Switching Views


PowerPoint has three main ways to view your presentation—normal view, slide sorter view, and slide show view. Normal view is the view where you will typically create and edit your content. Slide sorter view displays thumbnail pictures of the slides in your presentation. Slide show view displays your slides full-screen and allows you to see your presentation the way your audience will.



To switch between views:

  1. Click the Normal View button to add or edit content.
  2. Click the Slide Sorter View button to view thumbnails of your presentation.
  3. Click the Slide Show View button to preview your presentation.


To change the default view in PowerPoint, select Options from the Tools menu. Under Default view, select the option you want, and click OK.
  • The Notes Page View allows you to add notes for each slide in your presentation. Each slide appears on its own screen with a large text area for your notes about the slide. The text you type in Notes Page View will not appear when you are playing your presentation. However, you can choose to print your notes along with your slides to hand out to your audience. To display a presentation in Notes Page View, click the View menu and select Notes Page.

  • When you first open a presentation, PowerPoint will display your slides so they fit in the Slide pane. The Zoom View allows you to change how your slides are displayed in the Slide pane. Use the Zoom View to magnify your slides to check alignment of text and graphics or to see how your slides will appear when you play your presentation.

    To change the Zoom View, click the Zoom button on the standard toolbar. Select a magnification option from the list that appears.

Select a view from the View menu to switch to that view. Also, pressing the F5 key on the keyboard will switch to Slide Show view, and pressing the Esc key will return you to normal view. Note that the F5 key does not work in the simulated interface in this program.