Options (or choose Feather o Highlighter pen)
• Step 4: Choose visible.

By selecting the option Visible, the mouse cursor changes to the normal PowerPoint arrow shape.

Laser Pointer Shortcut in PowerPoint

If you like PowerPoint shortcuts, then you'll love this laser pointer shortcut.

While playing a PowerPoint slideshow, you can switch in and out of the laser pointer by holding down the key. Ctrl on your keyboard and clicking and dragging with your mouse.

While you hold down Control and you click and drag with the mouse. The mouse cursor turns into a laser pointer (the color will be set to the default color you choose in step 1, and as you can see, it can be blue as shown below).

As soon as you release the key Ctrl or stop clicking and dragging with your mouse, your mouse cursor will revert to the regular PowerPoint arrow cursor again. This is a super quick way to use the laser pointer in PowerPoint to highlight things in your presentation on the fly and impress your clients and colleagues, as most people don't know how to do that.

You may want to know: How to Edit a Protected Ppt File (PowerPoint)

How to change the color of the laser pointer in PowerPoint

PowerPoint has 3 different colors you can choose from for the laser pointer in PowerPoint: green, red, and blue.

Out of the box, PowerPoint always starts with the color red, but you can easily change it to green or blue if you want, via the dialog box. Set up slideshow.

The steps to follow to change the color of the laser pointer are as follows:

• Step 1: go to the option Slide presentation.
• Step 2: select the command Set up slideshow.
• Step 3: open the drop-down menu Laser pointer color.
• Step 4: choose your color (Green, Red o Blue).
• Step 5: click Accept.

Once you change the color of the pointer, it will remain that color (Red, Verde o azul) for that specific presentation until you change it again. All your other PowerPoint presentations will continue to have the default red color, until you change it to blue or green in the dialog box. Set up slideshow.

Set up slideshow shortcut

If you want to directly access the dialog box Set up slideshow, you can do this by holding down the key Shift on your keyboard and clicking on the icon of the Reading panel at the bottom of your PowerPoint window.

To see this in action and learn about other hidden PowerPoint shortcuts, click Play below. The dialog box Set up slideshow It is also the trick to run two or more PowerPoint slideshows at the same time.

Why bother changing the color of the laser pointer?

The most important reason you might want to change the color of your pointer is to make it stand out against the background of your slide. Notice in the image below, the brighter the green laser pointer is against the red background of the slide, the more the information stands out.

The same would be true if you were using a blue or green presentation background. In short, you want a high contrast between your pointer and whatever PowerPoint background you're using for your presentation. That way, your audience can clearly see what you're trying to point out to them.

Take a look at: How to Make Curved Text in PowerPoint – Complete Guide

Final thoughts

This is how you use the laser pointer in PowerPoint and change its color between red, green, and blue to have a high contrast with your presentation. This is one of those cool PowerPoint features that few people know how to use. And now that you know how to use it, you can take advantage of it during your presentations. If you enjoyed the depth of this PowerPoint tutorial and want to learn more about our topics, visit us on our website.