The “Normal” View

In “PowerPoint”, we have a number of different views.
You can find these under the “View” tab in the “Ribbon”.
When we create a new presentation or open a previously created presentation, “Normal ” is the default view.

The “Normal ” view has four areas that allow us to create a presentation.
You have the “Slide” area (1), which is the biggest part of our window and displays the contents of the selected “Slide”.
In the “Slide” area we create our slides, ie, we add text, objects, and place objects such as photos and videos.

You have the “Notes” area (2), located below the “Slide” area.
In the “Notes” area, we can enter “Notes” for the selected “Slide”.

On the right side of the window, have the “Slides” tab (3), which shows us a thumbnail display of the different slides. In English , they call it thumbnails but, in Dutch, I know this has no name. So when I talk about thumbnails, you know that it is a thumbnail of a slide.
In this area you can move, add, copy, or delete slides.
If you need to, you can move the slides by clicking and dragging them to the desired location.
Copying a “Slide” is done by right-clicking on it and selecting “Duplicate Slide” from the drop-down menu.
You can remove it by selecting the “Slide” and pressing the “Delete” key on your keyboard.

The second tab on the right side of the window is the “Outline” tab (4).
The “Outline” tab gives us the content of each “Slide”.
Again, we can customize the text, delete, copy, and rearrange slides in the same way as explained above.

Another way to change the display of our presentation is, by making use of the “Display buttons” at the bottom of the window.

The “Slide Sorter” View

Click the “View” tab in the “Ribbon” and then click the “Slide Sorter” button.
Or you can click the “Slide Sorter” button which is among the buttons at the bottom.

When we click this button, we see all the slides from our presentation as thumbnails on the left side of our window.
Once again, we can move slides by clicking and dragging them.
You can remove a “Slide” by selecting it and pressing the “Delete” key on your keyboard.
Or you can add a “Slide”, by right clicking in the window and selecting “New Slide”.
The content of the slides in this view cannot be changed.

To return to the “Normal” view, you can click the “Normal” view button in the “Ribbon”, or click the “Normal” button at the bottom or, and this seems the quickest way to me, double-click on a “Slide” .

The “Notes Page” View

In the “Normal” view, we have a small area to add notes.
However, if you want more space to type in your notes, you should switch to the “Notes Page” display.
Just click on “Notes Page” under the “View” tab in the “Ribbon”.
We do not find this button at the bottom of our window along with the “Display Buttons”.

When this button is clicked, you will see the “Slide” on top and under it, a text box where you can enter your notes.
To return to the “Normal” view, click on this button in the “Ribbon” or double-click the “Slide” in the “Notes page”.

The “Slideshow” View
To view our “Slideshow” click the “Slideshow” button in the “Ribbon” or click the button at the bottom on the “Status bar”.
The “Slide show” is shown in full screen.
To exit the “Slide show”, and return to the previous view, press the “Esc” key on your keyboard.

Changing the default view:
By default, the display is set to “Normal”. In other words, when we create a new show or we open an old one, this is shown in “normal” mode by default.
This can also be changed.
To change this, click the “Office” button.
In the dialog box that appears, we can see the “Power Point Options” button.
If you click it, the “PowerPoint Options” dialog box.
Click the “Advanced” tab on the left of the dialog box.
And in the “Display” click the arrow pointing downwards next to the “Open All documents using this view” text box.
You can choose between the different variations of the “Normal” view, “Outline” view, “Slide Sorter” and “Notes Page” view.
Make your choice and click OK to save changes.

The default view is now changed.
You will see this only when you first close the file and then open it again.

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