PowerPoint XP
The PowerPoint Window
Introduction
Microsoft PowerPoint XP, part of the Office XP suite, is a presentation graphics application. A presentation is a combination of slides, handouts, notes, and outlines all in one file. You can add text, graphics, photos, clip art, sound and video to your slides. PowerPoint 2002 can help you present a topic at work, home, or school.
By the end of this lesson, learners should be able to:
- Identify the parts of the PowerPoint Window
- Recognize the slide views
- Operate the Task Pane
- Operate the pull down menus
The Parts of the PowerPoint Window
The PowerPoint Window has toolbars and panes to help you quickly create presentations. Most of the toolbars are common in Office applications but may feature options unique to PowerPoint.
- Title Bar - displays the document name followed by a program name.
- Menu Bar - contains a list of options to manage and customize documents.
- Standard Toolbar - contains shortcut buttons for the most popular commands.
- Formatting Toolbar - contains buttons used for formatting.
- Status Bar - displays slide position and the type of design in PowerPoint.
- Drawing Toolbar - contains tools for drawing lines, shapes and objects.
- Help - provides quick access to Help topics.
PowerPoint XP has a new default Normal view - the Tri-Pane View. This view, which opens when you launch PowerPoint, allows you to see multiple parts of a presentation at once.
One of the other noticeable changes between PowerPoint 2000 and PowerPoint 2002 is the Task Pane. Located on the right side of the computer screen, this pane allows you to select tasks in different categories and allows you to quickly enhance your slides in a few steps. You'll learn more about the Task Pane later in this lesson.
Also new in PowerPoint 2002 are the Outline and Slides Tabbed Panes. Click on the tabs on the left side of the screen to view an outline or a slide of your presentation. The tabs render differently based on the size of the pane.
You can show or hide PowerPoint's toolbars. Click on the View menu and choose Toolbar. Decide which ones you want to show or hide.
View Buttons and Slide Views
The view buttons at the left bottom corner of the screen allow three slide views: Normal View, Slide Sorter View and Slide Show.
The view buttons can be useful as you prepare your presentation. They control the way slides are displayed on the screen. Click a view button to see a different view.
Normal View 
contains the Outline and Slides Tabbed Panes on the left, the Slide pane in the center and the Task Pane on the right.
The Outline View shows the text of your presentation for easy editing while Slides View shows text and graphics of the slide you're working on. Click on the tabs to switch between the two views. Under the center slide area is a place for notes.
You can hide or show the different panes in Normal View. To hide the Task Pane, click on the View menu and choose Task Pane. (The View menu also allows you to choose other views). To hide the Outline View and Slide Tabbed Panes, click on the X to the left of the Slides Tab.
More Views
Here are some other views that may be useful as you create your presentations:
Slide Sorter View 
lets you see small versions of all the slides you have created. You can delete, copy, and move slides in this view.
Slide Show 
lets you see your presentation electronically as it will appear to an audience.
The Task Pane
The PowerPoint XP Task Pane replaces the dialog boxes used in PowerPoint 2000. The down-pointing arrow in the top, right corner of the pane allows you to select different menus and tools. By default, the Task Pane appears when PowerPoint XP is launched.
The Slide Layout and Slide Design panes within the Task Pane help organize layouts, design templates, and color schemes. When you select a design option, your slides are quickly updated with the new look.
You can view the Slide Layout and Slide Design panes by clicking on the down-pointing arrow next to New Presentation in the Task Pane.
Select Slide Layout or Slide Design (Design Templates, Color Schemes, Animation Schemes). You'll learn more about using these panes later in this course.
Using the Task Pane
If you do not see the Task Pane on the right side of the PowerPoint window, you can easily access it.
To Open the Task Pane:
- Click View
Task Pane
To View Different Panes:
- Click on the down-pointing arrow next to New Presentation and select different panes.
- Once you open different panes, you can move through them by clicking on the backward and forward arrow buttons on the left.
To Close the Task Pane:
- Click the X on the right corner of the bar.
You can hide or view the Task Pane by clicking on View Task Pane.
Pull-Down Menus
PowerPoint XP's menu bar operates differently than the one in PowerPoint 2000. The menu initially displays commands that you most often use. To view infrequently used commands, you use pull-down menus.
To View Commands in a Pull-Down Menu:
- Click on a menu in the menu bar. (File, Edit, View, Insert, etc.)
- Move your mouse pointer over the double arrows at the bottom of the pull-down menu.
Notice that some menus have black arrows to the right. Slide you mouse pointer over the arrow to view more options.
Challenge!
- Open Microsoft PowerPoint from the Start menu.
- Review the parts of the PowerPoint window.
- Familiarize yourself with the Task Pane. Click to see the other panes.
- Click on the menu bar and view pull-down menus.
- Click on the View Buttons.
- Click on the Outline tab and the Slides tab.