How to Highlight or Draw on PowerPoint Slides During a Slide Show

Use the Pen or Highlighter Tools to Draw on a Slide During a PowerPoint Slide Show (Create Ink Annotations)

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated January 26, 2026

Applies to: Microsoft^® PowerPoint^® 2019, 2021, 2024 and 365 (Windows)

You can access PowerPoint's ink annotation tools including the Pen and Highlighter during a slide show to focus attention or draw on slides. These tools have been around for awhile and you can use them in older versions of PowerPoint.

Draw on a slide using the Pen during a slide show
Draw on a slide using the Highlighter during a slide show
Change ink color
Erase or hide ink annotations in a slide show
Keep or discard ink annotations
Delete ink annotations in Normal View
Create a digital whiteboard or blackboard effect
Final thoughts

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Note: Buttons and Ribbon tabs may display in a different way (with or without text) depending on the size of your screen, your PowerPoint version and your Control Panel settings. Screenshots in this article are from 365 but are similar in other versions of PowerPoint.

Draw on a slide using the Pen during a slide show

To use the Pen tool and draw on a slide during a slide show:

Open a PowerPoint presentation.
Click the Slide Show button on the bottom right to run a slide show.
Right-click or press Shift + F10. A drop-down menu appears.
Click Pointer Options and then select Pen. The pointer changes to a red circle.
Drag to draw on the slide.
Press ESC when you're finished using the Pen.
When you exit the slide show, a dialog box will appear asking if you want to keep the ink annotations. You can opt to keep or discard the annotations.

You can also press Ctrl + P to display the Pen or turn it off.

The drop-down menu with the Pen and Highlighter options appears as follows during a slide show:

Draw on a slide using the Highlighter during a slide show

To use the Highlighter tool and draw on a slide during a slide show:

Open a PowerPoint presentation.
Click the Slide Show button on the bottom right to run a slide show.
Right-click or press Shift + F10. A drop-down menu appears.
Click Pointer Options and then select Highlighter. The pointer changes to a yellow line.
Drag to draw on the slide.
Press ESC when you're finished using the Highlighter.
When you exit the slide show, a dialog box will appear asking if you want to keep the ink annotations. You can opt to keep or discard the annotations.

You can also press Ctrl + I to display the Highlighter or turn it off.

Change ink color

When you use the Pen or Highlighter, it uses a default ink color.

To change the ink color:

In slide show mode, right-click or press Shift + F10. A drop-down menu appears.
Click Pointer Options then then Ink Color. A gallery appears.
Click your preferred ink color.
Display the highlighter or pen and draw as usual.

The drop-down menu with the Ink color options appears as follows during a slide show:

Erase or hide ink annotations in a slide show

When you are working with the Pen or Highlighter during a slide show (and creating ink annotations), you can use the following shortcuts to erase or hide ink annotations:

Press E to remove all annotations on the slide.
Pre Ctrl + E to change to the Eraser tool and then drag over annotations to erase them. Press ESC when you're finished using the eraser.
Press Ctrl + M to show or hide all annotations.

Keep or discard ink annotations

When you press ESC to end a slide show, a message will appear asking if you want to keep your ink annotations (if you have used the Pen or Highlighter). If you click Discard, the annotations will be permanently deleted. If you click Keep, the annotations will be saved as drawing objects on each slide.

The dialog box that appears prompting the user to keep or discard annotations appears below:

Delete ink annotations in Normal View

If you decided to keep ink annotations and you then want to delete them, you will need to delete the drawing objects. An ink annotation object can be deleted by clicking it in Normal View and pressing delete on your keyboard. However, ink annotations can also be deleted using the Review tab in the Ribbon.

To delete ink annotations in Normal View:

If you want to keep a version of the presentation with ink annotations, create a copy of the presentation first.
In Normal View, click the Review tab in the Ribbon.
Click Hide Ink in the Ink group. A drop-down menu appears.
Choose Delete All Ink on Slide if you want to delete ink on the current slide. Choose Delete All Ink in This Presentation to delete ink on every slide in the presentation.

Create a digital whiteboard or blackboard effect

Using the ink annotation tools, you can create an interesting digital whiteboard or blackboard effect with the pen and / or highlighter. Simply press B for black screen or W for white screen during a slide show and then use the ink annotation tools.

Final thoughts

These slide show tools can be used on the fly during a slide show. If you want to use similar effects every time you run a specific presentation, consider creating drawing objects and animating them or use the annotation tools in the Draw tab in the Ribbon in Normal View.

This article was first published on April 16, 2016 and has been updated for clarity and content.

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How to Highlight or Draw on PowerPoint Slides During a Slide Show

Use the Pen or Highlighter Tools to Draw on a Slide During a PowerPoint Slide Show (Create Ink Annotations)

Contents

Draw on a slide using the Pen during a slide show