Ribbons? Tabs? Status Bar? Views? Familiarize yourself with PowerPoint’s layout so you won’t get lost. A little customization can help make you feel at home.

We’ll cover basic information on the different kinds of views in PowerPoint under the View tab. There are eight available views in this tab plus the two additional views, the Slide Show view and the Presenter view.

It’s overwhelming to see these features for the first time, even more so when you don’t know what they’re for. These views are meant to make your PowerPoint experience faster and easier. Find out which view works best for your tasks.

PowerPoint 2013 Basics

Under the View tab, you will find eight views: Normal, Outline View, Slide Sorter, Notes Page, Reading View, Slide Master, Handout Master, and Notes Master.

1. Normal View is the default view, and therefore the most familiar type of view. It has three areas, The Slides pane, the Slide area and the Notes.

The Slides pane is where you can preview a thumbnail-sized image of your slide. The Slide area is the largest area where you directly add elements to your slide. The Notes pane is where you can add your notes. This can also be expanded or collapsed by clicking and dragging the thin border above it.

2. Outline View is similar to Normal View, except it replaces the visual thumbnail views in the Slides pane with a textual, outlined list of the slide’s content. You’ll only see the text in your slide when you use this view, helping you focus only on the text instead of the visual elements on your slide.

3. Slide Sorter Don’t be alarmed, the Slide area hasn’t disappeared. This view is a single area that shows all your slides as thumbnails. It’s a great view to use when you need an overview of your deck.

Group your slides much easier with Slide Sorter.

4. Notes Page shows a vertical view of your slide. The page has two sections: the upper section that contains your slide, and the lower section that contains your notes.

Use the notes page to focus on adding notes to your deck.

5. Reading View is very similar to the Slide Show view since both display your slide in full-screen mode. The difference is that Reading View shows the title bar and status bar of PowerPoint to help you keep track of which slide you’re currently viewing.

6. Slide Master has a similar layout to Normal view. Changes in this slide affect all the slides under it. It’s the perfect view when you need to apply plenty of elements to many slides quickly.

Apply your company’s logo consistently and in perfect alignment by placing it in this view.

7. Handout Master provides a single, vertical view of your work area similar to the Notes page. But this view groups your slides into one page.

Print materials from PowerPoint using this view to leave spaces for notes and compress enough slides in one page for easier viewing.

8. Notes Master is a printer-friendly version of your Notes page. Every change you make in the Notes Master also affects the Notes page view. If providing more notes is your priority, the vertical orientation of the page gives you more area for writing down notes.

Additional Views

Access the Slide Show view from the ribbon. It contains four commands under the Start Slide Show category and four commands under the Set Up category. These two categories help you synchronize your slide timings.

The Presenter View is a special setting that gives you more control of your slides.  This view pops up once you start your slide show.

Presenter View only runs on computers with dual screen capabilities, so make sure you have a projector plugged in. The main monitor displays the Presenter view, while the screen the audience sees is projected on your other monitor or projector.

The Presenter View has four areas as shown in the image above:

1. The Toolbar (1) menu on top has a button that allows for the toolbar to expand or collapse, another button that swaps the presenter view and the slide show, and a button to end the slide show which closes the Presenter view.

2. The Timer, Slide Preview, Slide Navigation (2) are all located in the second area highlighted in the image above. More of these are explained in our article on how to be more organized using the Presenter view.

The extra tools underneath the Slide Preview give more slide options for the presenter. These options include the pen and laser pointer, see all slides, zoom into slide, black or white-out screen and even more slide options.

The Timer displays the duration of a slide, and the Slide Navigation lets you move from slide to slide by clicking on the forward and backward arrows. It also tells you what slide you’re on, and displays the number of slides in total.

3. A small area on the upper right previews the next slide and is called the Next Slide Preview (3).

4. The Notes (4) area exists below the next slide preview box and displays the notes for the current slide if there are any available. You can change the text size of your notes if you’re viewing them from a distance.

Change Your Views

The View panes in PowerPoint presents many options for you to manage your workspace for slide creation.

You can get better insight and control of your presentation with the help of these additional views. Choose the Normal view for a balanced layout perfect for slide creation.

Outline View helps you focus on the content and structure of your slides by doing away with thumbnails.

Slide Sorter, Slide Master, Handout Master, Notes Master are perfect for slide management while the Slide Show and Presenter View helps you to rehearse for the final touches in your presentation.

Arrange your slides and append notes faster and easier using these views.

 

References

Bajaj, Geetesh. “PowerPoint 2013 Views for Windows.” Indezine. June 6, 2013. Accessed December 18, 2015. www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/learn/interface/powerpoint2013-views.html
“Get A Change Of View With PowerPoint.” Microsofttraining.net. May 24, 2011. Accessed December 18, 2015. www.microsofttraining.net/article-1698-change-view-with-powerpoint.html