Question Flows in Poll Everywhere 2.0

In this article:

Question Flows give you precise control over how a question unfolds during a live presentation. Instead of revealing everything at once, Question Flows let you walk your audience through a question step by step — showing the question first, opening responses, revealing results, and (when applicable) showing the correct answer — all at your own pace.

Every Poll Everywhere user now has access to the Manual Flow by default, with additional flow templates available to automate common presentation patterns.

Sample use cases: 

Higher ed use cases: Walk students through a quiz question, hide responses until after everyone answers, then reveal the correct answer as a teaching moment.

Corporate use cases: Run a timed poll in a training or all-hands, reveal results after responses are locked to drive discussion, or use "question first" flow to build anticipation before showing answer options.

How Question Flows work

When you run a question with a flow, it progresses through a series of steps. The steps available depend on the question type and your settings. Common steps include:

• Show question — displays the question text before answer choices appear (used in "question first" flows)
• Live responses — opens the question and shows results as they come in
• Results — shows or locks results (depending on your settings)
• Correctness — reveals the correct answer (only available when a correct answer has been set)

A step indicator bar at the bottom of your presentation view shows where you are in the flow and what comes next. You move forward with the right arrow key or your clicker, and can move backward with the left arrow.

Setting up Question Flows

Open any question in your poll editor and click the Question Flow button (or open the flow modal). Each question has its own flow settings, and you can also apply settings to all questions in a poll at once.

Choosing a flow type

For clickable image question:

The flow modal shows a preview carousel — an animated walkthrough of exactly what your audience will see when you present. This updates live as you change settings.

Manual Flow (default for all users)
You control every step using the navigation buttons or your arrow keys. No steps happen automatically. This gives you maximum flexibility to pause, discuss, and move at your own pace.

Previously, Manual Flow was controlled by on/off sliders. All users now see buttons instead — the experience is the same, just a cleaner interface.

Flow templates
Poll Everywhere includes ready-to-use flow templates that automate the step sequence for common scenarios. Examples include:

• Question first — Shows the question text without answer choices, then reveals choices, then opens responses. Useful when you want everyone to think before they see the options.
• Live responses — Opens responses immediately and shows results in real time as participants respond.
• Quiz / hidden results — Hides results while the question is open, then reveals them after you lock responses.
• Competition — Introduces the question, then starts a timed countdown before revealing choices and opening responses.

Adding a timer

Toggle the Timer on inside the flow modal to set a countdown for your question. When the timer is on, you'll see the duration you've set reflected in the preview carousel — what you configure is exactly how it will behave when you present.

Setting results display

You can choose whether results are visible to your audience during or after the response window.

• Change your results preference in the flow modal
• The question will start your next presentation with the setting you saved — no separate "Save question settings" step required
• A small info bar in the presentation view will remind you what's set: "Results will be shown when you start this presentation"

Note: Adjusting results using hotkeys or controls during a live presentation does not change how the question will start next time

Marking correct answers

If a question type supports correctness (Multiple Choice and Clickable Image), you can designate a correct answer at any time:

• At creation — mark the correct answer while building the question
• After the fact — open the question, select Edit, and set or update the correct answer

Once a correct answer is set, a Correctness step is automatically added to any stepped flow for that question. It will not appear if no correct answer has been set, and it only shows up for question types that support it.

Applying settings to all questions in a poll

In the flow modal, you can choose Apply to all questions in this poll to apply your selected flow type to every question at once. A few things to know:

• Leaderboard and Attendance activities are excluded — they aren't response questions and don't use question flows
• Any new questions you add after applying a poll-wide default will inherit that default automatically
• You can still override individual questions by opening their own flow modal and changing the settings

Running Question Flows during a presentation

Question Flows work natively in the Poll Everywhere web app. When you activate a question with a flow:

• The flow starts automatically
• Use the right arrow key (or the navigation buttons) to advance through steps
• Use the left arrow to go back
• Reaching the last step completes the question

Live App (poll presentation window)

The Live App behaves the same as the web — there is no extra click needed to start the flow. When you open a question with a flow in the Live App:

• The flow starts automatically as soon as the question is activated
• Navigate forward and backward using arrow keys or the on-screen buttons
• Reaching the end of the flow closes the Live App

PowerPoint

PowerPoint requires one extra step because arrow keys normally control slide navigation. Poll Everywhere uses a Click for controls prompt to safely transfer keyboard focus from PowerPoint to the poll.

1. Advance to the poll slide
2. Click once anywhere on the poll — this focuses the PE content and hands keyboard control to the flow
3. Use your right arrow key or clicker to advance through each step
4. When the flow reaches its last step, pressing the right arrow returns keyboard focus to PowerPoint and advances to the next slide

How flows look by activity type

The preview carousel in the flow modal is tailored to each activity type — so what you see in the preview is a faithful representation of your actual presentation experience:

Activities like Leaderboard and Attendance do not use Question Flows.

Quick reference: flow setup vs. presentation

Related articles

• Presenting in Microsoft 365 PowerPoint Add-in

• Presenting with the Poll Everywhere Live App