Working with two monitors; editing PowerPoint on dual monitors

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Can I run a copy of PowerPoint on each monitor?

Sometimes you want to open several presentations at once so you can copy and paste from one to the other.
The usual way to do this with other programs is just to start two copies of the program.

PowerPoint won't allow this. It normally only permits one copy of itself to be open at a time.

Stretch!

You can still make it work:

• If PowerPoint is maximized, click the "Restore Down" button (the one to the left of the "Make it Go Away" X in the upper right hand corner).
• Drag the lower right hand corner to the right to expand the PPT screen onto the second monitor.
• Open two presentations
• Choose Window, Arrange All from the main menu bar.

There you go. One copy of PowerPoint, two presentations, one on each screen.

True, it's not quite as nice as having an individual copy of PowerPoint on each monitor, complete with menus and toolbars, but it's the best we have.

Feeling adventurous?

John Wilson has a wonderfully sneaky trick for getting two instances of PowerPoint running at once. As he freely admits, it's not MS-blessed, but it might be just the thing.

Have a look at John's Two Instances of PowerPoint page to learn how.

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