I assume this only happens if the Macs have previously been paired with another Apple remote. The remote starts to control all of the Macs simultaneously. What really causes confusion is when there are multiple Macs in the same room and one person suddenly starts to use one of Apple’s IR remotes. This isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it could cause confusion. This means that other people could walk up to your Mac, pair a remote with it and start to control it. I should also mention that the IR receiver is on by default in all Macs. If you ever want to unpair your Mac from a given remote you can go to the Apple menu, select System Preferences and then Security and click the Unpair button.

Pressing the Pause/Play button will also advance to the next slide.

Press the Forward and Back buttons to move through the slideshow.

Open your PowerPoint presentation and click the Slideshow button to put it into slideshow mode.

Simultaneously, press the Menu and Next (right-point arrow) buttons for 5-10 seconds.

Hold your remote control a few inches from your Mac.

Here are instructions on how to set up the Apple Remote to control PowerPoint 2008: For a more thorough history of the Apple Remote check out this Wikipedia article. Most commonly, I see them used to control PowerPoint slideshows. The remotes do have some uses beyond controlling FrontRow. In 2009 they replaced the original white plastic remote and with a taller, thinner aluminum version. I think Apple must have realized that few people actually used the remote controls so they stopped including them with new Macs but they continue to sell the remotely separately for about $20. Apple’s intended users to use them to control FrontRow which lets user view movies (DVDs), photos and music. They then included it with MacBooks and MacBook Pros as well as the Mac mini. Starting in 2005, Apple started to ship remote controls with their iMac G5 computers. Personally, I’ve used the free iRed Lite.įirst, here’s a little background. Instead, you need to use a third party application. PowerPoint 2004 does not natively have this capability. PowerPoint 2008 and PowerPoint 2011 both include support for Apple’s remote.

Here are some instructions for getting this set up. You can use Apple’s infrared (IR) remote control to control slideshows in PowerPoint 2004, PowerPoint 2008 and PowerPoint 2011.

Apple remote powerpoint