Office 2007 Bible

What’s New in PowerPoint 2007?

Like other programs in the Office 2007 suite, PowerPoint 2007 takes a radical and innovative new approach to its user interface. Although it’s very convenient to use once you master it, even experienced users of earlier versions might need some help getting started. Here’s a quick summary of the new features you’ll encounter.

Tabs and the Ribbon

Instead of using a complex menu system, PowerPoint 2007 relies on a graphical Ribbon with multiple tabbed pages (referred to as tabs). Each tab is like a toolbar, with buttons and lists you can select or open.

Tabs are not easily customizable as toolbars were in earlier versions, but the Quick Access Toolbar provides a home for any custom buttons or shortcuts you would like to keep readily available. You can add almost any button or command to the Quick Access Toolbar by right-clicking it and choosing Add to Quick Access Toolbar.

Office (File) menu

One menu remains: the Microsoft Office menu (abbreviated in this book as Office menu). You can access it by clicking the Microsoft Office Button (again, abbreviated in this book as Office Button), the big round button in the top-left corner of the screen.

The commands on the Office menu are for working with the file itself: saving, printing, opening, closing, and so on. These commands were on the File menu in earlier PowerPoint versions (and in fact, some people actually still call the Office menu the “File menu”).

Styles for graphics and text

If you’ve worked ...