Standard Toolbar

Button: New

The New button creates a blank presentation using the default design template. There will only be a Title slide in your new presentation to start with.

In PowerPoint 2002 the New button also opens the Task Pane to the Slide Layout pane when it creates the blank presentation.

File | New

Confusion: The File menu command New does not work the same as the New button.

In PowerPoint 2002 the  File  |  New  command opens the Task Pane to the New Presentation pane. In the pane, you can choose to create a blank presentation or to use a Design Template or AutoContent Wizard.

Button: Open

The Open button brings up the Open dialog, where you can navigate to the presentation you want to open.

Recent Files can be found quickly:

• Menu: at the bottom of the File menu.

• Task Pane:  In PowerPoint 2002, recently used files are also listed at the top of the New Presentation pane.
   

Button: Save

The Save button saves the current presentation back to the same place that you opened it from and with the same name.

For a new presentation that has never been saved before, the Save button opens the Save As dialog  so that you can choose a location and a name.

Be extra careful if you are editing an existing presentation and don't want to lose the old version. The Save button will overwrite the original presentation! To save your changes under a new name, you must use the menu command  File  |  Save As  to get the Save As dialog box. Better do this first, before you have the chance to forget!!

Button: Email

The Email button creates an email message with the current presentation as an attachment. You have to type in the email address you want the message to go to, or select it from your address book. Don't forget to type in a Subject, also.

Button: Search

In PowerPoint 2002, the Search button opens the Basic Search task pane. You can use this pane to search for files that contain particular text.

Button: Print

The Print button is dangerous! It starts printing the presentation immediately, with whatever layout you used last. Do you remember what that was???

The default choice for printing is Slides, each slide taking up a whole page. This takes a LOT of ink.

Better Choice: 

• Click Print Preview button and check what is going to print.

• Choose a layout from the Print What: box.

• Then use the Print button on the Print Preview toolbar.
  

Button: Print Preview

The Print Preview button changes the view to Print Preview so you can see how the presentation will print. The Print What: control lets you choose a print layout.

The default layout is Slides, where each slide takes up a whole sheet of paper. Be sure that's what you want before you use all that ink and paper!

Layout Choices:

Slides Each slide takes a whole page.	Handouts- 1 slide per page
Handouts - 2 slides per page	Handouts- 3 slides per page
Handouts- 4 slides per page	Handouts- 6 slides per page
Handouts- 9 slides per page	Notes Pages One slide per page with its Notes
Outline

Button: Spell Check

Mis-spelled words really show up once your presentation is on the big screen. Use Spell Check before you show off your presentation to an audience!

PowerPoint does not check for grammar errors. Grammar checkers cannot handle sentence fragments, but presentations rarely have whole sentences!

PowerPoint's Spell Check will not check words in embedded objects like charts, in special effect objects like WordArt, or in embedded documents. You need to spell check embedded objects in their own programs before doing the embedding.

Buttons: Cut, Copy, Paste

The Cut, Copy, and Paste buttons work as usual.

Cut removes the selected text to the Windows Clipboard.
Copy places a copy of selected text on the Windows Clipboard.
Paste places a copy of what was on the Windows Clipboard at the cursor location. (Do you see the tiny clipboard in the Paste button's picture?)

PowerPoint 2002 can use the Microsoft Office Clipboard, which holds up to 24 items. Very nice! The Microsoft Office Clipboard only works with Microsoft Office programs. The Windows Clipboard is part of the operating system and is available to all programs, but only holds 1 item at a time.

Your copied or cut material may not be stored on the Office Clipboard unless the Task Pane is open to the Clipboard. There is a setting in the Options at the bottom of Clipboard pane that will let the Office Clipboard collect your cuts and copies automatically without the Clipboard Task Pane being open.

Button: Format Painter

The Format Painter copies the formatting of what is currently selected and then applies it to whatever you drag across. Double-click the button and the feature will stay active so you can apply the formatting to several different places. Click the button again to turn it off again.

Format Painter will copy the formatting of your selected text or of an object like a placeholder, text box or other AutoShape, picture, WordArt, or clip art. Be careful what you select and what its formatting actually is!

Buttons: Undo & Redo

Since you will make mistakes along the way, Undo and Redo are among your best friends! Clicking the Undo button reverses the last action taken by you or by PowerPoint automatically. Clicking the Redo button will do again what you just undid. The buttons are gray when there are no actions available.

The arrows to the right of the buttons open lists of actions that you can undo or redo.

How many Undo steps? By default, PowerPoint will remember about 20 of the recent actions, including any automatic changes that PowerPoint made itself. The exact number varies with what the actions were. Some automatic changes are actually several actions.

Change the number of Undo steps remembered: Use the Options dialog,  Tools  |  Options  | Edit tab |  Undo box  Maximum is 150. The more steps you want PowerPoint to remember, the more memory your computer needs to have. More IS better!

Button: Chart

The Chart button does not do quite you what might expect. It inserts a default 3-D column chart with sample data. You must replace the data in the datasheet with your own numbers and labels. Awkward, indeed.

While the chart is selected, the datasheet is open for editing and the window's menu and toolbars are changed to include tools for editing and formatting the chart.

Better: If you already have your data in a spreadsheet or table:

• Copy and paste it into the default datasheet.

     OR

• Copy and paste an existing chart directly onto the slide.

Buttons: Tables

There are two buttons that help you add a table to your slide.

The Insert Table button opens a palette where you drag to select the number of rows and columns for the table. The table will stretch across the whole slide with cells of equal size.

The Table and Borders button opens a new toolbar and changes your mouse pointer to a drawing tool which you use to draw the table as the size you want and then to add rows and columns. Drawing a table is handy for complex tables with cells of different sizes.

Button: Hyperlink

The Hyperlink button opens a dialog for creating hyperlinks.

Why would you want a hyperlink in a presentation?

• To open a web page from the Internet (requires computer running the presentation be connected to the Internet, of course)
• To open a document related to your presentation (requires that you know the path to the document from where the presentation is stored and that the computer can get there)

Button: Expand Outline

The Expand Outline button is actually a toggle button, expanding and collapsing the outline that shows in the Navigation Pane. It has no effect on the slides themselves.

A thin blue line around the button means that Expand Outline is on.

Outline- Expanded and Collapsed

Button: Show Formatting

The Show Formatting button affects how the outline looks in the Navigation Pane.

• ON - outline uses the same formatting as the text in the placeholders
• OFF - outline uses the default formatting

Why does it matter? Sometimes the formatted text is hard to read in the outline. But, the default formatting may be larger than you need. You will want to choose the view that is easier for you to read and work with.

Show Formatting: ON and OFF
Note the different font sizes and bullet styles

Button: Grid

The Grid button is a toggle button that displays or hides a grid on the slide. The grid's purpose is to help you line up your objects on the slide. You can change the spacing of the grid lines, View | Grid and Guides.

Button: Color/Gray Scale

The Color/Gray Scale button for PowerPoint 2002/03 opens a menu of color choices:

• Color
• Gray Scale
• Black and White

These choices let you see how your presentation will print with that choice.

View your slides in gray scale or black and white before printing if you are not going to print in color. Sometimes your text color and your background color come out to the same shade of gray. Invisible text!

Slide in color. Button in color.

Slide in tones of gray. Button shows white, gray, black.

Slide in black and white. Button black and white only.
No background shading.

Control: Zoom

The Zoom Control allows you to change the size of the slide in the Slide Pane, of the outline in the Navigation Pane, of the Notes Page, and of the Print Preview.

The arrow at the right of the box opens a list of useful sizes, different ones for slides than for outlines. If none of these are quite right, just type in the percentage that you want.

Zoom sizes: Outline & Slide

Button: Help

The Help button is one of several ways to access PowerPoint's Help features.

Clicking the Help button will display either the Office Assistant, if it is enabled, or the PowerPoint Help dialog. Type in your question or keywords and Search. PowerPoint will display a list of topics that it thinks might be what you are looking for.

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