Normal View in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

PowerPoint 2016 continues providing several views that enable you to view and edit your slides. Unarguably, Normal view is the default and most often used view (see Figure 1 below). This view displays one slide at a time in the Slide Area, and is used mainly for editing and creating slides, and shows PowerPoint's typical tri-pane interface that includes the Slides Pane, the Slide Area, and the Notes Pane. If you cannot see the Slides Pane in Normal view, scroll down this page to read a tip that will help you restore that pane.

Figure 1: Normal View in PowerPoint 2016

To navigate to the next slide, you can use the vertical scrollbar on the Slide Area, or the Next and Previous buttons located at its bottom of the same vertical scrollbar. You can also use the Page Up and Page Down keys on your keyboard to navigate between the slides. These techniques are explained in further detail within our Slide Area tutorial.

If you are not in Normal view, you can easily get to this view by choosing the View tab on Ribbon, and clicking the Normal button (highlighted in red within Figure 2).

Figure 2: Normal button within Presentation Views group

Other than the View tab of the Ribbon, you can also access Normal view by clicking the Normal button (highlighted in red within Figure 3) located towards the right side of the Status Bar.

Figure 3: Normal view button on the Status Bar

Tip: Did you click the Close button located in the Slides Pane, or just cannot see this pane itself in the Normal view? You can restore the Slides Pane by choosing any of the above mentioned ways to access the Normal view, this will restore the Slides Pane.

Here are some keyboard shortcuts that will help you navigate Normal view:

F6: Move clockwise among panes in Normal view
Shift+F6: Move counterclockwise among panes in Normal view
Ctrl+Shift+Tab: Switch between Normal and Outline views

Shortcut Manager, a third party PowerPoint add-in allows you to create your own shortcut keys in PowerPoint, read the Indezine review of Shortcut Manager.

PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

Do you want more keyboard shortcuts?

Explore our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Sequences Ebook that is updated for all PowerPoint versions.