Reordering and Removing Ribbon Tabs in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

PowerPoint 2010 for Windows' interface sports the Ribbon, which is tabbed, and each of these tabs contains a set of commands. By default, PowerPoint 2010 contains eight such tabs, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Default Ribbon tabs within the PowerPoint 2010 interface

These eight Ribbon tabs can be customized, and you can indeed add a new Ribbon tab as well. Do you have more than these eight tabs in your PowerPoint interface? That could happen due to several reasons:

1. You may have turned on the Developer tab, which is not displayed by default.
2. You may have installed some PowerPoint add-ins, these may show within an Add-Ins tab.
3. You may have installed a PowerPoint add-in that created its own Ribbon tab.
4. You may have selected a slide object that brings up a contextual tab. For example, you see three extra Ribbon tabs when you select a chart on your slide.
5. You may have created your own custom Ribbon tab.

All tabs can be reordered as required. The eight default Ribbon tabs, as shown in Figure 1, above, can only be reordered and not removed. However, many tabs including the Developer tab can be hidden.

Follow these steps to explore more:

1. You first need to bring up the PowerPoint Options dialog box. There are two ways to access these options. The easier way is to right-click anywhere on the Ribbon and choose the Customize the Ribbon option, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below.
2. 
   Figure 2: Customize the Ribbon option
3. Alternatively, choose the File menu to bring up Backstage view, as shown in Figure 3, below. Now, select Options, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 3.
4. 
   Figure 3: Options within File menu
2. Either way, you end up with the PowerPoint Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 4, below. Make sure you choose the Customize Ribbon option within the sidebar. Doing so shows the relevant options on the right side of the PowerPoint Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 4.
3. 
   Figure 4: PowerPoint Options dialog box
3. Note that we added new Ribbon tab, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, above.
4. Select the tab which you want to reorder within the PowerPoint Options dialog box. We selected our custom tab, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 5, below. Then, click the Move Up (to move the selected tab upwards) or Move Down (to move the selected tab downwards) buttons, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 5.
5. 
   Figure 5: Select and reorder the Ribbon tab
5. In Figure 6, below, you can see that the Test-Tab (Custom) tab is moved down to the 7th position from its original 2nd position.
6. 
   Figure 6: Ribbon tab moved down
6. Figure 7, below, shows the reordered Ribbon tab is now placed after the Slide Show Ribbon tab. Similarly, you can reorder any of the Ribbon tabs.
7. 
   Figure 7: Ribbon tab reordered
7. To remove a custom tab, just select the tab within the PowerPoint Options dialog box, and right-click it to bring up a contextual menu, as shown in Figure 8, below. Then, select the Remove option, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 8.
8. 
   Figure 8: Remove the selected tab

Move Up and Move Down Options

Notice that the right-click menu also contains the Move Up and Move Down options, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 8, above.
9. You can also hide a tab by unchecking it within the same dialog box. Notice that the Developer tab is unchecked in Figure 8, above.
8. When done, click the OK button within the PowerPoint Options dialog box to get back to the PowerPoint interface.