When you first start Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, you will notice that the menus and toolbars from PowerPoint 2003 and earlier have been replaced with the ribbon.
Note If you are already familiar with the ribbon in Office PowerPoint 2007 and you want information about the new features in PowerPoint 2010, see What's new in PowerPoint 2010?
In this article
What is the ribbon?
The ribbon contains the commands and other menu items that were on menu and toolbars in PowerPoint 2003 and earlier. The ribbon is designed to help you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task.
Primary features of the ribbon
The ribbon as it appears on the left side of the Home tab in PowerPoint 2010.
A
tab in the ribbon, in this case the
Home tab. Each tab relates to a type of activity, such as inserting media or applying animations to objects.
A
group on the
Home tab, in this case the
Font group. Commands are organized into logical groups and collected together under the tabs.
An individual button or command in the
Slides group, in this case the
New Slide button.
Other features of the ribbon
Other things that you might see on the ribbon are contextual tabs, galleries, and dialog box launchers.
A
gallery, in this case the shapes gallery in the
Drawing group. Galleries are rectangular windows or menus that present an array of related visual choices.
A
contextual tab, in this case the
Picture Tools tab. To reduce clutter, some tabs are shown only when they are needed. For example, the
Picture Tools tab is shown only if you insert a picture on a slide, and then select the picture.
A
Dialog Box Launcher, in this case, one that starts the
Format Shape dialog box.
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Location of popular commands on the ribbon
To find the location of specific commands on tabs and groups, see the diagrams following.
File tab
The File tab is where you can create a new file, open or save an existing file, and print your presentation.
Save as
Open
New
PrintHome tab
The Home tab is where you can insert new slides, group objects together, and format text on your slide.
If you click the arrow next to
New Slide, you can choose from several slide layouts.
The
Font group includes the
Font,
Bold,
Italic, and
Font Size buttons.
The
Paragraph group includes
Align Text Right,
Align Text Left,
Justify, and
Center.
To find the
Group command, click
Arrange, and under
Group Objects select
Group.
Insert tab
The Insert tab is where you can insert tables, shapes, charts, headers, or footers into your presentation.
Table
Shapes
Chart
Header & Footer
Design tab
The Design tab is where you can customize the background, theme design and colors, or the page setup of your presentation.
Click
Page Setup to launch the
Page Setup dialog box.
In the
Themes group, click a theme to apply it to your presentation.
Click
Background Styles to select a background color and design for your presentation.
Transitions tab
The Transitions tab is where you can apply, change, or remove transitions to your current slide.
In the
Transitions to This Slide group, click a transition to apply it to the current slide.
In the
Sound list, you can select from several sounds to play during your transition.
Under
Advance Slide, you can select
On Mouse Click to make the transition occur when you click.
Animations tab
The Animations tab is where you can apply, change, or remove animations to objects on your slide.
Click
Add Animation, and select an animation to apply to the selected object.
Click
Animation Pane to launch the
Animation Pane task pane.
The
Timing group includes areas to set the
Start and
Duration.
Slide Show tab
The Slide Show tab is where you can start a slide show, customize the settings for your slide show, and hide individual slides.
The
Start Slide Show group, that includes
From Beginning and
From Current Slide.
Click
Set Up Slide Show to launch the
Set Up Show dialog box.
Hide Slide
Review tab
The Review tab is where you can check the spelling, change the language in your presentation, or compare changes in the current presentation against another presentation.
Spelling, to start the spelling checker.
The
Language group, that includes
Editing Language, where you can select the language.
View tab
The View tab is where you can view the slide master, notes master, slide sorter. You can also turn on or off the ruler, gridlines, and drawing guidelines.
Slide Sorter
Slide Master
The
Show group, that includes
Ruler and
Gridlines.
I do not see the command that I need! Some commands, such as Crop or Compress, are on contextual tabs.
To view a contextual tab, first select the object that you want to work with, and then check whether a contextual tab appears in the ribbon.
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