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Office Button in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows

Geetesh Bajaj

Learn about the Office Button in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows.

Introducing the Office Button
PowerPoint Options
New
Open
Save
Save As
Print
Prepare
Send
Publish
Close

Introducing the Office Button

In PowerPoint 2007, the old File menu is replaced by the new Office Button, it's a round button placed on the top left of the interface that works in almost the same way as the File menu in earlier versions of PowerPoint.

Figure 1 shows the location of the Office button.


Figure 1: Office Button

When the Office Button is clicked, you'll get a list of menu options as shown in Figure 2.


Figure 2: Office Button menu options

These options are:

  • New
  • Open
  • Save
  • Save As
  • Print
  • Prepare
  • Send
  • Publish
  • Close
  • PowerPoint Options
  • Exit PowerPoint

We'll explore all these options in this article.

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PowerPoint Options

Most of the options in the Office Button are the same as in older versions of PowerPoint except the PowerPoint Options button (refer to Figure 2 above) located at the bottom right of the Office Button menu list, this sort of replaces Tools | Options from previous PowerPoint options.



When the PowerPoint Options button is clicked, it opens a dialog box of the same name, as shown in Figure 3.


Figure 3: PowerPoint Options

Here you can set and change many global settings for PowerPoint such as creating a customized Quick Access toolbar, save options, etc.

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New

The New option allows you to create a new, blank presentation. When you select this option, it opens New Presentation window as shown in Figure 4.


Figure 4: New Presentation

Other than creating a new blank presentation, it even allows to create presentations from installed templates, installed themes, presentations from the templates you have saved, and from existing presentations. You can even choose to search Microsoft Office Online, and get more choices.

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Open

Use the Open option to open any of the existing presentations, templates, etc. When this option is selected it brings up the Open window (shown in Figure 5).


Figure 5: Open

From this window you can choose the location where the PowerPoint presentation you want to open exists, select the presentation you want to open, and then click the Open button.

Tip: Remember that the Open button has a downward pointing arrow next to it that provides more Open options (see Figure 6). The figure on the left shows the options available in Windows XP, while the one on the right shows options available in Windows Vista, as you can see, there's an extra option available to Windows Vista users.


Figure 6: Open options

Here's a brief explanation of these options:

  • Open, the default option is the same as clicking the Open button.
  • Open Read-Only lets you open a read-only copy of the presentation, this is great if you don't want to make some changes and overwrite the original presentation.
  • Open as Copy lets you open a copy of the presentation, almost like creating a new presentation while leaving the original unaltered.
  • Open in Browser works only with certain file formats.
  • Open and Repair allows PowerPoint to attempt repair of a file that is corrupt.
  • Show previous versions allows you to open a previous version of the presentation (if it exists). This option is based on native functionality available only in Windows Vista, so Windows XP users won't find this option.
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Save

The Save option allows to save the active presentation, when this option is selected for first time for an unsaved presentation, it opens the Save As window as shown Figure 7. Here you can choose the save location and provide a name to the presentation. You can also opt to save as different file types, the default File save type is PPTX (PowerPoint Presentation).


Figure 7: Save

Note: Options for choosing a location, providing a file name and selecting a file type are provided only when you save the newly created presentation for the first time. Thereafter, the Save option just saves all changes made since the presentation was saved last. If you want to save as a new file, choose the Save As option that we discuss next.
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Save As

When you choose the Save As option from the Office Button, it provides plenty of new options within a sub menu, as shown in Figure 8.


Figure 8: Save As

Note: Most users won't find the Adobe PDF option that's shown in Figure 8 above, it's visible in my copy of PowerPoint since we have the full version of Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 installed. However you can still create PDFs using the built-in options in PowerPoint.

From here you can choose a different file type to save a copy of the presentation:

  • The first option is PPTX, this saves to the new PowerPoint 2007 file format.
  • PowerPoint Show is actually the same file format with the PPSX file extension, saving to this file format causes your presentation to launch in Slide Show mode rather than editing mode.
  • PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation, this option allows you to save to the older PPT file format, great if you need to share your files with folks who have not yet upgraded to PowerPoint 2007 (or PowerPoint 2008 for Mac).
  • PDF or XPS, Saves to the PDF or XPS file formats
  • Other Formats, Allows you to save to many other file formats including picture file formats like JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIF, etc.
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Print

Print (see Figure 9) lets you print the presentation you have created. The options in the sub menu allow you to Print, Quick Print, and see a Print Preview.


Figure 9: Print

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Prepare

Prepare (see Figure 10) allows you to set properties of the presentation, add encryption, inspect the document, add a digital signature, mark the presentation as final, and to run the compatibility checker.


Figure 10: Prepare

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Send

The Send option, as shown in Figure 11 allows to send a copy of the presentation via e-mail, you can even convert the presentation to a PDF file and then send it through e-mail, fax the presentation by using an Internet Fax service, etc.


Figure 11: Send

Note: Some options in the dialog box above may not be available on your copy of PowerPoint 2007 since they are provided by third-party add-ins.
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Publish

Publish (see Figure 12) allows to publish or convert the presentation into formats which are easy to distribute, such as copy the presentation with all the media links to a folder or CD/DVD, create handouts in Microsoft Word, or work with document management servers and workspaces.


Figure 12: Publish

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Close and Exit

The Close option is used to close the active presentation, while the Exit PowerPoint button allows you to exit the program. In both instances, PowerPoint allows you to save any unsaved changes.

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