Command-line and PowerPoint Show files

PowerPoint supports a handful of command-line parameters. Use these to create special Windows shortcuts (right-click the desktop | New | Shortcut) or to perform PowerPoint tasks quickly from the command prompt.

Of course you need to modify the commands based on where you installed PowerPoint:

Open a presentation
"x:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\powerpnt.exe" "filename.ppt"

Print a presentation
"x:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\powerpnt.exe" /p "filename.ppt"

Start a presentation in slideshow
"x:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\powerpnt.exe" /s "filename.ppt"

Another way to start a presentation directly in slideshow is to simply change your PowerPoint file's extension from PPT to PPS. In other words, rename filename .ppt to filename .pps .

Then, when you open the PPS file, by double-clicking it for instance, PowerPoint sees the PPS extension and launches directly into slideshow. This can be a useful way to distribute presentations.

Inside PowerPoint, you can also save as a PowerPoint Show, but all that does is do the renaming for you.