How to draw on PowerPoint while presenting

Below: the pen and laser keys, how to keep or discard your ink, how to draw in PowerPoint Live in Teams, and what to use when you leave the slide show. Microsoft’s pages were checked on November 1, 2026.

How to draw on PowerPoint slides while presenting

1. Open your deck and select Slide Show › From Beginning, or press F5.
2. Press Ctrl+P to turn the pointer into a pen. Hold the left mouse button and drag to draw.
3. Press Ctrl+L instead for the laser pointer, which points without leaving marks.
4. To change the pen colour, use the pen button at the lower left of the slide, then Ink Color. The default is red.
5. Press Ctrl+E to switch the pen to the eraser, or E to clear every mark on the slide at once.
6. Press Ctrl+A to return to the normal arrow, then keep presenting.

Note: These keys act inside the slide show. In the editing view, Ctrl+P is Print. Key names are from Microsoft’s presentation shortcuts; the pen button and colour steps are from Draw on slides during a presentation.

Pen and laser keys in the slide show

Keep or discard your ink when the show ends

When you leave the slide show, PowerPoint asks whether to keep or discard the annotations you drew. Choose Keep and the marks are saved on the slides; choose Discard and they are gone. Check before you send the deck on, because kept ink travels with the file.

On a Mac the keys use ⌘ instead of Ctrl, and clearing is Shift+E. PowerPoint for the web has an ink button at the lower left, but Microsoft says you can’t save the annotations there. More keys are on the PowerPoint shortcuts sheet.

How to laser point or draw in PowerPoint Live in Teams

PowerPoint Live is the Teams way to share a deck. It has its own drawing tools, so the slide show keys above are not what you use there.

1. Share your slides with PowerPoint Live in the Teams meeting.
2. Find the pointer and drawing tools beneath the current slide.
3. Select Laser pointer, then a colour, and move the mouse. Press and hold the button for a longer line.
4. Or select Pen or Highlighter, then a thickness and colour, and hold the mouse button to draw.
5. Select the eraser and click a mark, or select Erase all ink on slide.
6. Select the cursor tool or press Esc to stop drawing.

Source: Laser point or draw on PowerPoint slides in a Teams meeting. The page describes on-screen tools and lists no keys. For marking up other shared content in Teams, see how to annotate in Teams.

When PowerPoint’s pen can’t: draw over any app with SHARA

PowerPoint’s pen is the right first try for a deck. These are the cases it does not cover, and where a free overlay does:

• Your demo is not a slide. The pen only works in the slide show, so a browser, a spreadsheet or a code editor needs something that draws over the screen.
• You share a screen, not PowerPoint Live. In Zoom, Google Meet or a recording, the same Pen and Laser work as in Teams.
• A laser that cleans up after itself. SHARA’s Laser trail fades after 2.6 seconds, so there is nothing to erase.
• One set of keys. The Wheel, undo and clear work the same in every app, instead of a different pen for each program.
• Pointing at a cursor viewers lose. Pen, Laser, Arrow, Text and Eraser are free, with a halo around the cursor and a flash on every click.

Set up SHARA for a slide show

1. Install SHARA free from the Microsoft Store. There is no account, and it waits in the background for a hotkey.
2. Start your slide show on the screen you will share.
3. Hold Ctrl+Space to open the Wheel at your cursor, then choose Draw and pick Laser or Pen.
4. Draw. Press Ctrl+Z to undo a stroke and Ctrl+Win+B to clear all ink.
5. In Teams, Zoom or Meet, share your entire screen, not one window. A window share sends only that window, so the ink isn’t included; see how to share your screen on Teams.

Every drawing tool is on the screen annotation page. Not sure Windows itself has one? How to draw on screen in Windows 11 compares the built-in options, and the presentation timer keeps you on schedule.

When SHARA isn’t the right fit

Stay with PowerPoint’s pen when you only draw on slides in PowerPoint itself, when you present from a Mac, or when a managed PC blocks Store apps. Viewers also cannot draw on your screen with SHARA, and a window share leaves its ink out.

Drawing on PowerPoint: FAQ