Genre: Instruction

A few years back, I was at a workshop where the PowerPoint team was showing some of the new features in the soon-to-be-released PowerPoint 2010. As they were talking about the features, one of them mentioned the ability to combine shapes to create your own. I thought it was a pretty cool feature so I asked in what tab it was, and the reply was that it wasn't in a tab. Why Would You Need to Customize the Ribbon? Before we look at how to customize the ribbon, let's explore why it makes sense. There are a number of features I use quite a bit when it comes to building elearning courses. As it is now, I have to click on a number of tabs. For instance, I change the font from one tab, then go to another to crop an image, and then another to add an animation. Add frequently used features to a single tab. Why not put some of the more common features in a single tab? It doesn't matter if you can find them in other tabs. But it sure comes in handy if they're all in a single tab. Add those oddball, hard to remember features to a tab. Creating custom shapes is buried in PowerPoint and not easy to find. It makes sense to add those features to a single tab. This way when you do need one, you're not scratching your head trying to remember where it is. It doesn't really matter which features you add and why. The main thing is that you can! Select the features you like and then group them based on your needs. Having a custom tab will save you time and a bunch of extra clicking around. How to Customize the Ribbon in PowerPoint 2010 Customizing the ribbon in PowerPoint 2010 is really easy. Right click on the ribbon and select Customize the Ribbon . Then you're able to select a range of features on the left side, and add them to the right side. First create a custom tab. Then create groups. Add the features you want to the groups in your new tab. Finding Hidden Features There are all sorts of features in PowerPoint. The most common are already featured in the ribbon. But there are some features that aren't. For example, the ability to combine shapes is a feature not in the ribbon by default. That means you'd have to add it to the ribbon. But where do you find the hidden features? Glad you asked. Select All Commands from the drop-down menu. That exposes all of the commands available to you. Add the ones you want. If you're not quite sure what a feature does, add it to the ribbon and do some tests. Or do a search online. Once you have a custom ribbon, you can export the file and then import it to your other computers so that they all are the same. My Favorite Rapid E-Learning Features There are all sorts of features that you could add to a custom ribbon. I look for the ones I use most often and like to have them available with the fewest clicks. I don't really care if they're in the other tabs. Here are some of the features I like to have in a single tab: Add a new slide/layout Slide master Insert pictures & clipart Paste as PNG Access clipart online Insert shapes Cropping Edit points Custom shapes: subtract, intersect, combine, and union Arrange objects Guides Selection pane Animation pane Animation styles Format painter Pens (for hand-drawn markups) Office clipboard Customizing the ribbon is a convenient way to have all of your favorite features within reach. This is especially true if you build rapid elearning courses. Which of your most frequently used features would you add to the customized ribbon? Share your favorites by clicking on the comments link . Tidbits 2012 Calendar This week I'm at Devlearn in Las Vegas. Swing by the Articulate booth and say hello. My answer to, "Which of your most frequently used features would you add to the customized ribbon?" -- not necessarily the only/top one, but one I didn't see in the examples and would definitely add is the background removal tool. Thanks for the tips! Some of us are less PowerPoint saavy than others -- Would you please do a Screenr demo of how to do this? I tried following the tips and only wound up with a new blank tab labelled "New Tab" , with the word "Shapes" in it... The other PowerPoint customisation I like, as well as adding extra tabs, is the quick access toolbar. I have a few features on there that I use so often that it speeds up my work to have super quick access: Selection pane, animation pane, clipboard and Slide Master view; are my choices. You can choose some features that PowerPoint suggests by just ticking them, or like with a new tab you can add anything you like. You can also choose to have the toolbar, above or below the ribbon. I'm sure many people already know about using this feature but there may be some who have not come across it before. Thank you, Tom, for this great tip! I've created an eLearning Tab that's ready to use when I work on my next project. So exciting! It's such a waste of time to click back and forth between tabs. I'm going to do the same for some other work I do on a regular basis.