The Parts of the PowerPoint Window

PowerPoint 2003

PowerPoint 2003 is the presentation graphics software in the Microsoft 2003 Office Suite. It allows you to create dynamic presentations using its easy-to-use, predefined layouts and templates.

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.
• 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. It provides quick access to the most common actions and features in PowerPoint.
• Outline and Slides Tabbed Pane - allows the user to easily view the presentation in outline format (text), as well as a list of all the slides in the presentation (with visuals).
• Help - provides quick access to Help topics.

The default view for PowerPoint 2003 is the Tri-Pane View. This view, which opens when you launch PowerPoint, allows you to see multiple parts of a presentation at once.

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

View Buttons and Slide Views

The view buttons at the left bottom corner of the screen allow three slide views: Normal View, Slide Sorter View and Slide Show.

The view buttons can be useful as you prepare your presentation. They control the way slides are displayed on the screen. Click a view button to see a different view.
Normal View contains the Outline and Slides Tabbed Panes on the left, the Slide pane in the center and the Task Pane on the right.
The Outline View shows the text of your presentation for easy editing while Slides View shows text and graphics of the slide you're working on. Click on the tabs to switch between the two views. Under the center slide area is a place for notes.

You can hide or show the different panes in Normal View. To hide the Task Pane, click on the View menu and choose Task Pane. (The View menu also allows you to choose other views). To hide the Outline View and Slide Tabbed Panes, click on the X to the right of the Slides Tab.

More Views

Here are some other views that may be useful as you create your presentations:
Slide Sorter View lets you see small versions of all the slides you have created. You can delete, copy, and move slides in this view.
Slide Show lets you see your presentation electronically as it will appear to an audience.

The Task Pane

The PowerPoint 2003 Task Pane is located on the right side of the screen. The down-pointing arrow in the top, right corner of the pane allows you to select different menus and tools. By default, the Task Pane appears when PowerPoint 2003 is launched.

The Slide Layout and Slide Design panes within the Task Pane help organize layouts, design templates, and color schemes. When you select a design option, your slides are quickly updated with the new look.
You can view the Slide Layout and Slide Design panes by clicking on the down-pointing arrow next to New Presentation in the Task Pane.

Select Slide Layout or Slide Design (Design Templates, Color Schemes, Animation Schemes). You'll learn more about using these panes later in this course.

Using the Task Pane

If you do not see the Task Pane on the right side of the PowerPoint window, you can easily access it.

To Open the Task Pane:

• Click ViewTask Pane

To View Different Panes:

• Click on the down-pointing arrow next to New Presentation and select different panes.
• Once you open different panes, you can move through them by clicking on the backward and forward arrow buttons at the top of the task pane.

To Close the Task Pane:

• Click the X on the right corner of the bar.

You can hide or view the Task Pane by clicking on View Task Pane.

Pull-Down Menus

PowerPoint 2003's menu bar initially displays commands that you most often use. To view infrequently used commands from a menu, use pull-down menus.

To View Commands in a Pull-Down Menu:

• Click on a menu in the menu bar. (File, Edit, View, Insert, etc.)
• Move your mouse pointer over the double arrows at the bottom of the pull-down menu.

Notice that some menus have black arrows to the right. Slide your mouse pointer over the arrow to view more options. These are called cascading menus.

Challenge!

• Open Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 from the Start menu.
• Review the parts of the PowerPoint window.
• Familiarize yourself with the Task Pane. Click to see the other panes.
• Click on the menu bar and view pull-down menus.
• Click on the View Buttons.
• Click on the Outline tab and the Slides tab.
• Close PowerPoint and do not save anything you have done.