Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 – Choose the right View for the task

You can view your PowerPoint slides in a variety of ways depending on the task at hand. Some views are helpful when you're creating your presentation, and some are most helpful for delivering your presentation.

Here’s what you do:

You can find the different PowerPoint view options on the View tab.

 

You can also find the most frequently used views on the task bar at the bottom right of the slide window.

 

Views for creating your presentation:

Normal view:

You can get to Normal view from the task bar Normal View button in PowerPoint at the bottom of the slide window, or from the View tab on the ribbon.

Normal view is where you’ll work most frequently to create your slides. Below, Normal view displays slide thumbnails on the left, a large window showing the current slide, and a section below the current slide where you can type your speaker notes for that slide.

Slide Sorter view:

 

You can get to Slide Sorter view from the task bar Shows the Slide View button in PowerPoint at the bottom of the slide window, or from the View tab on the ribbon.

Slide Sorter view (below) displays all the slides in your presentation in horizontally sequenced, thumbnails. Slide show view is helpful if you need to reorganize your slides ¡V you can just click and drag your slides to a new location, or add sections to organize your slides into meaningful groups.

Note: For more information about sections, see Use sections to organize your slides into groups.

Speaker’s Notes:

You can show or hide your speaker’s notes with the Notes button notes button in PowerPoint at the bottom of the slide window, or you can get to Notes Page view from the View tab on the ribbon.

The Notes pane is located beneath the slide window. You can print your notes or include the notes in a presentation that you send to the audience, or just use them as cues for yourself while you're presenting.

Outline view:

You can get to Outline view from the View tab on the ribbon.

Use Outline view to create an outline or story board for your presentation. It displays only the text on your slides.

Note: From PowerPoint 2013 and later, you cannot get to Outline view from Normal view. You'll need to get to it from the View tab.

Master views:

To get to a master view, on the View tab, in the Master Views group, choose the master view that you want.

Master views include, Slide, Handout, and Notes. The key benefit to working in a master view is that you can make universal style changes to every slide, notes page, or handout associated with your presentation.