Computerworld -
Microsoft's Office 2013 preview may be getting all the press these days, but many of us are still getting used to the Office 2010 applications, including PowerPoint 2010. Depending on which version of Office you're upgrading from, your PowerPoint 2010 experience will be very different.
If you've been using PowerPoint 2007, you'll find a few small interface tweaks and a number of useful new features in PowerPoint 2010, especially for dealing with multimedia content. If you're upgrading from PowerPoint 2003 or earlier, you'll find an overhauled interface that radically changes how you interact with common features and functions.
Either way, we've got you covered. This cheat sheet shows newcomers how to get around; it also explores features that are brand new in PowerPoint 2010. We've noted which sections of the story former PowerPoint 2007 users can skip over.
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Computerworld - Microsoft's Office 2013 preview may be getting all the press these days, but many of us are still getting used to the Office 2010 applications, including PowerPoint 2010. Depending on which version of Office you're upgrading from, your PowerPoint 2010 experience will be very different.
If you've been using PowerPoint 2007, you'll find a few small interface tweaks and a number of useful new features in PowerPoint 2010, especially for dealing with multimedia content. If you're upgrading from PowerPoint 2003 or earlier, you'll find an overhauled interface that radically changes how you interact with common features and functions.
Either way, we've got you covered. This cheat sheet shows newcomers how to get around; it also explores features that are brand new in PowerPoint 2010. We've noted which sections of the story former PowerPoint 2007 users can skip over.
And don't miss our other Office 2010 cheat sheets: Word 2010, Excel 2010, Outlook 2010 and SharePoint 2010.
Get acclimated to the new PowerPoint
To help you find your way around PowerPoint 2010, here's a quick guided tour of the interface; you can follow along using the screenshot below. With the exception of the File tab/Backstage, it's quite similar to PowerPoint 2007's interface.
The File tab/Backstage. The File tab in PowerPoint 2010 replaces the Office orb button in PowerPoint 2007, which replaced the old File menu found in earlier versions of PowerPoint. Click it, and it leads you to Backstage, a new command center where you can handle an array of tasks, including opening, printing and sharing files; customization; version control and more. As you'll see later in this story, Backstage represents one of the biggest changes in PowerPoint 2010.
The Quick Access toolbar. Introduced in PowerPoint 2007, this mini-toolbar offers buttons for the most commonly used commands, and you can customize it with whatever buttons you like.
The Ribbon. Love it or hate it, the Ribbon is the main way you'll work with PowerPoint. Instead of old-style menus, submenus, sub-submenus and so on, the Ribbon groups small icons for common tasks together in tabs on a big ribbon. For example, when you click the Transitions tab, the Ribbon appears with buttons for items that you can use to create transitions between slides -- Cut, Fade, Wipe, Split and more.
The PowerPoint 2010 Ribbon looks and works much the same as the PowerPoint 2007 Ribbon, with one nifty addition: In PowerPoint 2010, you can customize what's on the Ribbon.
Slide. Here's the heart of PowerPoint -- the slide itself. It's where you'll do all the work of creating your presentation.
Slides/Outline pane. As in earlier versions of PowerPoint, this pane shows all the slides in your presentation. Click the Slides tab in it to see them as thumbnails; click the Outline tab to see just the text of each slide. You can drag the right border of the pane to make it larger or smaller.
Status bar. Here you'll see information about the current slide you're viewing, including what number it is in the presentation and what design theme it's using.
Notes pane. Underneath the slide you'll find a spot where you can type speaker notes. You can drag its top border up or down to make this area larger or smaller. To make it disappear, drag it all the way down. Once it's gone, drag the bottom border of the slide upward to make the Notes pane reappear.
View toolbar. As in PowerPoint 2007, the View toolbar at the bottom right of the screen lets you choose among a variety of views, including Slide Sorter, Reading View and Slide Show. There's also a slider that lets you zoom in or out of your document.
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