Comments on: How do I turn off single-window mode in Powerpoint?

Question: How do I turn off single-window mode in Powerpoint?

chrisamiller — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:12:14 -0800

MS Office question: How do I stop Powerpoint from using a single window to display all documents? I'd like to be able to look at two powerpoint files side by side and copy/paste between them, but powerpoint insists on opening them in the same window.

Each ppt file that is open has a seperate entry on the taskbar, but toggling between them just toggles which of them appears in the lone powerpoint window.

I'm sure this is an easy question to many, but I'm usually an open office user and my google-fu is failing me tonight. Any help is appreciated.

By: chrisamiller

chrisamiller — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:17:59 -0800

Oh, and I neglected to mention that the version is MS Powerpoint 2003.

By: punkfloyd

punkfloyd — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:25:54 -0800

Select Arrange All in the Window menu while in slide sorter view.

By: matthewr

matthewr — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:25:54 -0800

Open two powerpoint files and click Window > Arrange All.

By: chrisamiller

chrisamiller — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:29:33 -0800

'Arrange All' still shows me a single powerpoint window, with sub-windows for each slideshow inside. It might work for now, but I'd much prefer to have each appear in its own seperate powerpoint window. Is there any way to do this?

By: X4ster

X4ster — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:46:24 -0800

I just tested using the Arrange All command as mathewr suggested. It yields a single PPT window with both documents in it. Maximizing the primary PPT window and manually resizing each doc within it using the bottom right corner and also repositioning each doc gave me two easily readible windows that I could compare and c/p between. You can use either the slide sorter view or the individual slide view.

By: matthewr

matthewr — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:49:41 -0800

I'd much prefer to have each appear in its own seperate powerpoint window

I'm pretty sure that Powerpoint checks, when it starts up, that there isn't an instance of Powerpoint running already. This means that having two completely separate Powerpoint windows open is probably going to be difficult or impossible. I think "Window > Arrange All" is probably the best option.

By: senterstyle

senterstyle — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 19:06:35 -0800

Go to Tools, Options...
Then make sure the 'Windows in Taskbar' is checked.

By: chrisamiller

chrisamiller — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 19:11:06 -0800

thanks senterstyle, but that just controls whether Powerpoint shows multiple tabs on my taskbar or not. Whether that option is on or not, all ppts all open in the same window.

By: theredpen

theredpen — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:11:14 -0800

Do you have to use a PC? Can you switch to a Mac for this project? I don't say that as a snotty evangelist, I swear: the Mac version automatically opens multiple windows for each presentation.

By: CrayDrygu

CrayDrygu — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 22:23:48 -0800

The "Arrange All" option is your best bet. Powerpoint is an "MDI" application, which means it has one "parent" window which all the open documents are contained in. (FWIW, so is Excel.) There can only be one Parent window, because documents will automatically open in an existing parent, and starting PowerPoint a second time just won't open a second parent. The fact that you can get taskbar tabs for each document anyway is a hack, and one that many people find frustrating and confusing for exactly this reason.

By: Pigpen

Pigpen — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 22:33:30 -0800

You simply can't have multiple instances of Powerpoint running. http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00497.htm

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 04:36:57 -0800

You could maybe install OpenOffice and open yor source ppt in Impress.

By: svdodge

svdodge — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 21:37:52 -0800

When you have one Powerpoint File open, go and start Powerpoint again (as in, go to start, programs, etc and just run it).

It should open up another instance of Powerpoint. Now you have two instances, one with an open file, one with nothing open. You can open the second file in the empty instance.

Just because something shows up as seperate on the taskbar doesn't mean it's actually seperate - that's a very annoying 'feature' of MS Office.

By: matthewr

matthewr — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 06:48:46 -0800

It should open up another instance of Powerpoint.

It doesn't, though.

By: blue_wardrobe

blue_wardrobe — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 16:19:10 -0800

OK -- it can be done, but it's kludgy.

Kludge follows:

1) Create another Windows XP account to use.

2) Use the shell command RUNAS to run the other instance of PowerPoint under the other account.

Example: having created a special account "Dad", when logged in as "BW", and already running PowerPoint, use [Start] [Run...] CMD, and then enter a command similar to:

C:\> runas /user:dad "c:\program files\microsoft office\office11\POWERPNT.EXE"

Voila! Another instance of PowerPoint.

Pro: you get another instance of PowerPoint.

Con: it's running under the other account, so will save files to the My Documents folder, etc. of that other account. But that could be overcome by changing the MS Office folders locations of where the Dad account saves its files. You need never actually log in to Dad through the front end of Windows XP.

You can make a batch file with a shortcut if you like, so it's as easy as clicking an icon called "Second PowerPoint".

I haven't used this for lengthy periods of time, but essentially, you're doing what is done under Windows Server, etc. with the same version of MS Office. The two instances should be well enough behaved, but in good AskMeFi style, I must point out YMMV.

By: chrisamiller

chrisamiller — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 17:06:05 -0800

Sweet. Like you said, the hack is a bit kludgy, but it works well enough for what I need. Thanks blue_wardrobe!

By: matthewr

matthewr — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 17:06:22 -0800

That's quite an answer, blue_wardrobe. Favorited.