The “Normal” display

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

 

The “Normal ” view has four areas that allow us to design a presentation.

You have the “Slide” area (1), this is the biggest part of our window and displays the contents of the selected “Slide”. In the “Slide” area we create our slides, we add text and 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 left side of the window, you find the “Slides” tab (3), which shows us a thumbnail display of the different slides.
In this area you can move, add, copy or delete slides. You can move through the slides by clicking and dragging them to the desired location. Copying a “Slide” is done by right-clicking and select “Duplicate Slide” from the drop-down menu.
You can remove a slide by selecting the “Slide” and clicking the “Delete” key on your keyboard.

 

The second tab on the left 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” display

Select the “View” tab in the “Ribbon” and click the “Slide Sorter” button.

Or click the “Slide Sorter” button which is in the middle of the buttons at the bottom, in the “Status bar”.

When we click this button we see all of our slides from our presentation as thumbnails on the left side of our window.

Once again, we can move slides by clicking and dragging.

Remove a “Slide” by selecting it and clicking the “Delete” key on your keyboard.

Or add a “Slide” by right clicking in the window and selecting “New Slide”.

The content of the slides cannot be changed in this view.

 

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

 

The “Notes Page” display

In “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 “Notes Page” display.

Just click the “Notes Page” under the “View” tab in the “Ribbon”.

We do not find this button at the bottom of our window with the “Display Buttons”.

 

When “Notes Page” button is clicked, you see the “Slide” on top and a “text box” below. That is where you can type your notes.

To return to the “Normal” view, click this button in the “Ribbon” or double-click the “Slide” in the “Notes page”.

 

The “Slideshow” display

To view our “Slideshow” click the “Slideshow” button in the “Ribbon” or click the button at the bottom of the “Display buttons”.

The slide show is shown in full screen.
To exit the “Slide show” and return to the previous view, click the “Esc” key on your keyboard.

Changing the default view

By default, the display is set to “Normal”. In other words, when we make a new presentation or we open an old one, the default display will be “normal” mode. This can be changed.
To change this, click the “File” tab in the “Ribbon”.
In the “Backstage” view, we can see the “Options” button.
If you click this button it opens the “PowerPoint Options” dialog box.
Select the “Advanced” tab on the left of the dialog.
And in the “Display” click the downward pointing arrow next to the “Open All documents using this view.”
You can choose between different variations of the “Normal” view, “Outline” view, “Slide Sorter” and “Notes Page” view.
Make your choice and click the OK button to save changes.

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

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