powerpoint presentation ribbon

Ribbon in PowerPoint [Everything You Need to Know!]

By: Author Shrot Katewa

If you use Microsoft PowerPoint even occasionally, one of the most common areas of the application that you will need to access is the Ribbon in PowerPoint! You may have heard the term “Ribbon” in PowerPoint, but what exactly does this mean?

The “Ribbon” in PowerPoint is a long strip at the top of the application screen that provides access to all the features and commands in PowerPoint. A ribbon contains elements such as tabs, groups, commands, more buttons, dropdowns, etc. that make it easy to find a command and complete a task.

It is easy to get confused between these elements on the ribbon. So, in this article, we shall understand the ribbon in PowerPoint in further detail. Plus, we shall also take a look at all the various elements that comprise a ribbon.

So, without further adieu, let’s get started!

1. What is a Ribbon in PowerPoint?

In Microsoft PowerPoint, the ribbon is basically is a set of tools that are arranged within groups in separate tabs.

Each tab contains several commands that are grouped according to their functions. There are various contents in the ribbon that expands when you click on the tab. This makes it quick and easy to remember and locate the command when needed.

The ribbon in PowerPoint also consists of other elements (which we shall discuss in detail in the next section).

For ease of use, PowerPoint also allows you to customize the ribbon.

2. Contents of a Ribbon

The Ribbon in Microsoft PowerPoint comprises various sets of commands. Each of these sets has a separate function and is arranged in a way that helps you to easily find the commands that you need.

The “Tabs” are a list of labels located at the top of the ribbon. Each label is called a “Tab” in PowerPoint and contains sets of tools to create and edit slides.

The tabs are arranged according to their functionality.

Contextual Tabs

The “Contextual Tab” is a special kind of tab within the ribbon. They only appear when a specific element is selected in a slide and contains commands to edit the selected element.

The “Shape Format” tab and the “Picture Format” tab are examples of contextual tabs.

The “Gallery” in a ribbon is a collection of styles or properties for elements like themes, shapes, pictures, etc. The galleries usually contain a dropdown pane of preview thumbnails.

In the ribbon area, each section of commands is considered a “Group” . The groups under each tab vary. Each group contains a set of related commands for ease of use.

The “Commands” in the ribbon are the clickable options. Each command will carry out a function related to creating and editing the slides.

So for instance, the “Font” group contains several individual commands such as bold, italics, choosing font type, color of the font and much more!

More Button

The “More” option in a ribbon is usually available in the galleries. You can click on the downward arrow with a line to access more items in a gallery.

The more button should not be confused with the “down arrow” as the two are slightly different in function.

The “Down Arrow” is available beside various commands in a ribbon. Clicking on the arrow will open a dropdown menu containing more specific commands.

Dialog Launcher

The “Dialog Launcher” in the ribbon is a small square box with an arrow inside it. It is located in the bottom right corner of various groups under each tab.

Click on the “Dialog Launcher” icon to open a dialog box with more advanced options in the group.

3. Tabs on a Ribbon

The tabs on a ribbon in Microsoft PowerPoint are labels that expand into groups of commands when you click on them. There are nine tabs available by default in a ribbon.

The “Home” tab in PowerPoint contains the most commonly used commands that you need to add, design, and organize slides. The “Slides” group contains the options to insert slides and alter the slide layouts.

The tab also holds the “Clipboard” group with the “Cut” and “Paste” functions, and the “Font” and the “Paragraph” group to edit the texts on a slide.

You can click on the “Insert” tab if you want to add something to a slide. In the “Insert” tab, you will find options to insert new slides , text boxes, pictures, tables, charts, shapes, links, and more.

In the “Design” tab, you can change and edit the theme using the “Themes” and “Variants” options respectively. You can also change the slide size and the background.

PowerPoint 2018 and later versions even include the “ Design Ideas ” button containing auto-generated designs for your slides.

Click on the “Transitions” tab to access different transition styles between each slide. You can also edit other transition settings like the duration, sound, etc.

Features available on this tab can help you to autoplay your PowerPoint presentations in a loo p if you need.

The “Animations” tab includes various styles for the objects inside a slide to enter and leave the presentation screen.

Click on the “Add Animation” button to access all the animations options. You can change the settings in the “Timing” group.

Using the “Slide Show” tab, you can edit and preview the settings for how you want to show the presentation to your audience.

You can rehearse the presentation, set up the slide show, screencast the slides, etc.

The “Review” tab is specially made for feedback on your presentation. You can leave comments , compare versions of the presentation , and proofread and translate the slides.

The “View” tab in PowerPoint allows you to access the various view options in your PowerPoint presentation .

In the “Presentation Views” group, you can access the “Outline” , “Slide Sorter” , “Notes” , “Reading” and “Slide Master” view.

Format Tab (Contextual Tab)

The format tab only appears when you select an object on the slide. The “Shape Format” tab appears when you select a shape or a text and allows you to format shapes in PowerPoint , whereas the “Picture Format” tab appears when you select a picture.

The commands in the tools tab vary and are specific to editing the selected object.

4. How to Hide or Collapse Ribbon in PowerPoint?

You can hide or show the PowerPoint ribbon on the screen the way you like it.

To show or hide the ribbon in PowerPoint, click on the downward-facing arrow from the bottom-right corner of the ribbon menu. This will open a dropdown menu.

• Click on “Full-screen mode” to completely hide the ribbon.
• You can also click on the “Show tabs only” to collapse the ribbon without fully hiding it. This mode will only show the tabs but no groups or commands will appear.
• To unhide the ribbon, click on the “Always show Ribbon” option.

5. How to Customize a Ribbon?

In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can personalize the ribbon menu the way you prefer. Click here to learn about all the specific features of the ribbon that you can customize.

To customize a ribbon, follow the below mentioned steps –

Step-1: Click on the “File” tab

The first step is to open the “File” menu. To do so, you have to first click on the “File” tab which is the first tab in the default ribbon menu in PowerPoint. In the “File” menu, click on “Options” .

Step-2: Click on the “Customize Ribbon” option

Clicking on the “Options” option from the sidebar in the “File” menu will open the “PowerPoint Options” dialog box. In the sidebar on the left of the dialog box, click on the “Customize Ribbon” option.

Step-3: Personalize the ribbon

Now you can customize the ribbon. In the left column of the dialog box, you can click on the “Choose commands from” box and select which commands to add or remove from the ribbon.

Here’s what you need to do –

• Choose the set of commands. If you wish to add commands that currently do not exist on the ribbon, click on the “commands not in the ribbon” option from the dropdown.
• Next, select tab on the right on which you wish to add the command.
• Now, select the specific command from the left part of the list.
• Now, click on the “Add” option. This will become clickable once you select a specific command from the left part of the screen.
• Once you are done, click on “OK” to close the dialog box. You can also choose to remove a command from the existing tabs.

Furthermore, in the right column of the dialog box, you can click on the “Customize the Ribbon” box to add, remove and rearrange the tabs in the menu ribbon.

Finally, you can also create a new “Custom” tab that contains custom commands.

6. Ribbon Disappeared or Not Showing? Here’s What to Do!

If the ribbon has completely disappeared from your Microsoft PowerPoint window, it is because the ribbon is set to “Full-screen mode” .

To fix the problem, all you have to do is follow the 2 simple steps.

Step-1: Click on the “More” icon

To make the ribbon temporarily visible, you have to click on the “More” icon. It looks like three horizontal dots and is located on the right corner at the very top of the screen.

Step-2: Click on the “Always show Ribbon” option

Now all you have to do is make the ribbon permanently visible. To do so, click on the downward pointing arrow that is located in the right corner at the bottom of the menu ribbon.

This will open a dropdown menu. Click on the “Always show Ribbon” option.

Credit to drobotdean (on Freepik) for the featured image of this article (further edited).

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What Is the Ribbon in PowerPoint?

The ribbon consists of tabs that group tools and features

• Brock University

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.

Information in this article applies to PowerPoint 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010; PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, and PowerPoint Online.

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.

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• Interface and Basics

Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint 365 for Windows

Learn about Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint 365 for Windows. There are so many interface elements within the Ribbon and its Tabs.

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: PowerPoint 365 for Windows

OS: Microsoft Windows 10 and higher

Date Created: June 26, 2019 Last Updated: September 11, 2023

Learn PowerPoint

Explore how they are different: PPT vs. PPS (or PPTX vs. PPSX)

The Ribbon Ribbon Contents

The Ribbon is the long strip comprising tabs with buttons across the top of the main window within the PowerPoint 365 interface. The Ribbon contains almost all the commands you need to work with your slides, and is designed in a way that helps you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task.

However, PowerPoint does have a single menu, called the File Menu . There’s also a single, customizable toolbar called the Quick Access Toolbar . All the other commands are found in the various tabs of the Ribbon within the interface . The Ribbon has several tabs, each named as you can see in Figure 1 .

Collapse the Ribbon?

If you want more screen estate for a while, you can quickly hide the entire Ribbon while still showing just the tabs by pressing Ctrl + F1 keyboard shortcut. Press Ctrl + F1 again to bring back the Ribbon – or alternatively, just double-click any of the visible tabs.

PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

Do you want more keyboard shortcuts?

Explore our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Sequences Ebook that is updated for all PowerPoint versions.

Ribbon Content

The Ribbon contains many interface elements that are explained below:

• Tabs: The Ribbon contains fixed tabs such as Home , Insert , Design , etc. Each tab contains sets of tools to create and edit slides. Other than these visible tabs, there is a hidden tab called the Developer tab that you can easily enable , you can easily enable this tab.
• Contextual Tabs: These tabs are special tabs within the Ribbon that are not visible all the time. They only make an appearance when you are working with a particular slide object which can be edited using special options. Figure 2 shows the Drawing Tools Format tab (highlighted in red ) which is only activated when a shape or another drawing object is selected on the slide.

• Group: A group of related tools within a tab is known as a Group . Figure 3 shows the Shape Styles group within the Drawing Tools Format tab.

• A Gallery is a collection of styles or properties. Most galleries can be seen as drop-down galleries as shown in Figure 4 . To access the drop-down galleries, you click the More button (explained in the next point). Figure 4 shows the Shape Styles gallery. All available styles can be seen as small preview thumbnails.

• The More button expands to a gallery within a Ribbon tab so that all or more options can be seen. Figure 5 shows you the More button for the Shape Styles gallery (highlighted in red ). The two arrow buttons above the More button are used to scroll inside the gallery without expanding it (or even after expanding it if the gallery has too many options).

• The Down Arrow is a small downward pointing triangle that's placed next to many buttons. When clicked, this displays a gallery or an additional options/sub-menu related to the selected button. You can see the Down Arrow (highlighted in red ) next to the Shape Fill option in Figure 6 .

• Dialog Launcher (highlighted in red within Figure 7 ) is a small square with an arrow in the lower right corner of several Groups within the Ribbon tabs. Figure 7 below shows the dialog launcher within the Shape Styles group. As the name explains, a dialog launcher, when clicked summons a dialog box with more advanced options.

01 05 03 - Interface Overview: Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint (Glossary Page)

Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint 365 for Mac Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint 2019 for Windows Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint for iOS – iPad Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint for the Web

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PowerPoint 2016 and 2019 cheat sheet: Ribbon quick reference

Our visual guide helps you find the most useful commands on the ribbon in powerpoint 2016 and 2019 for windows, along with keyboard shortcuts for performing each action..

This download accompanies our story PowerPoint 2016 and 2019 cheat sheet . See that article for detailed information on how to get the most out of PowerPoint 2016 and 2019 for Windows.

For the most part, the Ribbon interface in PowerPoint 2016 and 2019 is intuitive to use. It’s divided into a series of tabs that group related commands together. Since it’s always present at the top of your screen, the Ribbon puts a wealth of commands in easy reach at all times.

But with so many tabs and so many commands, it’s not always obvious where to go to perform a given action. To help, we’ve compiled a guide that shows each Ribbon tab, explains what it’s for and highlights its most commonly used commands. And for those of you who don’t like to take your hands from the keys to point and click, we’ve included keyboard shortcuts for all the actions.

For instance, if you want to choose a theme for your presentation, you’d go to the Design tab and scroll through the options in the Themes group, or press Alt-G and then H. To insert a slide, go to the Insert group and click New Slide in the Slides group, or press Alt-N, then S and I.

Keep this reference guide handy so you’ll always know where to find the commands you need.

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Preston Gralla is a contributing editor for Computerworld , a blogger for ITworld, and the author of more than 45 books, including NOOK Tablet: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly 2012) and How the Internet Works (Que, 2006).

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How to customize the PowerPoint Ribbon?

• October 7, 2021

Do you want to customize a tab on the Ribbon in PowerPoint? Perhaps you want to add a feature to a PowerPoint tab that you use frequently? Yes, you can customize the PowerPoint Ribbon and it’s pretty easy. This guide includes an overview of the PowerPoint Ribbon as well as the list of steps to customize the PowerPoint Ribbon to display or remove PowerPoint features.

What is the PowerPoint Ribbon?

The PowerPoint Ribbon is the banner that runs across the top of your screen in PowerPoint. Across the top of the Ribbon in PowerPoint there is a series of tabs (for example the File tab, the Home tab, the Insert tab etc). When you click one of these tabs, the Ribbon displays the set of features specific to that tab. For example there is also a Draw tab, a Transitions tab. When you move from one tab to another, different functions are shown on the Ribbon. In addition, as you do specific activities in PowerPoint additional tabs may become available on the Ribbon. For example when you insert a table into a PowerPoint Slide, the Table Design and Layout tabs appear on the Ribbon. These Tabs will only display on the Ribbon when you are inserting a PowerPoint Table or once you return to and select the Table for editing. Similarly, if you use a PowerPoint add-in (aka PowerPoint plug in or PowerPoint addon), these typically trigger one or more additional tabs to display on the PowerPoint Ribbon

The screenshot below is an example of how the PowerPoint Ribbon displays. In the first screenshot below there is a blue callout around the PowerPoint Ribbon. An orange callout shows an example of a Tab (in this case, the Design tab). The green callout shows the PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar aka QAT (which will show different features based on what you have added to your QAT). In the second screenshot you can see the PowerPoint Ribbon with the PPT Productivity tab selected (PPT Productivity is an add-in for PowerPoint, when installed it behaves as a new tab on the ribbon plus side toolbars). As shown in the screenshot, when you click on the PPT Productivity tab, the PowerPoint Ribbon reveals the features/ functions specific to PPT Productivity. Clicking on another tab would hide these features and instead display the features of the tab selected.

Why customize the PowerPoint Ribbon?

Customizing the ribbon in PowerPoint makes it faster to access your favorite or most used PowerPoint features, rather than switching tabs to find your favorite functions.  

PPT Productivity add-in for PowerPoint has already exposed popular features in PowerPoint to the PPT Productivity ribbon or sidebars. However, there still may be a few of your favorite functions that you would like to access from the ribbon that are not already included on the PPT Productivity tab by default.

Customizing tabs on the ribbon is not limited to the PPT Productivity tab - you can also customize any of the tabs on the PowerPoint ribbon to add more features. Adding features to another ribbon will not remove the feature from its original location - it simply creates an extra way to access the feature.

How do I customize the PowerPoint Ribbon?

You can customize a PowerPoint Ribbon to include functions available on other PowerPoint tabs, or to remove functions that you do not use. Why remove features from the PowerPoint Ribbon? Removing features you do not frequently use makes more space available on the ribbon to add other features.  

For example, here’s how to add or remove a function from the PPT Productivity tab on the PowerPoint Ribbon. You can use the same method on any of the Ribbon tabs in PowerPoint.

To add a new function to the Ribbon on the PPT Productivity tab, you first need to create a new group. To do this, navigate to the PPT Productivity tab, then follow the steps and illustrations below

• Right mouse click on the ribbon and select customize the ribbon

• The ‘Customize the Ribbon’ menu will open. Select ‘All Tabs’ (Shown in screenshot below with #1) from the dropdown menu. Then highlight PPT Productivity (Shown in screenshot below with #2)
• With PPT Productivity selected, click on New Group (Shown in screenshot below with #3) at the bottom of the right-hand side menu.

• ‘New Group (Custom)’ will now appear on the list of groups featured on the PPT Productivity tab (indicated with #4 in the illustration). You can update the name according to your preferences.
• Now simply go through the list of functions from other tabs you want to add to the PPT Productivity tab, and click ‘Add’ (indicated with #5)
• Once you have added all required functions click ok (indicated with #6).
• Your new group with your customized feature set will appear now on the PowerPoint Ribbon. In our example screenshot below, we've added the Preview, Spelling and Insert Pictures functions to the PPT Productivity Ribbon.
• Similarly, to remove a feature from the Ribbon, select 'Customize the Ribbon', select 'All Tabs; and then select the Tab with the relevant feature. Select the specific feature you want to remove and select the Remove button.

Can I remove feature groups from the PowerPoint Ribbon?

You can remove groups of functions from the PowerPoint ribbon by following the same steps that you follow to add functions to the Ribbon.

• To remove function groups from the PowerPoint Ribbon, right mouse click anywhere on the Ribbon and select 'customize the ribbon'.
• From the ‘Customize the Ribbon’ menu, select which tab you would like to remove functions from, select the functions you would like to remove, click 'Remove'.
• Once you have removed all the functions you do not require on the selected tab, click ‘ok’
• The groups you have removed from the Ribbon will no longer appear on the tab.

How can I undo PowerPoint Ribbon customizations?

If you decide you would like to restore the PowerPoint Ribbon to it's original layout, you can reset the Ribbon.

To reset or undo the customizations you made to your PowerPoint Ribbon, right mouse click on the Ribbon and select the ‘Customize the Ribbon’ menu option.

• At the bottom of the ‘Customize the Ribbon’ menu click on the ‘Reset’ dropdown (refer to the screenshot below).
• Select either to ‘Reset only selected Ribbon tab’ to reset to default settings the tab you currently have selected, or ‘Reset all customizations’ to reset all PowerPoint Ribbon features back to the default settings across all tabs
• Click 'ok'. Your PowerPoint Ribbon will now be reset back to the default settings.

Customizing the PowerPoint Ribbon vs Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)

The QAT for PowerPoint is a separate, thin, toolbar that sits either above or below the PowerPoint Ribbon. Features on the QAT can be viewed and accessed irrespective of which tab is displayed in PowerPoint. You can customize the QAT as well as or instead of customizing the Ribbon in PowerPoint. Learn more about the PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar .

Can I set up more shortcut keys for PowerPoint features instead of customizing the PowerPoint ribbon?

Yes you can! Although PowerPoint only offers shortcut keys for a subset of PowerPoint features, PPT Productivity lets you create shortcuts for more than 800 PowerPoint features using the PPT Productivity Shortcut Key feature.

If you're a PPT Productivity user, What new features would you like to see in PPT Productivity? Let us know.

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Jump Start: How to Use PowerPoint Ribbon Menu - Tutorial Office 365

About this lesson, powerpoint commands can look confusing.

All of the power of PowerPoint is controlled by the Ribbon menu tool. If you can master the Ribbon, you can control PowerPoint.

How To Take Control of the PowerPoint Ribbon menu (And All Office Programs)

A tutorial on using the Powerpoint Ribbon menu bar. Covering: Ribbon Tabs, Contextual Menu Tabs, In-Ribbon Galleries Dialog Box Launcher.

This training session is taught using PowerPoint Office 365 but it is applicable to all versions from Office 2013 and above.

As a bonus, these techniques also apply to Word and Excel.

Part of the Power UP! Training Jump Start Series that covers the most important items on fundamental skills needed to run PowerPoint.

Below are the topics categories in the video, with the chapter start location:

Intro: 00:00

Introducing The PowerPoint Ribbon Menu: 0:34

What to do if the Ribbon is Not Showing: 0:53

Tour of the Tool Tabs: 1:07

Action Icons gathered in GROUPS: 1:54

What is the In-Ribbon Gallery: 2:29

How to see ALL THE COMMANDS: the Dialog Box Launcher: 2:54

Where are the missing menus and why do they sometimes show up: Contextual Tab Menus: 3:24

Wrap-Up 4:51

Subject Microsoft PowerPoint

Software Compatibility All versions of PowerPoint from PowerPoint 2013 up to latest Office 365

Course Completed

PDF Files DOWNLOAD THE LESSON MATERIALS

TRAINING SERIES VIEW ALL

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“How to use PowerPoint Ribbon Menu” Transcript from Video

Part of the Power UP Training Jump Start Series to better understand the fundamentals of Microsoft Office.

Hi, this is Les McCarter from Power Up Training where my decades of experience becomes your expertise for free.

In this All About the Office Ribbon menu, we will cover the following components. While we will be working in the latest Office 365, the concepts are true going back to Office 2013.

So let’s power-up.

All of the Office programs use a similar menuing system (except for Microsoft outlook, which is its own beast). You can run EVERYTHING about PowerPoint from the Office TABBED RIBBON. that is at the top of your screen

IF it is not showing, then look in the top right corner of PowerPOint for the small Up Arrow in a BOX, CLICK and select SHOW TABS AND COMMANDS.

SLIDE Within the RIBBON MENU are the specific TOOL TABS. Each tab is a collection of related commands shown as icons. Click on different TABS for different action icons.

As I explained earlier, each tab menu groups similar action icons together with the most commonly used TAB MENUs located on the left. The HOME tab has the most common commands grouped together.

These collections change as you select the tab.

SLIDE So the TAB menus bring together related action icons, they are further grouped together in the concept called, not surprisingly, GROUPS. See the FONT group with all the related font enhancements in one location to work from.

slide There is one TAB MENU that works differently. The FILE tab menu. Instead of showing individual action icons, it shows an integrated set of commands and location screens for saving, renaming and opening files.

SLIDE Just as there are special tabs, there are also special group styles inside of the tab menus. One type is called the In-Ribbon Gallery that shows up on several menus. They are not technically action icons but instead a gallery of design choices that make it easy to preview different looks. These will be found in the DESIGN, Transition, and Animation TABE menus

Microsoft does a great job of exposing the most common action icon commands via the RIBBON MENU system, but there are more advanced commands tht don’t fit on the ribbon.

To get access to these commands, you need to locate the appropriate related group The click the down arrow DIALOG BOX Launcher to expand out the additional commands. Here is an example of the expanding out the FONT group to see more formatting choices.

SLIDE For my more eagle-eyed viewers, you may have seen some mysterious menus come and go. These are the specialized CONTEXURAL TAB menus. They show up only when you select a specific type of element on your slide. Such as the GRAPH menus . . . and this is great, why distract you with a GRAPH menu if you are not working on graphs in your powerpower point presentation.

Instead, click the item and the related contextual menu pops up.

Let me demonstrate how different contextural menus pop up with new command icons based on the object.

Let’s start with a click on the phone and see the PICTURE FORMAT MENU appear.

With that, we have just covered all you need to know about the PowerPoint Ribbon menu.

Your next steps: Please subscribe to our Power UP Training YouTube channel. It helps support our program. And if you liked this video, give me a thumbs up. Thumbs up ratings encourage me to make more free videos for you.

Got questions or requests for new training videos; leave them in the comments below.

And check our website or youtube channel for more Microsoft office training videos.

Until then go powerup

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The Ribbon – Microsoft PowerPoint Shortcuts

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The ribbon, which is located at the top of Microsoft PowerPoint, includes tabs that can be accessed to control various aspects of your work within PowerPoint.

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Presentation Design
• January 22, 2024

In this beginner’s guide, you will learn step-by-step how to make a PowerPoint presentation from scratch.

While PowerPoint is designed to be intuitive and accessible, it can be overwhelming if you’ve never gotten any training on it before. As you progress through this guide, you’ll will learn how to move from blank slides to PowerPoint slides that look like these.

Table of Contents

Additionally, as you create your presentation, you’ll also learn tricks for working more efficiently in PowerPoint, including how to:

• Change the slide order
• Reset your layout
• Change the slide dimensions
• Use PowerPoint Designer
• Format text
• Format objects
• Play a presentation (slide show)

With this knowledge under your belt, you’ll be ready to start creating PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, you’ll have taken your skills from beginner to proficient in no time at all. I will also include links to more advanced PowerPoint topics.

Ready to start learning how to make a PowerPoint presentation?

Take your PPT skills to the next level

Start with a blank presentation.

Note: Before you open PowerPoint and start creating your presentation, make sure you’ve collected your thoughts. If you’re going to make your slides compelling, you need to spend some time brainstorming.

For help with this, see our article with tips for nailing your business presentation  here .

The first thing you’ll need to do is to open PowerPoint. When you do, you are shown the Start Menu , with the Home tab open.

This is where you can choose either a blank theme (1) or a pre-built theme (2). You can also choose to open an existing presentation (3).

For now, go ahead and click on the  Blank Presentation (1)  thumbnail.

Doing so launches a brand new and blank presentation for you to work with. Before you start adding content to your presentation, let’s first familiarize ourselves with the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint interface

Here is how the program is laid out:

• The Application Header
• The Ribbon (including the Ribbon tabs)
• The Quick Access Toolbar (either above or below the Ribbon)
• The Slides Pane (slide thumbnails)

The Slide Area

The notes pane.

• The Status Bar (including the View Buttons)

Each one of these areas has options for viewing certain parts of the PowerPoint environment and formatting your presentation.

Below are the important things to know about certain elements of the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint Ribbon

The Ribbon is contextual. That means that it will adapt to what you’re doing in the program.

For example, the Font, Paragraph and Drawing options are greyed out until you select something that has text in it, as in the example below (A).

Furthermore, if you start manipulating certain objects, the Ribbon will display additional tabs, as seen above (B), with more commands and features to help you work with those objects. The following objects have their own additional tabs in the Ribbon which are hidden until you select them:

• Online Pictures
• Screenshots
• Screen Recording

The Slides Pane

This is where you can preview and rearrange all the slides in your presentation.

Right-clicking on a slide  in the pane gives you additional options on the slide level that you won’t find on the Ribbon, such as  Duplicate Slide ,  Delete Slide , and  Hide Slide .

In addition, you can add sections to your presentation by  right-clicking anywhere in this Pane  and selecting  Add Section . Sections are extremely helpful in large presentations, as they allow you to organize your slides into chunks that you can then rearrange, print or display differently from other slides.

The Slide Area (A) is where you will build out your slides. Anything within the bounds of this area will be visible when you present or print your presentation.

Anything outside of this area (B) will be hidden from view. This means that you can place things here, such as instructions for each slide, without worrying about them being shown to your audience.

The  Notes Pane  is the space beneath the Slide Area where you can type in the speaker notes for each slide. It’s designed as a fast way to add and edit your slides’ talking points.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about adding, printing, and exporting your PowerPoint speaker notes, read our guide here .

Your speaker notes are visible when you print your slides using the Notes Pages option and when you use the Presenter View . To expand your knowledge and learn the ins and outs of using the Presenter View , read our guide here .

You can resize the  Notes Pane  by clicking on its edge and dragging it up or down (A). You can also minimize or reopen it by clicking on the Notes button in the Status Bar (B).

Note:  Not all text formatting displays in the Notes Pane, even though it will show up when printing your speaker notes. To learn more about printing PowerPoint with notes, read our guide here .

Now that you have a basic grasp of the PowerPoint interface at your disposal, it’s time to make your presentation.

Adding Content to Your PowerPoint Presentation

Notice that in the Slide Area , there are two rectangles with dotted outlines. These are called  Placeholders  and they’re set on the template in the Slide Master View .

To expand your knowledge and learn how to create a PowerPoint template of your own (which is no small task), read our guide here .

As the prompt text suggests, you can click into each placeholder and start typing text. These types of placeholder prompts are customizable too. That means that if you are using a company template, it might say something different, but the functionality is the same.

Note:  For the purposes of this example, I will create a presentation based on the content in the Starbucks 2018 Global Social Impact Report, which is available to the public on their website.

If you type in more text than there is room for, PowerPoint will automatically reduce its font size. You can stop this behavior by clicking on the  Autofit Options  icon to the left of the placeholder and selecting  Stop Fitting Text to this Placeholder .

Next, you can make formatting adjustments to your text by selecting the commands in the Font area and the  Paragraph area  of the  Home  tab of the Ribbon.

The Reset Command:  If you make any changes to your title and decide you want to go back to how it was originally, you can use the Reset button up in the Home tab .

Insert More Slides into Your Presentation

Now that you have your title slide filled in, it’s time to add more slides. To do that, simply go up to the  Home tab  and click on  New Slide . This inserts a new slide in your presentation right after the one you were on.

You can alternatively hit Ctrl+M on your keyboard to insert a new blank slide in PowerPoint. To learn more about this shortcut, see my guide on using Ctrl+M in PowerPoint .

Instead of clicking the New Slide command, you can also open the New Slide dropdown to see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template. Depending on who created your template, your layouts in this dropdown can be radically different.

If you insert a layout and later want to change it to a different layout, you can use the Layout dropdown instead of the New Slide dropdown.

After inserting a few different slide layouts, your presentation might look like the following picture. Don’t worry that it looks blank, next we will start adding content to your presentation.

If you want to follow along exactly with me, your five slides should be as follows:

• Title Slide
• Title and Content
• Section Header
• Two Content
• Picture with Caption

Adding Content to Your Slides

Now let’s go into each slide and start adding our content. You’ll notice some new types of placeholders.

On slide 2 we have a  Content Placeholder , which allows you to add any kind of content. That includes:

• A SmartArt graphic,
• A 3D object,
• A picture from the web,
• Or an icon.

To insert text, simply type it in or hit  Ctrl+C to Copy  and Ctrl+V to Paste  from elsewhere. To insert any of the other objects, click on the appropriate icon and follow the steps to insert it.

For my example, I’ll simply type in some text as you can see in the picture below.

Slides 3 and 4 only have text placeholders, so I’ll go ahead and add in my text into each one.

On slide 5 we have a Picture Placeholder . That means that the only elements that can go into it are:

• A picture from the web

To insert a picture into the picture placeholder, simply:

• Click on the  Picture  icon
• Find  a picture on your computer and select it
• Click on  Insert

Alternatively, if you already have a picture open somewhere else, you can select the placeholder and paste in (shortcut: Ctrl+V ) the picture. You can also drag the picture in from a file explorer window.

If you do not like the background of the picture you inserted onto your slide, you can remove the background here in PowerPoint. To see how to do this, read my guide here .

Placeholders aren’t the only way to add content to your slides. At any point, you can use the Insert tab to add elements to your slides.

You can use either the Title Only  or the  Blank  slide layout to create slides for content that’s different. For example, a three-layout content slide, or a single picture divider slide, as shown below.

In the first example above, I’ve inserted 6 text boxes, 3 icons, and 3 circles to create this layout. In the second example, I’ve inserted a full-sized picture and then 2 shapes and 2 text boxes.

The Reset Command:  Because these slides are built with shapes and text boxes (and not placeholders), hitting the  Reset button up in the  Home tab  won’t do anything.

That is a good thing if you don’t want your layouts to adjust. However, it does mean that it falls on you to make sure everything is aligned and positioned correctly.

For more on how to add and manipulate the different objects in PowerPoint, check out our step-by-step articles here:

• Using graphics in PowerPoint
• Inserting icons onto slides
• Adding pictures to your PowerPoint
• How to embed a video in PowerPoint
• How to add music to your presentation

Using Designer to generate more layouts ideas

If you have Office 365, your version of PowerPoint comes with a new feature called Designer (or Design Ideas). This is a feature that generates slide layout ideas for you. The coolest thing about this feature is that it uses the content you already have.

To use Designer , simply navigate to the  Design tab  in your Ribbon, and click on  Design Ideas .

NOTE: If the PowerPoint Designer is not working for you (it is grey out), see my troubleshooting guide for Designer .

Change the Overall Design (optional)

When you make a PowerPoint presentation, you’ll want to think about the overall design. Now that you have some content in your presentation, you can use the Design tab to change the look and feel of your slides.

For additional help thinking through the design of your presentation,  read my guide here .

A. Picking your PowerPoint slide size

If you have PowerPoint 2013 or later, when you create a blank document in PowerPoint, you automatically start with a widescreen layout with a 16:9 ratio. These dimensions are suitable for most presentations as they match the screens of most computers and projectors.

However, you do have the option to change the dimensions.

For example, your presentation might not be presented, but instead converted into a PDF or printed and distributed. In that case, you can easily switch to the standard dimensions with a 4:3 ratio by selecting from the dropdown (A).

You can also choose a custom slide size or change the slide orientation from landscape to portrait in the Custom Slide Size dialog box (B).

To learn all about the different PowerPoint slide sizes, and some of the issues you will face when changing the slide size of a non-blank presentation,  read my guide here .

 B. Selecting a PowerPoint theme

The next thing you can do is change the theme of your presentation to a pre-built one. For a detailed explanation of what a PowerPoint theme is, and how to best use it,  read my article here .

In the beginning of this tutorial, we started with a blank presentation, which uses the default Office theme as you can see in the picture below.

That gives you the most flexibility because it has a blank background and quite simple layouts that work for most presentations. However, it also means that it’s your responsibility to enhance the design.

If you’re comfortable with this, you can stay with the default theme or create your own custom theme ( read my guide here ). But if you would rather not have to think about design, then you can choose a pre-designed theme.

Microsoft provides 46 other pre-built themes, which include slide layouts, color variants and palettes, and fonts. Each one varies quite significantly, so make sure you look through them carefully.

To select a different theme, go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon, and click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Themes section .

For this tutorial, let’s select the  Frame  theme and then choose the third Variant in the theme. Doing so changes the layout, colors, and fonts of your presentation.

Note: The theme dropdown area is also where you can import or save custom themes. To see my favorite places to find professional PowerPoint templates and themes (and recommendations for why I like them), read my guide here .

C. How to change a slide background in PowerPoint

The next thing to decide is how you want your background to look for the entire presentation. In the  Variants area, you can see four background options.

For this example, we want our presentation to have a dark background, so let’s select Style 3. When you do so, you’ll notice that:

• The background color automatically changes across all slides
• The color of the text on most of the slides automatically changes to white so that it’s visible on the dark background
• The colors of the objects on slides #6 and #7 also adjust, in a way we may not want (we’ll likely have to make some manual adjustments to these slides)

Note: If you want to change the slide background for just that one slide, don’t left-click the style. Instead, right-click it and select Apply to Selected Slides .

After you change the background for your entire presentation, you can easily adjust the background for an individual slide.

Inside the Format Background pane, you can see you have the following options:

• Gradient fill
• Picture or texture fill
• Pattern fill
• Hide background

You can explore these options to find the PowerPoint background that best fits your presentation.

D. How to change your color palette in PowerPoint

Another thing you may want to adjust in your presentation, is the color scheme. In the picture below you can see the Theme Colors we are currently using for this presentation.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own color palette. By default, the Office theme includes the Office color palette. This affects the colors you are presented with when you format any element within your presentation (text, shapes, SmartArt, etc.).

The good news is that the colors here are easy to change. To switch color palettes, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab in the Ribbon
• In the Variants area, click on the  dropdown arrow  and select  Colors
• Select  the color palette (or theme colors) you want

You can choose among the pre-built color palettes from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

As you build your presentation, make sure you use the colors from your theme to format objects. That way, changing the color palette adjusts all the colors in your presentation automatically.

E. How to change your fonts in PowerPoint

Just as we changed the color palette, you can do the same for the fonts.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own font combination. By default, the Office theme includes the Office font pairing. This affects the fonts that are automatically assigned to all text in your presentation.

The good news is that the font pairings are easy to change. To switch your Theme Fonts, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Variants  area
• Select  Fonts
• Select  the font pairing you want

You can choose among the pre-built fonts from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

If you are working with PowerPoint presentations on both Mac and PC computers, make sure you choose a safe PowerPoint font. To see a list of the safest PowerPoint fonts, read our guide here .

If you receive a PowerPoint presentation and the wrong fonts were used, you can use the Replace Fonts dialog box to change the fonts across your entire presentation. For details, read our guide here .

Adding Animations & Transitions (optional)

The final step to make a PowerPoint presentation compelling, is to consider using animations and transitions. These are by no means necessary to a good presentation, but they may be helpful in your situation.

A. Adding PowerPoint animations

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust animations engine designed to power your creativity. That being said, it’s also easy to get started with basic animations.

Animations are movements that you can apply to individual objects on your slide.

To add a PowerPoint animation to an element of your slide, simply:

• Select the  element
• Go to the  Animations tab in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  animation  you want

You can add animations to multiple objects at one time by selecting them all first and then applying the animation.

B. How to preview a PowerPoint animation

There are three ways to preview a PowerPoint animation:

• Click on the Preview button in the Animations tab
• Click on the little star  next to the slide
• Play the slide in Slide Show Mode

To learn other ways to run your slide show, see our guide on presenting a PowerPoint slide show with shortcuts .

To adjust the settings of your animations, explore the options in the  Effect Options ,  Advanced Animation  and the  Timing  areas of the  Animation tab .

Note:  To see how to make objects appear and disappear in your slides by clicking a button,  read our guide here .

C. How to manage your animations in PowerPoint

The best way to manage lots of animations on your slide is with the Animation Pane . To open it, simply:

• Navigate to the  Animations tab
• Select the  Animation Pane

Inside the Animation Pane, you’ll see all of the different animations that have been applied to objects on your slide, with their numbers marked as pictured above.

Note: To see examples of PowerPoint animations that can use in PowerPoint, see our list of PowerPoint animation tutorials here .

D. How to add transitions to your PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust transition engine so that you can dictate how your slides change from one to the other. It is also extremely easy to add transitions to your slides.

In PowerPoint, transitions are the movements (or effects) you see as you move between two slides.

To add a transition to a PowerPoint slide, simply:

• Select the  slide
• Go to the  Transitions tab in the Ribbon
• In the Transitions to This Slide area, click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  transition  you want

To adjust the settings of the transition, explore the options in the  Timing  area of the Transitions tab.

You can also add the same transition to multiple slides. To do that, select them in the  Slides Pane  and apply the transition.

E. How to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview your PowerPoint transitions (just like your animations):

• Click on the Preview  button in the Transitions tab
• Click on the little star  beneath the slide number in the thumbnail view

Note:  In 2016, PowerPoint added a cool new transition, called Morph. It operates a bit differently from other transitions. For a detailed tutorial on how to use the cool Morph transition,  see our step-by-step article here .

Save Your PowerPoint Presentation

After you’ve built your presentation and made all the adjustments to your slides, you’ll want to save your presentation. YOu can do this several different ways.

To save a PowerPoint presentation using your Ribbon, simply:

• Navigate to the  File tab
•  Select  Save As  on the left
• Choose  where you want to save your presentation
• Name  your presentation and/or adjust your file type settings
• Click  Save

You can alternatively use the  Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut to save your presentation. I recommend using this shortcut frequently as you build your presentation to make sure you don’t lose any of your work.

This is the standard way to save a presentation. However, there may be a situation where you want to save your presentation as a different file type.

To learn how to save your presentation as a PDF, see our guide on converting PowerPoint to a PDF .

How to save your PowerPoint presentation as a template

Once you’ve created a presentation that you like, you may want to turn it into a template. The easiest – but not technically correct – way, is to simply create a copy of your current presentation and then change the content.

But be careful! A PowerPoint template is a special type of document and it has its own parameters and behaviors.

If you’re interested in learning about how to create your own PowerPoint template from scratch, see our guide on how to create a PowerPoint template .

Printing Your PowerPoint Presentation

After finishing your PowerPoint presentation, you may want to print it out on paper. Printing your slides is relatively easy.

To open the Print dialog box, you can either:

• Hit Ctrl+P on your keyboard
• Or go to the Ribbon and click on File and then Print

Inside the Print dialog box, you can choose from the various printing settings:

• Printer: Select a printer to use (or print to PDF or OneNote)
• Slides: Choose which slides you want to print
• Layout: Determine how many slides you want per page (this is where you can print the notes, outline, and handouts)
• Collated or uncollated (learn what collated printing means here )
• Color: Choose to print in color, grayscale or black & white

There are many more options for printing your PowerPoint presentations. Here are links to more in-depth articles:

• How to print multiple slides per page
• How to print your speaker notes in PowerPoint
• How to save PowerPoint as a picture presentation

So that’s how to create a PowerPoint presentation if you are brand new to it. We’ve also included a ton of links to helpful resources to boost your PowerPoint skills further.

When you are creating your presentation, it is critical to first focus on the content (what you are trying to say) before getting lost inserting and playing with elements. The clearer you are on what you want to present, the easier it will be to build it out in PowerPoint.

If you enjoyed this article, you can learn more about our PowerPoint training courses and other presentation resources by  visiting us here .

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April 9, 2024

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Power Point ribbon is too large how do I resize it

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• Microsoft Agent |

To better understand your situation, would you please share the screenshot of the ribbon?

You can go to Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Display to change the text size.

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

Partner Center

Show or hide the ribbon in PowerPoint on a mobile device

The ribbon shows the actions available on each tab on your screen. While the ribbon is very useful when you are editing your presentation, you might want to minimize or hide the ribbon to increase screen space when you are reading or reviewing it.

On your Android tablet or phone

On an Android tablet, you can show or hide the ribbon by tapping the up and down arrows.

On your iPad or iPhone

To show or hide the ribbon on an iPad, tap any tab (for example, tap Home ).

On your Windows tablet or phone

To show or hide the ribbon on a Windows tablet when you're editing, tap any tab (for example, tap Home ).

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