Reading View in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

Unlike most other views in PowerPoint 2010, the Reading view is new for this version. Not exactly new because it is quite similar to the Browsed by an individual (window) option that PowerPoint 2003 and 2007 provided within the Set Up Show dialog, but yes, it has some extra features now, and can be accessed right from the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon. In many ways, Reading view is similar to Slide Show view because in both views, the slide is shown in full screen. However, in Reading view you also see the PowerPoint title bar and the status bar at the top and bottom of the interface respectively (as shown in Figure 1). The Windows task bar is also displayed at the bottom of the screen. Reading view is not only useful to quickly navigate the slide show, but also have easy access to the Windows task bar at the same time to switch to other available open programs or windows.

Figure 1: Reading view in PowerPoint 2010

To access the Reading view, select the View tab on the Ribbon, locate the Presentation Views group, and click the Reading View button (highlighted in red in Figure 2).

Figure 2: Reading View button within Presentation Views group

If you want to edit the presentation, you can always switch from Reading View to one of the other views using the view buttons that you can see towards right on the Status Bar.