Appendix B: Customizing PowerPoint


Although PowerPoint works great right out of the box, it can work even better for you with a few tweaks. In this appendix you will learn about the customizations that you can apply to PowerPoint 2007 to make it work better for you.

What You Can't Do

If there is one way in which PowerPoint 2007 is actually a step backwards from earlier versions, it is in the area of customization, so don't get your hopes up too high. For example, in earlier versions of PowerPoint, you could create your own custom menus and toolbars. Menus and toolbars technically do not exist anymore in PowerPoint 2007, but you might expect that you could customize the Ribbon and perhaps create your own tabs.

Not so. Or at least, not so easily anymore. A Ribbon customization utility called RibbonX is available from Microsoft, but it is not for end users. To use it, you need to know something about XML, and you need to be able to hack the data files or templates to implement your custom code. Third-party utilities are available to make this process easier, but they are still trying to do something that Microsoft does not want you to do, and so the whole process is awkward. As a result, you are better off not trying to customize the Ribbon.

EXPERT TIP 

Patrick Schmid's Office 2007 RibbonCustomizer utility, available from pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer/, is one attempt to make it easier for end users to customize their Ribbon.

So what can you do, then? Well, you can add and remove buttons from the Quick Access toolbar, and you can move the Quick Access toolbar above or below the Ribbon. When the Quick Access toolbar is below the Ribbon, it can run the full length of the PowerPoint window, and so there is plenty of room for all of the buttons that you may need. You can also make changes to PowerPoint's settings, from file locations to macro security. There are actually quite a lot of available program settings; you can try them out to make it easier to use some of your favorite PowerPoint features.




Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 Bible
Microsoft Powerpoint 2007 Bible
ISBN: 0470144939
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 268
Authors: Faithe Wempen

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