Science PowerPoint tips and tutorials

PowerPoint XP/2003 has numerous basic and advanced features that are displayed on separate Toolbars and hidden in multiple menus. Among plethora of buttons available there are some that you will probably never use, some you will use very infrequently and some that you may want to have within a quick reach all the time. So to streamline the workflow it is essential that you organize your workspace in such a way that you have all you need just 1-mouse-click away. The Drawing Toolbar is obviously an essential part of this workspace and we will help you to organize it in a handy way. Figure 1 shows an example of the PowerPoint screen that is ready for major work in creating objects in biomedicine.

Figure 1. Optimized PowerPoint for design work in biomedicine. Please note that in addition to Standard toolbar and Formatting toolbar above the slide area, there is an optional ScienceSlides toolbar that works within PowerPoint and could be purchased and installed separately. Below slide area shown is Drawing toolbar and status bar.

PowerPoint 2003 comes with Customization option that makes the organization process a snap. Once you are done with this process the PowerPoint will look the same way each time you open it, and if you will need to update your settings in the future, you need to go through the same brief customization process again and add or remove buttons (commands) as necessary.

To start the customization process select Tools from the Menu bar, than select Customization at the bottom of the list to bring up the Customize pop up dialog box (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Customize dialog box that helps you set up personalized workspace (select, click and drag).

Within the Customize dialog box, at the top, from three available tabs select Commands. Two boxes listing Categories (on the left) and Commands (on the right) will appear. Each Category item represents one button from the Menu bar, and, when selected, displays submenu items (Commands), just as if you would select specific item from pull down menu to perform a required drawing or formatting instructions.

The next step is very easy. Select the specific command item on the right by pointing the mouse and clicking the left button, for example select the Symbol command from Insert category, and simply drag it to the Standard, Formatting or Drawing bar, whichever you prefer. At specific location within the chosen bar release the left mouse button to place the command (Figure 2). The specific placement of commands may be important, though once you get used to finding the particular button in one place, you will quickly notice that this process becomes automatic and, when working on somebody else computer you may find yourself somewhat lost. In general, we recommend placing Editing, Inserting and Formatting commands within the Standard and Formatting toolbars, and Drawing commands within the Drawing toolbar at the bottom of PowerPoint window. Important tip: try to be a bit selective you may place all commands on your screen as individual buttons, however they would take so much space within toolbars that this over-customization would effectively kill the purpose.