Interface in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac

The interface of PowerPoint 2016 for Mac is quite similar to that of PowerPoint 2016 for Windows. Here's a quick walkthrough:

When launched, PowerPoint 2016 for Mac opens the Microsoft PowerPoint window as shown in Figure 1. The Microsoft PowerPoint window provides several ways to start your next presentation using a template, a Theme, a recent presentation, a not-so-recent presentation, or even a blank presentation.

Figure 1: Microsoft PowerPoint window

Once you make choices within the Microsoft PowerPoint window, you see the actual PowerPoint 2016 for Mac interface, as shown in Figure 2 -- each part of the interface is explained later on this page.

Figure 2: PowerPoint 2016 for Mac interface

A. Close, Minimize, and Restore

There are three buttons on the top-left corner of the PowerPoint 2016 for Mac interface.

• The first button is the Close button, used to close PowerPoint.
• Second button is to Minimize PowerPoint.
• Third button is to Restore the PowerPoint interface window to the previous size when it is in fullscreen mode, and vice versa.

B. File

When you click the File button, the Microsoft PowerPoint window opens, that you saw in Figure 1 earlier on this page. However, the options you get to see may differ depending upon the selections you made previously in that window.

C. Ribbon

The Ribbon has tabs which in turn contain groups of various options -- some groups also contain galleries (for example galleries for Themes, Animations etc.).

D. Slides Pane

Located on the left side of the interface, the Slides pane shows thumbnails of all the slides in the open presentation.

E. Slide Area

Displays the active slide.

F. Format Task Pane

The Format Task Pane contains more options and appears when you choose an option in one of the Ribbon tabs. For example if you click the Format Background button within the Design tab of the Ribbon, the Format Background task pane opens (refer to Figure 2, shown earlier on this page). You can also select a slide object and access More Options from Format menu to open the Format Task Pane.

G. Status Bar

A horizontal strip that provides information about the opened presentation like slide number, applied Theme, etc. It also includes the view and zoom options. The View buttons are explained later in this page (see point I).

H. Notes Pane

Right below the active slide, this is where the Speaker Notes are input for the current slide. Note that none of this content is visible on the actual slide while presenting -- although it is visible in both Notes Page view and Presenter view.

I. View Buttons

Essentially there are three view buttons on the Status Bar displayed towards the left of the zoom-in and zoom-out options:

• Normal: If you are in some other view such as Slide Sorter view, click the Normal button on the Status Bar to switch to Normal view. Shift-clicking this button gets you to Slide Master view.
• Slide Sorter: Click this button to switch from any other view to Slide Sorter view. The Slide Sorter view displays zoom-able thumbnails of every slide in the open presentation. Shift-clicking this button gets you to Handout Master view.
• Slide Show: Show the presentation as a full screen Slideshow from the current selected slide. Shift-clicking this button brings up the Set Up Show dialog box.