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Start working with the Ribbon

Before you begin

During the practice, this window will stay on top of the program you are working in. When it covers an area you need to use, move and resize it as follows:

• To move this window, click the title bar of the window (as shown below) and drag it to a new location:

  

• To resize this window, drag the resize handle in the lower-right corner.

Exercise 1: Type and format text, fix a list

On the Ribbon, the Home tab is displayed. Have a look at what's on it. Then, use it to adjust a list.

1. Click within the title placeholder on the slide that's displayed; that activates all the commands on the Home tab.
2. You'll see familiar buttons and commands on the Home tab, particularly those for text formatting. Hover to see ScreenTips that give button names and information.

   The tab includes the following groups (group names are along the bottom of the Ribbon). Take a minute to look at some of the commands in each one:

   • Clipboard: Cut, copy, and paste commands
   • Slides: Commands for adding slides, choosing a layout
   • Font: Text formatting commands
   • Paragraph: List and paragraph formatting commands
   • Drawing: Gallery of shapes you can apply, commands for arranging slide elements, as well as grouping or aligning them, and styles for shapes
   • Editing: Text search and replace

3. To add a company name to slide 1, click the slide 1 thumbnail if it's not selected. On the slide, in the subtitle placeholder, triple-click the text to select it.
4. Type Margie's Travel.
5. How about a unique font color for this text? Select the text you typed (triple-click again). In the Font group on the Ribbon, click the arrow next to the Font Color button.

   The colors available for this template are shown along the top row under Theme Colors. Varying shades of them are displayed below that. Other, standard colors appear below that. (You'll learn more about theme colors later.)

   Click a color within Theme Colors.

6. Tip: You may've noticed the panel of buttons that appeared and faded away on the slide, just above the subtitle, when you first selected the subtitle text. It gives you a shortcut.

   To see what this panel of buttons does, click away from the subtitle, then triple-click the text again to select it. The panel will appear and fade. Point to it to make it solid. The most popular text commands are here, including the Font Color button .

   The panel is called the Mini toolbar. It makes some font and paragraph formatting buttons available when you select text, so you can use them right here without going to the Ribbon. Drag your pointer away from the text selection, and the Mini toolbar disappears. Point at the text selection again, and the Mini toolbar reappears.

7. Now try some paragraph formatting. Click slide thumbnail 2. The bulleted list already fills the slide. To give yourself more room, change this list to fit into two columns.

   Click at the end of the last bulleted item in the list, Mentoring Program. On the Ribbon, in the Paragraph group, click Columns , and then click Two Columns. Nothing noticeable happens on the slide, yet.

8. Press ENTER. A new bullet appears on the right side of the slide, to start a second column. Type Helpful resources.
9. To even out the bulleted items a little more between the columns, increase the line spacing. You should see the list bordered by a dashed line, which means the text placeholder is selected for text editing. Click the border to make it a solid line. Now you can change formatting for the placeholder itself.

   In the Paragraph group, click Line Spacing . Click 1.5.

   The line spacing increases, and the list is more evenly divided between columns.

10. Now, adjust a title so it looks less spread out. Click slide 3, which has a long title. You could rewrite it, but instead try the new letter-spacing command. Select the title text, and in the Font group on the Ribbon, click the Character Spacing button .
11. Click Tight. This pulls the characters together subtly but effectively.

Exercise 2: Add a slide

1. Slide 3 should still be selected. If it's not, click the slide thumbnail.
2. On the Ribbon, in the Slides group, click the arrow next to New Slide.

   

3. You see a gallery of layouts for the slide. Click the one called Title and Content.

   A new slide is inserted below slide 3. It has a multipurpose layout that works with text in a bulleted list, or a table, chart, SmartArt graphic (diagram), clip art picture, picture from a file, or video file.

   You have other layout choices, and you'll see more about those in the next lesson.

   Tips

   • You can insert a slide that will inherit the layout of the slide preceding it. To do so, you'd right-click the slide thumbnail that your new slide should follow and click New Slide on the submenu.
   • Also, you can change the current layout of a slide by right-clicking the slide thumbnail, clicking Layout on the submenu, and then making a different selection.

Exercise 3: See more options and tabs

1. In the title placeholder of slide 4, type Who's who.
2. With your pointer still in the title text, notice a couple of things on the Ribbon. If you look at the groups that have to do with text formatting or positioning (the Font, Paragraph, and Drawing groups), you'll see an arrow in the lower right corner of each. Click one of those.

   More options are displayed. So remember, if you're looking for a command in a group and don't see it, click the arrow in the relevant group to see what else is available.

   Click Cancel to close the dialog box you opened.

3. Another thing to notice: With your pointer in the text of the slide title, you'll see a colored tab at the end of the Ribbon called Drawing Tools. Underneath it is the Format tab. Click it.

   This tab specifically supports styling or positioning the text placeholder or other shapes. It's available whenever you click within a text placeholder or shape.

4. Click outside both placeholders on the slide. The Format tab disappears, and will stay away until you need it again.

Exercise 4: Customize the Quick Access Toolbar

The short set of buttons called the Quick Access Toolbar comes with some often-used commands. You can add to those or remove what you don't want, as you like.

1. In the upper-left portion of the window, to the left of the Home tab, notice the Quick Access Toolbar:

   

2. It already has some crucial commands: Save, Undo, and Repeat (or Redo if you've just undone an action).

   Another likely command for the toolbar is New, for creating a brand new presentation. Add it by following the next steps.

3. Click the arrow to the right of the toolbar, and click New on its menu.

   The New button is added to the toolbar.

   

4. To remove the New button from the toolbar, right-click it, and click Remove from Quick Access Toolbar.

   New goes away.

5. Here's another way to customize the toolbar: Right-click any button or command on the Home tab, such as Shapes. On the shortcut menu, click Add to Quick Access Toolbar. The item is immediately added to the toolbar.
6. To see all the buttons or commands that you can add, do this: Click the downward arrow at the right end of the toolbar, and click More Commands on the menu.

   The PowerPoint Options window opens. Before you is a list of available buttons and commands. You can select one and click Add to add it to the toolbar. Or, to remove an item that's already on the toolbar, shown in the right column, select it, and click Remove. You'd then click OK.

   Now click Cancel, unless you added something and want to keep it there; in that case click OK.

   Tip    You can put the Quick Access Toolbar on its own row in the window, in case you add a lot of buttons to it and want more room. Click the arrow at the right end of the toolbar, and click Show Below the Ribbon. The toolbar moves as directed. If you want the toolbar in its original place, repeat the process, clicking the command to put it above the Ribbon.

Exercise 5: Switch views and zoom

See all there is to see in PowerPoint and get close up or far away, using views and the zoom controls.

1. In the lower-right of the window, you'll find buttons for the three main views in PowerPoint.

   

2. The Normal button is selected. Click Slide Sorter, the middle button — look familiar? This view looks the same as it has in earlier PowerPoint versions.

   The third button is Slide Show; if you click it, you'll need to press ESC to get out of Slide Show view. Click the Normal button again.

3. The zoom slider is next to the buttons, on the right. Drag the slider to see slide content up close and farther away. To zoom in increments, click the Zoom In button or the Zoom Out button .
4. To put the slide back to its default position of fitting comfortably in the window, click the Fit slide to current window button .
5. The View tab on the Ribbon has a bunch more view options. Click it now.

   Come here to display the ruler or grid (if your window is not at full size, these options are contained within the Show/Hide button), or open Notes Page view, view the Slide Master, or arrange multiple PowerPoint windows.

Exercise 6: Hide the Ribbon

There will be times when you want more space in the window to edit your slides. It might help you to hide the Ribbon.

1. Double-click whichever tab is currently the active one.

   The Ribbon disappears. This is the result whenever you double-click the currently active tab.

2. To show the full Ribbon, click any tab once.

   That's all there is to that.

Bonus exercise: How do you add headers and footers?

• As a way to explore the other Ribbon tabs, see if you can find where you go to add headers and footers. (Tip: While you can do this when you're in print preview, you can also do it from a main tab on the Ribbon; look for that tab.)

  If you find the Header & Footer button, cheers for you!

You'll do more with tabs in the next lesson.

To continue the course

When you have completed the practice, click Return to course to continue.

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