What Is the Ribbon in PowerPoint?

The ribbon is the strip of labels, which PowerPoint calls tabs, that runs across the top of the PowerPoint window. From the ribbon, you'll access everything the program has to offer. You no longer have to hunt endlessly through menus and sub-menus to find the commands you want. They are grouped and located in logical places.

Ribbon Tabs

Each ribbon tab represents a group of tools and features centered around a single purpose. The main ribbon tabs include:

• Home: The Home tab contains options to change the font and font size, format paragraphs, and copy and paste slide elements.

• Insert: The Insert tab adds something to a slide. Elements that can be inserted into a presentation include images, shapes, charts, text boxes, videos, and links.

• Design: The Design tab is home to the themes and color schemes.

• Transitions: The Transitions tab handles how your slides move from one to the other and include settings for individual transitions. Preview transitions here.

• Animations: Sample the many animations on the Animations tab that you can apply to objects on your slides.

• Slide Show: Use the Slide Show tab to set up how you want to show your presentation to your audience.

• Review: Use the Review tab to add comments and run a spell-check.

• View: The View tab shows your presentation in different ways. Choose a different view depending on where you are in the process of creating or giving the presentation.

• To access any of these tabs, select it to display the commands and options associated with that tab.

Using the Ribbon

Here's an example of how to work with a ribbon tab. If you want to do something about the design of your presentation, go to Design to see sections that run across the ribbon that change the presentation style. To customize your presentation, change the slide size or format the background. To change the look of your presentation, choose a different theme and select a variant of that theme. If you don't know what to do, use the Designer to get design ideas.