Video: A closer look at the ribbon

Take a tour of the ribbon and learn where all your favorite buttons and menus are in PowerPoint 2013.

The ribbon

Instead of menus, the ribbon gives you tabs with groups of commands.

1. The tools you use most are on the HOME tab.

2. Click INSERT to add pictures, videos, or sounds, and to create a photo album.

3. Click DESIGN for page setup, slide orientation, and themes.

4. Use the TRANSITIONS tab to use fades or wipes, the ANIMATIONS tab to make things move, and the SLIDE SHOW tab to start and run a presentation.

5. Use the REVIEW tab to add comments, check spelling, and share your presentation, and the VIEW tab to switch between views.

Let’s start by looking at the commands on the ribbon more closely. We have already covered the HOME tab.

These are the ribbon commands you will probably use most often as you work on a presentation.

And we covered the INSERT tab earlier as well. This is where you insert stuff.

We pointed out Pictures, Charts, and SmartArt earlier. You also work with headers and footers here, and where you insert audio and video.

One quick note about extra tabs that appear for certain things. With the video selected, we get the VIDEO TOOLS tabs.

These tabs here are used to work with the video. We can adjust the brightness and color, and set a style.

Click PLAYBACK and we can customize how the video plays.

For example, we could choose to play it full screen, or have it loop until stopped.

On the DESIGN tab, you have features that let you change the overall look of your presentation.

In PowerPoint 2003 you had design templates. But in this version, you have themes. A theme applies a professional-looking set of fonts and colors to everything.

Select the one you like, and then, choose a variant, if you want.

The DESIGN tab also has commands for working with slide size and the background.

The TRANSITIONS tab is great. We showed this to you earlier as well.

This is where you go to add transition effects in between slides.

Choose a transition. But, remember to look over here on the right too. You have Effect Options, the Apply to All button, and other features to refine your transitions even further.

So, if the TRANSITIONS tab is for animated effects between slides, then the ANIMATIONS tab is where you add animations to things on a slide: like text, shapes, charts, and so on.

Select what you want to animate, and choose an animation.

And again, remember to look on the right. You can choose Effect Options to further customize the effect.

You might be asking yourself: Where is the Custom Animation task pane? Well, open the Animation Pane, and you’ll see.

This pane shows the animation timeline. And if you are looking for the effect and timing options, click this arrow.

The SLIDE SHOW tab is all about the big moment - actually presenting your slides to audience.

This is where you start the show, either from the beginning, or from the current slide.

If you were used to starting the show in PowerPoint 2003 using a button down here, you can still use that button, but now it has moved over here.

The next tab, the REVIEW tab, is not to be overlooked. This is where you go to check Spelling, insert New Comment, and where you can Compare your current presentation with another one.

And the last but not the least tab, VIEW.

This is the place for things that were on the old View menu: Slide Sorter view, the Ruler, Gridlines, and Guides.

Your Zoom options are here too. And here is a tricky thing to remember: Outline View is here. It is no longer a tab at the top of the thumbnails.

After you have worked hard on your slides, it is time to save, export, or share your presentation.