PowerPoint 2013 Interface
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version:
Microsoft PowerPoint 2013
OS: Windows 7 and 8
Excerpt/Capsule: A quick walkthrough of the PowerPoint 2013 interface reveals some new features.
Here's a quick walkthrough of the PowerPoint 2013 interface -- the PowerPoint 2013 interface is quite similar, yet somewhat different than the interface of PowerPoint 2010. The biggest change is that PowerPoint 2013's interface is primed for use also on tablets, touch-screens, and phones (other than conventional desktops). Thus, you can swipe and tap your way through a presentation -- and also make several edits without the need of a cursor.
Instead of opening with a blank presentation, PowerPoint 2013 opens a Presentation gallery as shown in
Figure 1. The Presentation gallery provides several ways to start your next presentation
using a template, a Theme, a recent presentation, a not-so-recent presentation, or even a blank presentation.
Once you make choices in this Presentation gallery, you see the actual PowerPoint interface.
Figure 1: PowerPoint 2013 Presentation gallery
A quick walkthrough of the PowerPoint 2013 interface reveals some new features. Figure 2 shows a screenshot of the PowerPoint 2013 interface -- each part of the interface is explained later in this page.
Figure 2: PowerPoint 2013 interface
- File Menu and Backstage View: When you click the File menu,
you see the Backstage view that contains all the creation, save, share, and print options for
your presentations, as shown in Figure 3. Learn more about
File Menu and
Backstage View in PowerPoint 2013.
Figure 3: File Menu leads to the Backstage View
- Quick Access Toolbar (QAT): Is a customizable toolbar placed by default above
the Ribbon -- here you can add icons for your often used commands. Also the QAT can
also be placed below the Ribbon. Learn more about
Quick Access Toolbar
in PowerPoint 2013.
- Ribbon: Ribbon has tabs which in turn contain groups of buttons for various
options -- some groups also contain galleries (for example galleries for Themes and Theme Colors).
Learn more about Ribbon and Tabs
in PowerPoint 2013.
- Slides Pane: Located on the left side of the interface, the Slides
pane shows thumbnails of all the slides in the open presentation.
Learn more about
Slides Pane in PowerPoint 2013.
Note: If the Slides pane is not visible, click the Normal button in the View tab of the Ribbon.
- Slide Area: Displays the active slide.
Learn more about
Slide Area in PowerPoint 2013.
- Task Pane: The Task Pane contains more options and appears when you choose an
option in one of the Ribbon tabs -- for example if you click the Format Background
button within the Design tab of the Ribbon, the
Format Background task pane opens (refer to Figure 1).
- Status Bar: A horizontal strip that provides information about the opened
presentation like slide number, applied Theme, etc. It also includes the view and zoom options.
The View buttons are explained later in this page (see point I).
- Notes Pane: Right below the active slide, this is where the speaker notes
are written for the current slide. Note that none of this content is visible on the actual slide
while presenting -- although it is visible in both Notes Page view and
Presenter view.
Learn more about
Notes Pane in PowerPoint 2013.
- View Buttons: Essentially there are three view buttons on the status bar
displayed towards the left of the zoom-in and zoom-out options:
- Normal: If you are in some other view such as
Slide Sorter view - click the Normal button on the Status bar
to switch to Normal view, Shift-clicking this gets you to Slide Master view.
- Slide Sorter: Click this button to switch from any other view to
Slide Sorter view. The Slide Sorter view displays zoom-able
thumbnails of every slide in the open presentation. Shift-clicking this button gets you to
Handout Master view.
- Reading View: Click this button to switch from any other view to
Reading view.
- Slide Show: Show the presentation as a full screen slideshow from the
current selected slide. Shift-clicking brings up the Set Up Show dialog box.
- Normal: If you are in some other view such as
Slide Sorter view - click the Normal button on the Status bar
to switch to Normal view, Shift-clicking this gets you to Slide Master view.
- Mini Toolbar: This toolbar is not shown in the Figure 3,
above -- it's a semitransparent floating toolbar that spawns right next to the cursor -- and it
is also available instantly with a right-click (highlighted in red within Figure 4).
Figure 4: Mini Toolbar
PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts:
PowerPoint
2013, 2010, 2007 and 2003
Have your ever used keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint? Or are you a complete keyboard aficionado? Do you want to learn about some new shortcuts? Or do you want to know if your favorite keyboard shortcuts are documented?
Go and get a copy of our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts E-Book.
PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts E-book
