Customizing the Ribbon in PPT 2010

It's easy to customize the Ribbon in PowerPoint 2010, but be sure to read the bug alert below.

Glen Millar has a nice tutorial about the logic of the Ribbon.

1. Open PowerPoint 2010

2. Right-click the Ribbon and choose Customize the Ribbon

3. The Customize the Ribbon dialog is shown below. Choose the commands you want to add on the left. Choose where to add them on the right.

I tend to Choose Commands From the All Tabs group.

4. To add an existing group to a tab, select it on the left and click Add. It will be inserted immediately following the group you have selected on the right.

For example, to add the Slides group to the Insert tab, 

a) click on the Home tab / Slides Group on the left

b) click on the Insert tab / Images on the right to add the Slides group between the Images and Illustrations groups on the Insert tab

c) click Add

5. To add an individual command to the Ribbon, you must first add a group to house it in.

If you try to add a command directly to a tab on the Ribbon, you'll be prompted with a warning message: Commands can only be added to custom groups. To add a custom group, click the tab where you want the group to appear, and then click New Group.

For example, to add the Selection Pane command to the Animations tab, you would do the following:

a) Click Animations, then Timing, then click New Group to add a new group to the end of the Animations tab. (Click the Rename button if you want to give the custom group a name.)

b) Click the Selection Pane command on the left. (It's in Home tab, Editing Group, Select.)

c) Click Add

Bug alert!

If you're customizing the Ribbon yourself, know that there is a bug in Office 2010: every time you customize your Ribbon, your previous customizations are deleted.

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Workarounds

1. Write down all your customizations and input them all at once. Okay, that's not a good workaround, but it does work.

2. Expand all tabs in the Customize the Ribbon dialog before clicking OK. 

Just the first-level headings, which represent the Ribbon tabs (see screenshot below). It's a hassle to remember, but it does work.

You really only have to expand the tabs where there are customizations, but it's safer just to expand them all. Trust me on that one, peeps.

Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar doesn't erase your Ribbon customizations.

Here's hoping Microsoft fixes this soon.

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