PowerPoint has a very useful but rarely used zoom/magnify tool in Slideshow mode (in PowerPoint 365 for Windows only, sorry Macintosh folks…). It works as follows:
(Assuming you are in Slideshow mode)
– In the lower left corner of the presenter view (lower left corner of your slide), click the magnifying glass icon.
– A bright rectangle appears on the slide and the mouse pointer changes to a hand.
– Point your mouse over the area of the slide that you want to magnify, then click to zoom in on-screen. The mouse pointer becomes a hand to indicate that you can click and drag to move the zoom effect to a different area of the slide.
– To turn off the zoom effect, press the Esc key or click the magnifying glass icon again.
This is very useful for (smoothly) focusing on specific areas of your screen – and/or enlarging sections that are hard to view or read for the audience. Try it!