PowerPoint program level settings only affect your personal computer environment, while presentation level settings are saved within the specific file and affect anyone who opens that presentation. Understanding the difference is what keeps you from confusing your clients, bosses, and colleagues with customizations they did not ask for and do not understand.
The fact that you are even asking which settings affect other people puts you ahead of most of the room.
Most proficient PowerPoint professionals (including your clients) never customize anything in PowerPoint, so any presentation level setting you tweak will freak them out.
For example, if you hide your PowerPoint thumbnails (pictured below), those thumbnails will remain hidden until someone unhides them (i.e. you).
If you do this to your boss, client, or colleague, they will likely send the PowerPoint presentation right back to you to fix it. This wastes everyone’s time in PowerPoint, and makes your peers feel dumb.
If you want to stand head and shoulders above your colleagues in PowerPoint, join my PowerPoint Pro Membership to get 24/7 access to my premium PowerPoint training courses that will radically improve your PPT skills. It's only $37/month to join, and you can cancel anytime.
PowerPoint program level settings
PowerPoint program level settings only affect you. These are customizations you make to the PowerPoint environment, that only load on your computer when you open a PowerPoint presentation.
In other words, you don’t have to worry about any of these settings stressing out your bosses, clients, or colleagues as they will never load on their computers.
Examples of PowerPoint program level settings are things like:
Turning Smart Guides on or off
As a general rule, any customizations you make in the PowerPoint Options dialog box (pictured below) are program level settings. That said, there are other settings you can adjust within PowerPoint like Smart Guides, that are not managed within this dialog box.
To open the program level settings of PowerPoint, simply:
Click the File tab
Select Options
These options are all program level settings that you can set to work more efficiently in PowerPoint, without having to worry about what your boss or client sees.
PowerPoint presentation level settings
PowerPoint presentation level settings affect EVERYONE!
These are presentation level customizations that anyone who opens your presentation will see and have to deal with when they open your presentation.
Examples of presentation level settings are:
Changing the laser pointer color
Resizing the Speaker Notes pane
Setting your slides to run in a windowed slideshow
Customizations made in the Set Up Show dialog box
Displaying or hiding the Guides
Nothing is worse than opening a PowerPoint presentation and feeling lost due to settings that someone else set, that you don’t understand.
As such, when sending your slides to your bosses, clients, or colleagues, I recommend using the default PowerPoint presentation level settings. Keep it boring, your clients will be happy.
PowerPoint settings Q&A
Q: What is the difference between PowerPoint program level and presentation level settings?
A: Program level settings customize how PowerPoint works for you. Presentation level settings can be saved with the PowerPoint file and affect other people who open or present it.
As everyone has personal preferences of how they like to work in PowerPoint, forcing non-standard settings on other PowerPoint users is annoying.
Q: Do my PowerPoint Options affect other people?
A: Generally, no. Settings you change under File > Options customize your PowerPoint environment on your computer rather than changing the presentation itself.
That said, if you turn off the Popup Toolbar for your Slideshows, that will annoy someone else who runs your presentation, and is expecting that feature to be there. I've seen people in meetings hunting around for that feature.
Q: Can PowerPoint presentation settings travel with the file?
A: Yes. Some view and slideshow settings are stored with the presentation, which means another person can encounter them when they open your file.
Q: Why are my slide thumbnails missing in PowerPoint?
A: The thumbnail pane may simply be collapsed. In Normal view, click the collapsed Thumbnails bar or drag the edge of the pane to bring your slide thumbnails back.
If you don't see the collapsed Thumbnail bar, click the Normal Icon at the bottom of your screen to unhide them. If someone has hidden your thumbnails, they likely hit the thumbnail hide shortcut: hold Ctrl + Shift and click the Normal icon at the bottom of your screen. To bring them back, just click the Normal icon.
Q: Should I customize presentation level settings before sending a PowerPoint file to someone else?
A: I wouldn't. If anything, I recommend reverting all your PowerPoint settings back to the default settings including: being in the Normal View, hiding your Speaker Notes pane, having your thumbnails visible, etc.
Doing so makes it easier for your bosses, clients, and colleagues to open your deck and start working in PowerPoint, instead of troubleshooting whatever customizations you've made to the program (that they might not know how to undo).
Takeaways
The easiest way to think about PowerPoint settings is this: customize PowerPoint for yourself, but be careful about customizing the presentation for everyone else.
Program level settings change how PowerPoint works on your computer, so customize away.
Presentation level settings can affect other people who open your file, so think twice before changing them.
When you’re handing slides to a boss, client, or colleague, boring is often better. Stick as close to the default settings as possible.
The goal isn’t to avoid customizing PowerPoint. It’s to know who your customization affects before you make it. Don't assume anyone knows much about customizing the PowerPoint environment (as most don't).
That little distinction can save you from confused clients, returned presentations, and the dreaded, “What did you do to my PowerPoint?”
And if your whole team understands these settings, even better. Learn more about our corporate PowerPoint training workshops. If you want to keep going, the rest of our PowerPoint tutorials cover the individual settings above in more depth.
About the Author
Taylor Croonquist
Co-Founder, Nuts & Bolts Speed Training
Taylor Croonquist is a PowerPoint expert and trainer. Over a career spanning the globe, from consulting in New York and investment banking in China, Taylor has truly seen it all in PowerPoint. Through necessity and a natural tech savvy, Taylor honed his PowerPoint skills to the point of even blowing the minds of the Microsoft PowerPoint programming team. When he's not busy crafting PowerPoint training, you can find him reading a sci-fi series or scuba diving.