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Introducing the Task Pane
How the Task Pane works

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Introducing the Task Pane

The Task Pane is a docked window within the PowerPoint 2010 interface that provides more options than normal dialog boxes -- also unlike most dialog boxes, you can view both the active slide(s) and the Task Pane at the same time -- thus the task panes provide a more streamlined workflow.

Task Panes made their debut with PowerPoint 2002 (XP) -- and for most of the time, they work in exactly the same way in PowerPoint 2010 except for one big difference -- you can now have more than one Task Pane visible at the same time.

Usually, the Task Pane is docked on the right side of the interface without covering the slide area. Also, the Task Pane is not visible all the time -- it appears only if you select Task Pane options like Clip Art, Research, Selection and Visibility, etc.

Figure 1 shows the PowerPoint 2010 interface without any Task Pane. Later in this page, I'll show you how you can summon the Task Pane.


Figure 1: PowerPoint 2010 interface

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How the Task Pane Works

To make the Task Pane visible, follow these steps:

1. Open any presentation in PowerPoint 2010.
   
   
2. Choose the Insert tab of the Ribbon and then click the Clip Art button from the Images group, as shown in Figure 2.
   
   
   Figure 2: Clip Art
   
   
3. This brings up the Clip Art Task Pane that you can see in Figure 3 (highlighted in red) -- on the right side of the PowerPoint interface.
   
   
   Figure 3: Clip Art Task Pane
   
   
   
   Tip - You can drag the Task Pane anywhere you want -- this works great if you have a dual monitor set up -- in that case, drag the Task pane to the other monitor so that you have a larger area for your slide.

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