How to present slides without sharing your screen

Screen sharing sends your audience a video of your deck. You can send them the deck itself instead, and keep talking on whatever call you're already on.

What goes wrong with screen sharing

Your slides get squeezed into a video stream. Small text blurs. On a weak connection the picture freezes while you keep talking, and you only find out when someone says so.

Your audience can't point at anything, so they describe it instead: "the third bar, no, the one on the left". And when someone missed a slide, the whole room waits while you click back, then forward again.

None of that is your deck's fault. A video of a slide is just a worse copy of the slide.

Share the slides instead

With SlideBySide everyone opens the real deck in their own browser, at full resolution, and follows the slide you're on.

1. Upload your deck on slidebyside.com. PDF, PowerPoint (PPT or PPTX), Keynote and ODP all work, up to 40 MB. Signed in with Google or Microsoft? Pick it straight from Google Drive, Google Slides or OneDrive.
2. Copy the link and paste it into the meeting chat.
3. Present. Press → and everyone moves with you. Press P for full-screen presentation mode.

Nobody needs an account, you included. People who open the link join straight away with a random name like BraveOtter, which they can change.

What your audience can do

• Point. Every cursor carries its owner's name, so "this number here" finally means something.
• Draw. Pen, highlighter, text and a laser pointer that fades. Each person gets their own colour.
• React with an emoji, without unmuting.
• Browse on their own, if you allow it, and jump back to your live slide in one click.

You decide all of this. Changing the slide, browsing alone and downloading are off until you turn them on, for everyone or person by person.

Keep your call, drop the screen share

SlideBySide doesn't do audio or video, and it doesn't try to. Keep Zoom, Google Meet or Teams running for voices and faces, and put the slides in a browser tab. Faces stay big because nobody's screen share takes over the call.

A few tips

• Send the link before the meeting. Paste it in the invite, so people can open it while everyone's still joining.
• Fixed a typo five minutes before? Upload a new version. The link stays the same, and older versions are kept with their drawings.
• Not for everyone's eyes? Switch sharing to Specific people. Only people you add can open it, and they sign in so you know it's them.
• Want an exact look? Export a PDF yourself. PowerPoint files get converted, so unusual fonts may shift a little.

More guides

• Co-present slides remotelyHand the clicker to a second presenter without "next slide, please".
• Let your audience follow along on their phoneFor hybrid rooms and talks: people follow the live slide on their own phone or laptop.
• Present a PDF online, liveTurn any PDF into a live, shared deck everyone can point at and draw on.
• Live slides for classes and workshopsStudents follow the lecture on their own screens, scroll back, and mark what confused them.
• Review a deck together, on the slideTeam reviews and design feedback: circle the exact number or pixel you mean.
• Ways to present slides remotely, comparedScreen sharing, Google Slides, PowerPoint Live, Pitch, Slido and SlideBySide side by side.