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You can view your PowerPoint file 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.
You can find the different PowerPoint view options on the View tab, as shown below.
You can also find the most frequently used views on the task bar at the bottom right of the slide window, as shown below.
Note: To change the default view in PowerPoint, see Change the default view.
You can get to Normal view from the task bar
at the bottom of the slide window, or from the View tab on the ribbon.
Normal view is the editing mode 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.
You can get to Slide Sorter view from the task bar
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—you can just click and drag your slides to a new location or add sections to organize your slides into meaningful groups.
You can show or hide your speakers notes with the Notes button
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.
For more information about notes, see Add speaker notes to your slides.
You can get to Outline view from the View tab on the ribbon. (In PowerPoint 2013 and later, you can no longer get to Outline view from Normal view. You have to get to it from the View tab.)
Use Outline view to create an outline or story board for your presentation. It displays only the text on your slides, not pictures or other graphical items.
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.
For more information about working with masters, see:
You can get to Slide Show view from the task bar
at the bottom of the slide window.
Use Slide Show view to deliver your presentation to your audience. Slide Show view occupies the full computer screen, exactly the way your presentation will look on a big screen when your audience sees it.
To get to Presenter view, in Slide Show view, in the lower left corner of the screen, click
, and then click Show Presenter View (as shown below).
Use Presenter view to view your notes while delivering your presentation. In Presenter view, your audience cannot see your notes.
For more information about using Presenter view, see View your speaker notes as you deliver your slide show.
You can get to Reading view from the task bar
at the bottom of the slide window.
Most people reviewing a PowerPoint presentation without a presenter will want to use Reading view. It displays the presentation in a full screen like Slide Show view, and it includes a few simple controls to make it easy to flip through the slides.
The views in PowerPoint that you can use to edit, print, and deliver your presentation are as follows:
You can switch between PowerPoint views in two places:
Use the View menu to switch between any of the views
Access the three main views (Normal, Slide Sorter, or Slide Show) on the bottom bar of the PowerPoint window
Several views in PowerPoint can help you create a professional presentation.
To help you save paper and ink, you'll want to prepare your print job before you print. PowerPoint provides views and settings to help you specify what you want to print (slides, handouts, or notes pages) and how you want those jobs to print (in color, grayscale, black and white, with frames, and more).
In PowerPoint for the web, when your file is stored on OneDrive, the default view is Reading view. When your file is stored on OneDrive for work or school or SharePoint in Microsoft 365, the default view is Editing view.
You can get to Editing View from the View tab or from the task bar at the bottom of the slide window.
Editing View is the editing mode where you’ll work most frequently to create your slides. Below, Editing View displays slide thumbnails on the left, a large window showing the current slide, and a Notes pane below the current slide where you can type speaker notes for that slide.
The slide sorter lets you see your slides on the screen in a grid that makes it easy to reorganize them, or organize them into sections, just by dragging and dropping them where you want them.
To add a section right click the first slide of your new section and select Add Section. See Organize your PowerPoint slides into sections for more information.
To access Slide Sorter view click the Slide Sorter button
on the status bar at the bottom of the window.
You can get to Slide Show view from the task bar
at the bottom of the slide window.
Use Slide Show view to deliver your presentation to your audience. Slide Show view occupies the full computer screen, exactly the way your presentation looks on a big screen when your audience sees it.
Note: Reading View isn't available for PowerPoint for the web files stored in OneDrive for work or school/SharePoint in Microsoft 365.
You can get to Reading View from the View tab or from the task bar
at the bottom of the slide window.
Most people reviewing a PowerPoint presentation without a presenter will want to use Reading view. It displays the presentation in a full screen like Slide Show view, and it includes a few simple controls to make it easy to flip through the slides. You can also view speaker notes in Reading View.
