If you're new to using Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, you might feel a little overwhelmed with the choice of views available when you open up a blank slide. As you begin to work on your first slide, you will be presented with the Normal view. The Normal view is the main editing view, where you can write and design your presentations, and the Normal view has four working areas: the Outline tab, the Slide tab, the Slide pane and the Notes pane.

The area you will first see on the left-hand side of a blank slide is called the Outline tab, and this is the ideal starting point to create any content for your presentation. The Outline tab - which shows your slide text in outline form − allows you to capture your ideas, plan how you want to present them, and also move slides and text around.

Still on the left-hand side of your screen, is the second tab, the Slide tab. In this view, you can look at the slides in your presentation as thumbnail-sized images while you work with the text. Thumbnails are the easiest way to navigate through your presentation and to see the effects of any design changes. You can also easily rearrange, add, or delete slides here. It's easy to switch between the Slides and Outline tabs, or to enlarge or hide the pane that contains the Outline and Slides tabs

Next, is the Slide pane which appears in the upper-right section of your PowerPoint window. The Slide pane displays a large view of the slide you are currently working in. Here, you can add text and insert pictures, tables, SmartArt graphics, charts, drawing objects, text boxes, movies, sounds, hyperlinks, and animations.

And at the bottom of the screen, below the Slide panel is the Notes pane. The Notes pane is self-explanatory: it's the place where you can type notes relevant to your current slide. When you have finalised your presentation, you can print your notes and refer to them later during your slide show, or print and distribute to your audience in paper format or even on a Web page. If you want to print a hard copy of an outline of your presentation, with only the text (as it appears in Outline view) and none of the graphics or animation, first Click the File tab. Then, click Print, click Full Page Slides under Other Settings, then click Outline, and then click Print at the top.

These four views are just some of the tools available in Normal view; Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 also has a host of other views to help you edit, print, and deliver your presentation. There's the Slide Sorter view, a Notes Page view, Slide Show view (which includes Presenter view) and a Reading view. If you want to access any of the views, just go to the View tab, in the Presentation Views and Master Views groups, or use the easy to use bar at the bottom of the PowerPoint Window where the main views (Normal, Slide Sorter, Reading, and Slide Show) are available. And even if you don't have PowerPoint installed on your computer, you can use the PowerPoint Viewer 2010 to view a presentation which is easy and quick to download.

And there are many other ways you can view your presentation to make editing a whole lot easier. For example, to view the ruler or gridlines in Normal view, on the View tab, in the Show group, select either the Ruler or Gridlines check box. When you want to view and work with your notes in full page format, on the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click Notes.

Master views in PowerPoint 2010 include, Slide, Handout, and Notes view. They are the main slides that store information about your presentation, including background, colour, fonts, effects, placeholder sizes and positions. As expected, you can you can make universal style changes to every slide, notes page, or handout associated with your presentation.

Once you have mastered all of the new views in PowerPoint, you will want to think about how best to deliver your presentaion, and the recommended view is the Slide Show view. Slide Show view occupies the full computer screen, exactly the way your presentation will look on a large screen when your audience sees it. You can see how your graphics, timings, movies, animated effects, and transition effects will look during the actual presentation.

The Presenter view, on the other hand, is a key slide show-based view that you can use while delivering your presentation. By using two monitors, you can run other programs and view speaker notes that your audience cannot see. If you prefer to use the Presenter view, remember to make sure that your computer has multiple monitor capabilities, turn on multiple monitor support, and turn on Presenter view.

The Reading view is the recommended view when delivering a presentation to someone viewing your presentation on their own computer - via a large screen, for example. Or you can use Reading view on your own computer when you want to view a presentation not in full-screen Slide Show view, but in a window with simple controls that make the presentation easy to review. You can always switch from Reading view to one of the other views if you want to change the presentation.

And if you want to help reduce your carbon footprint, you can save paper and ink by preparing your print job before you print. PowerPoint provides views and settings to help you specify what you want to print (slides, handouts, or notes pages) and how you want those jobs to print (in colour, greyscale, black and white, with frames, and more).

Slide Sorter view gives you a view of your slides in thumbnail form. This view makes it easy for you to sort and organise the sequence of your slides as you prepare to print. Once you have settled on which view is best for you to work in, you can change the default view so that PowerPoint will always open in this view. Among the views that are available to set as the default are Slide Sorter view, Outline Only view, Notes view, and variations on Normal view. By default, PowerPoint opens in Normal view, displaying the thumbnails, notes and slide view. If you prefer, however, you can specify that PowerPoint open in a different view.