Interface in PowerPoint 365 for Mac

When launched, PowerPoint 365 for Mac opens the Presentation Gallery as shown in Figure 1. The Presentation Gallery provides several ways to start your next presentation using a Theme, a recent presentation, a not-so-recent presentation, or even a blank presentation.

Figure 1: Presentation Gallery

Once you make choices within the Presentation Gallery and click the Create button, you see the actual PowerPoint 365 for Mac interface, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: PowerPoint 365 for Mac interface

Each part of the interface is explained below, as marked in Figure 2, above:

A. Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)

The Quick Access Toolbar, also know as the QAT is a customizable toolbar placed by default above the Ribbon. Here, you can add icons for your often used commands. Unlike in Windows versions of PowerPoint, the QAT cannot be placed below the Ribbon in PowerPoint 365 for Mac. Learn more about the QAT in our Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint 365 for Mac tutorial.

B. Ribbon

The Ribbon has tabs which in turn contain groups of various options. Some groups also contain galleries, such as galleries for Themes, Animations, etc. Learn more in our Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint 365 for Mac page.

C. Slides Pane

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

D. Slide Area

Displays the active slide.

E. 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.

F. Status Bar

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

G. 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.

H. 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 Slide Show from the current selected slide. Shift-clicking this button brings up the Set Up Show dialog box.