Datasheet

The Mini Toolbar
So what is a Mini Toolbar? As much as you might like that mini bar in your
hotel room, I promise you this one is more helpful! If you select some text in
PowerPoint, you’ll see a semitransparent floating toolbar that provides all the
text formatting options you need without having to make a trip to the Home
tab of the Ribbon. That’s the Mini Toolbar.
Figure 1-2 shows you the Mini Toolbar in all its resplendent glory. Just move
the cursor away or deselect the text, and the Mini Toolbar gets sad and goes
away. If you want to get it back again and it’s in no mood to come back, you
can always right-click the selected text to order it back into your esteemed
presence.
The Elements of PowerPoint
When you open PowerPoint, it presents you with a blank canvas that you
color with your ideas and your message. The brushes and paints used to
transform this blank canvas into an amazing interactive medium are its ele-
ments of composition:
Text
Background, images, and info-graphics
Shapes
Fills, lines, and effects
Sound and video
Animations and transitions
Interactivity, flow, and navigation
If you’ve heard or read any of those “Death by PowerPoint” cries in the media
these days that bemoan the lack of aesthetics in PowerPoint presentations
shown all over the world, you need to make friends with all the elements of
PowerPoint so that you can use these elements more effectively to create
more aesthetic PowerPoint presentations.
Figure 1-2:
Here comes
the Mini
Toolbar.
12
Part I: Powering Up PowerPoint
05_095652 ch01.qxp 2/9/07 9:22 AM Page 12