The PowerPoint 2019 for Windows interface sports
the Ribbon, which is tabbed. Each of these tabs contains
a set of commands. By default, PowerPoint contains several such tabs, as shown highlighted in red
within Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Default Ribbon tabs within PowerPoint 2019 interface
These Ribbon tabs can be customized, and you can
indeed add a new Ribbon tab as well. In fact, you
may have more tabs in your PowerPoint 2019
interface due to several reasons:
- You may have turned on the
Developer tab. This tab is not displayed
by default.
- You may have installed some PowerPoint add-ins, and these may show in an Add-Ins tab.
- You many have installed a PowerPoint add-in that created its own Ribbon tab.
- You may have selected a slide object that brings up a contextual tab. For example, you see extra Ribbon tabs when
you select a chart on your slide.
- You may have created your own custom
Ribbon tab.
All tabs can be reordered as required. However, the default Ribbon tabs that you see in Figure 1 can only be
reordered or hidden, but not removed. Also the Developer tab cannot be removed although it can also be hidden. Follow
these steps to explore more:
- You first need to bring up the
PowerPoint Options dialog box. There are
two ways to access this dialog box. 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.
-

Figure 2: Customize the Ribbon option
- Alternatively, choose the File menu to bring
up Backstage view, as shown
in Figure 3. Now, select Options (highlighted in green
within Figure 3).
-

Figure 3: Options within File menu
Note: Also if you are a keyboard aficionado, you can quickly press the Alt +
F keys together, and then press T.
- Either way, this opens the PowerPoint Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 4. Make
sure you choose the Customize Ribbon option within the sidebar. This shows the relevant options on the right side of
the PowerPoint Options dialog box (see Figure 4 again). Note that
we added new Ribbon tab (highlighted
in red within Figure 4, below).
-

Figure 4: PowerPoint Options dialog box
- 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). 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.
-

Figure 5: Select and reorder the Ribbon tab
- In Figure 6, below you can see that the Indezine (Custom) tab is moved down from
its original position.
-

Figure 6: Ribbon tab moved down
- Figure 7, below shows the reordered Ribbon tab is now placed after the Slide Show
Ribbon tab. See the tabs that are highlighted in red, and compare with Figure 1, shown
previously on this page. Similarly, you can reorder any of the Ribbon tabs.
-

Figure 7: Ribbon tab reordered
- To remove a custom tab, just select it within the Customize Ribbon tab of the
PowerPoint Options dialog box. Then, 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. Alternatively, click the Remove button (also
highlighted in red within Figure 8).
-

Figure 8: Remove the selected tab
Note: The right-click menu also contains the Move Up and Move Down options, as
shown highlighted in blue within Figure 8.
- When done, click the OK button within the PowerPoint Options dialog box to get back
to PowerPoint 2019 interface.