What the audience sees during an interactive performance looks similar to a normal linear slide show. Slides appear and disappear as usual. What's different is that the presenter frequently may click navigation components to select content dynamically, as if moving around within a Web site. These navigation components have many different designs and use a variety of strategies for accomplishing their purposes.

Sometimes navigation occurs between slides in a single show. In this case, transitions look exactly like simply scrolling to the next slide. When navigation moves between separate slide shows (which is quite common), there may be a short delay of one or two seconds as PowerPoint opens the other shows. Presenting with a fast computer minimizes this delay.