Microsoft Office/PowerPoint Terminology

  • Ask A Question Box - Provides quick access to help.
  • AutoContent Wizard - A wizard that produces a presentation with a general structure and suggested topics based on options you choose regarding the presentation output.
  • AutoCorrect - Corrects capitalization, grammar, and spelling errors automatically as you type.
  • AutoShapes - Ready-made shapes you can draw on the slides in your presentation by choosing a shape from the AutoShapes drop-down menu.
  • Clip Art - Professionally designed images that you can add to documents. You can change the size, appearance, and location of clip art after it has been inserted into a document.
  • Design Template - The background, fonts, bullets, formatting, and color scheme that you can apply to define the look of your presentation.
  • Expanded Menu - A menu that displays both common and less-common commands after you pause the mouse pointer over it.
  • Floating Toolbars - Toolbars that are not attached to the edge of the program window.
  • Indents - Used to align bullets and text on a slide.
  • Line Spacing - The vertical distance between lines of text.
  • Normal View - The view you use to create and edit your presentation. It consists of three working areas: the Outline and Slides tabs, the Slide pane, and the Notes pane.
  • Notes Pane - In Normal view, the Notes Pane is used to create notes for each slide in your presentation.
  • Outline and Slides Tabs - One of the panes in Normal view, you use the Outline and Slides tabs to toggle between an outline of the text in your presentation and a thumbnail view of each slide.
  • Presentation - An interaction between a speaker and an audience. A presentation usually includes one or more visual aids: in the case of PowerPoint, these are slides.
  • Sizing Handles - Small circles or squares that appear along the border of a selected slide or object.
  • Slide Pane - In Normal view, the area in the center of the application window where you create and format your slide content. It displays the current slide.
  • Slide Sorter View - All slides in the presentation are displayed at once on the screen. In this view, you can rearrange, copy, and delete slides.
  • Task Pane - Provides quick access to commands related to your current task.
  • Transition Effects - In a slide show, a transition determines how the display changes as you move from one slide to the next.
  • WordArt - A tool you can use to create unique text effects. Text objects you create with read-made effects to which you can apply additional formatting options.