PowerPoint 2019 For Dummies
Book image
Explore Book Buy On Amazon
The Ribbon is Microsoft’s primary user interface gadget. Across the top of the Ribbon in PowerPoint 2019 is a series of tabs. You can click one of these tabs to reveal a set of controls specific to that tab. For example, the Ribbon in this image shows the Home tab.

powerpoint-clutter PowerPoint’s cluttered screen.

The following figure shows the Ribbon with the Insert tab selected.

powerpoint-insert-tab The Ribbon with the Insert tab selected.

Initially, the Ribbon displays the tabs described in the following table.

Basic Tabs on the Ribbon

Tab Actions You Can Perform
File Open, close, print, and share presentations
Home Create and format slides
Insert Insert various types of objects on slides
Design Tweak the layout of a slide
Transitions Change the transition effects that are applied when you switch from one slide to the next
Animations Add animation effects to your slides
Slide Show Present your slide show
Review Proof and add comments to your presentations
View Change the view
Help Get help, training, and support information
Besides these basic tabs, additional tabs appear from time to time. For example, if you select a picture, a Picture Tools tab appears with commands that let you manipulate the picture.

The commands on a Ribbon tab are organized into groups. Within each group, most of the commands are simple buttons that are similar to toolbar buttons in previous versions of PowerPoint.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Doug Lowe is a master at demystifying technology. The 50+ technology books he's written include more than 30 For Dummies books, including Networking All-in-One For Dummies. Doug has been managing networks at publishing companies and nonprofit organizations for more than 20 years and is presently IT director for a civil engineering firm.

This article can be found in the category: