PowerPoint XP

The Parts of the PowerPoint Window

The PowerPoint Window has toolbars and panes to help you quickly create presentations. Most of the toolbars are common in Office applications but may feature options unique to PowerPoint.

• Title Bar - displays the document name followed by a program name.
• Menu Bar - contains a list of options to manage and customize documents.
• Standard Toolbar - contains shortcut buttons for the most popular commands.
• Formatting Toolbar - contains buttons used for formatting.
• Status Bar - displays slide position and the type of design in PowerPoint.
• Drawing Toolbar - contains tools for drawing lines, shapes and objects.
• Help - provides quick access to Help topics.

PowerPoint XP has a new default Normal view - the Tri-Pane View. This view, which opens when you launch PowerPoint, allows you to see multiple parts of a presentation at once.

One of the other noticeable changes between PowerPoint 2000 and PowerPoint 2002 is the Task Pane. Located on the right side of the computer screen, this pane allows you to select tasks in different categories and allows you to quickly enhance your slides in a few steps. You'll learn more about the Task Pane later in this lesson.

Also new in PowerPoint 2002 are the Outline and Slides Tabbed Panes. Click on the tabs on the left side of the screen to view an outline or a slide of your presentation. The tabs render differently based on the size of the pane.

You can show or hide PowerPoint's toolbars. Click on the View menu and choose Toolbar. Decide which ones you want to show or hide.