about working with the Ribbon, see the section “Unraveling the Ribbon,” later in this chapter.
✔ File tab: The first tab on the Ribbon is called the File tab. You can click it to switch the program into a special mode called Backstage View, which provides access to various functions such as opening and saving files, creating new presentations, printing, and other similar chores. For more information, see the section “Taking the Backstage Tour,” later in this chapter.
✔ Quick Access toolbar: Just above the Ribbon is the Quick Access toolbar, also called the QAT for short. Its sole purpose in life is to provide a convenient resting place for the PowerPoint commands you use the most often.
Initially, this toolbar contains just three: Save, Undo, and Redo. However, you can add more buttons if you want. To add any button to the QAT, right-click the button and choose Add to Quick Access Toolbar. You can also find a pull-down menu at the end of the QAT that lists several frequently used commands. You can use this menu to add these common commands to the QAT.
✔ Current slide: Right smack in the middle of the screen is where your current slide appears.
✔ Slides pane: To the left of the slide is an area that shows thumbnail icons of your slides. You can use this area to easily navigate to other slides in your presentation.
✔ Task pane: To the right of the slide is an area called the task pane. The task pane is designed to help you complete common tasks quickly. When you first start PowerPoint, the task pane isn’t visible, so you can’t see it in Figure 1-1. However, it appears whenever it’s needed, and you can see plenty of examples of it throughout this book.
✔ Status bar: At the very bottom of the screen is the status bar, which tells you the slide that is currently displayed (for example, Slide 1 of 1).
✔ Zoom control: PowerPoint automatically adjusts its zoom factor so that Slide View displays each slide in its entirety. You can change the size of your slide by using the zoom control slider that appears at the bottom right of the window.
Unraveling the Ribbon
The Ribbon is Microsoft’s primary user interface gadget. Across the top of the Ribbon is a series of tabs. You can click one of these tabs to reveal a set of controls specific to that tab. For example, the Ribbon in Figure 1-2 (earlier in the chapter) shows the Home tab. Figure 1-3 shows the Ribbon with the Insert tab selected.
Figure 1-3: The Ribbon with the Insert tab selected.
Initially, the Ribbon displays the tabs described in Table 1-1.
Table 1-1 Basic Tabs on the Ribbon
Besides these basic tabs, additional tabs appear from time to time. For example, if you select a picture, a Picture Tools tab appears with commands that let you manipulate the picture.
The commands on a Ribbon tab are organized into groups. Within each group, most of the commands are simple buttons that are similar to toolbar buttons in previous versions of PowerPoint.
Telling PowerPoint What to Do
The Ribbon contains scores of buttons that enable you to use any of PowerPoint’s many features for creating and formatting slides. Unfortunately, the Ribbon can sometimes be difficult to navigate, and if you’re like me, you’ll often find yourself unsure of which Ribbon tab contains the button you’re looking for.
That’s where the Tell Me What to Do box comes in. This search box is located above the right side of the Ribbon. Type what you want to do in this box and PowerPoint will take you directly to the Ribbon button that lets you do it. For example, if you type Open, the Open button from the File menu appears. This feature can be a great timesaver when you know what you want to do but you aren’t sure exactly where in the Ribbon the correct button is located.
The View from Here Is Great
Near the right edge of the status bar is a series of four View buttons. These buttons enable you to switch among the various views, or ways of looking at your presentation. Table 1-2 summarizes what each View button does.
Table 1-2 View Buttons
Taking the Backstage Tour
Every summer, I attend plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. A few years ago, I took the special backstage tour, which revealed all kinds of nifty secrets worthy of a Dan Brown novel.
This section takes a brief look at PowerPoint’s Backstage View feature, which provides access to document management features previously found on the File menu. When you click the File tab in the top-left corner of the PowerPoint window, PowerPoint switches to Backstage View, as shown in Figure 1-4.
Figure 1-4: Backstage View.
Initially, Backstage View displays information about the current presentation. However, the menu on the left – which bears a striking resemblance to what used to be called the File menu back in the day when programs had plain menus instead of fancy ribbons – provides access to the hidden features of PowerPoint available only to those who venture backstage.
You find out how to use the most important of these commands later in this chapter, and several of the more advanced commands on this menu are presented in later chapters.
Okay, the only secret I learned on the backstage tour at Ashland that was really worthy of a Dan Brown novel is the one about Psalm 46 in the King James translation of the Bible, which was published in 1611 – when William Shakespeare turned 46. If you count 46 words from the start of the Psalm, you get the word Shake. And if you count 46 words backwards from the end of the Psalm, you get the word Spear. Which clearly means that there’s a treasure buried directly beneath the stage in Ashland’s outdoor theater. Next year I’m taking a shovel.
Creating a New Presentation
The simplest way to create a new presentation is to start PowerPoint, click Blank Presentation on the opening screen (see Figure 1-1), and then edit the blank presentation to your liking.
After
