PowerPoint 2007 Interface

Here's a quick walkthrough of the PowerPoint 2007 interface -- unlike earlier versions of PowerPoint, PowerPoint 2007 doesn't looks the same anymore. The menus and toolbars are replaced by the Ribbons tabs and the mini toolbar.

Figure 1 shows a screenshot of the interface -- each part of the interface is explained later in this page.


Figure 1: The PowerPoint 2007 interface

1. Office Button is a sort of replacement for the File menu found in older versions of PowerPoint. When clicked, this opens a menu (see Figure 2) from where you can choose options to create a new presentation, save and open presentations, print, and customize your PowerPoint options.
   
   
   Figure 2 : Office Button
   
   
2. Quick Access Toolbar (also known as the QAT) is a small toolbar next to the Office Button, which you can customize to add more icons that launch options which you use more often. Also, the QAT can be moved to under the RIbbon if required.
   
   
3. Ribbon -- this has all the commands that PowerPoint users need -- the commands are organized as buttons within the various tabs of the Ribbon. A more detailed explanation of the elements within the Ribbon is provided below:
   
   
• Tabs -- The Ribbon has several tabs that become active depending upon what you have selected. You can also select any tab of the Ribbon yourself. Some of the tabs are Home, Insert, Design, Animation, etc. (see Figure 3 )
  
  
  Figure 3 : Ribbon tabs
  
  
• Buttons -- Each tab has several buttons which activate a command or dialog box when clicked.
  
  
• Galleries -- These contains thumbnail previews that show you how a particular slide object will look when formatted. Some galleries have downward pointing arrows that metamorphose them into drop-down galleries when clicked (see Figure 4). These galleries offers live previews -- hover your cursor over the thumbnails to see the object on the slide change.
  
  
  Figure 4 : Drop-down gallery
  
  
4. Slide pane -- Placed on the left of the interface, this pane contains two tabs -- the Slides tab and the Outline tab. The Slides tab shows thumbnails of all the slides in the open presentation. The Outline tab shows the same slides in outline view.
   
   Note: If the Slides pane is not visible, select the View tab, and click the Normal button.
   
   
5. Status bar is a horizontal strip at the bottom of the interface that provides information about the open presentation like slide numbers, theme name, etc.
   
   
6. Notes pane is used to insert speaker notes for the current slide, the content is not visible on the slide area.
   
   
7. View buttons can be found towards the bottom right side of the interface within the status bar -- essentially there are three view buttons and zoom slider.
   
   
   • Normal View - Clicking this enables Normal view, Shift-clicking this gets you to Slide Master view.
     
     
   • Slide Sorter View - Clicking this displays zoomable thumbnails of every slide in the open presentation. Shift-clicking this button gets you to Handout Master view.
     
     
   • Slide Show from current slide - Show the presentation as a full screen slideshow from the current selected slide. Shift-clicking brings up the Set Up Show dialog box.
     
     
   • Zoom slider lets you zoom in and zoom out the size of the visible slide.
     
     
   • Fit slide to current window zooms the slide to a view that fits the entire slide within the view area available.
     
     
8. Slide pane: Displays the slide and the content.
   
   
9. Task pane: is not visible all the time -- you need to click on a button that activates a task pane. For example, choose the Insert tab and click the Clip Art button to summon the Clip Art task pane.