PowerPoint Glossary Of Terms

Like most programs, Microsoft PowerPoint has certain terms and phrases that are specific to it. We have attempted to list as many of the terms you are likely to come across below. If you come across a word or phrase that you either don’t understand, or that you think should be in this glossary, please let us know and we will add it.

  • Action Buttons: predefined navigation buttons, such as Home, Help, Back, Next, and End, that help you navigate to a particular part of a presentation or a file.
  • Adjustable Objects: objects with an adjustment handle, looking like a small yellow diamond, that allows the user to alter the appearance of the object.
  • Animation Scheme: a set of professionally designed animations divided into three categories: Subtle, Moderate, and Exciting.
  • Arc: a curved line whose angle you can change by dragging an adjustment handle.
  • AutoContent Wizard: a wizard that takes you through a step-by- step process to create a presentation, prompting you for presentation information as you go.
  • Automatic Layout Behaviour: a feature that recognizes when you insert an object onto a slide and changes the layout to fit the objects on the slide.
  • Background: the underlying colours, shading, texture, and style of the colour scheme.
  • Bullet Text: a list of items in which each item is preceded by a symbol.
  • Colour Menu: the colour palette associated with Drawing toolbar buttons, such as Fill Colour, Line Colour, or Font Colour.
  • Colour Scheme: the basic set of eight colours provided for any slide.
  • Connection Pointer: a small box pointer that allows you to drag a connection line between two connection sites. .
  • Connection Sites: small blue handles on each side of an object that allow you to add a connection line between two objects.
  • Control Boxes: headings in a datasheet that correspond to the different data series.
  • Design Template: a presentation with a designed format and colour scheme.
  • Digital Signature: an electronic, secure stamp of authentication document.
  • Dotted Selection Box: the border of a selected object that indicates you can manipulate the entire object.
  • Embedded Object: an object created with another program but PowerPoint. You can update an embedded object in PowerPoint.
  • Export: the process of converting and saving a file to a different format.
  • Greyscale: a black and white image that displays shades of grey.
  • Insertion Point: a blinking bar that indicates where text will be entered or edited as you type.
  • Landscape Format: horizontal orientation of an image or output media where the object is wider than it is high.
  • Legend: a list that identifies each data series in the datasheet.
  • Linked Object: an object created in another program that maintains it connection to its source. A linked object will automatically updated if you alter the original.
  • Margin Markers: small squares on the ruler that move both the upper and lower indent markers.
  • Master Slides: special slides that control the properties of all other slides in a presentation.
  • Normal View: a view that contains all three view panes: Slides, Outline/Slides and Notes.
  • Notes Page View: a view where you can add notes and graphics that aid the speaker but are not displayed.
  • Notes Pane: an area in Normal view where you can add speaker notes.
  • Object: any entity in PowerPoint that you can manipulate such as a graphic, text box, sound etc.
  • Offset: the direction and distance in which a shadow falls from an object.
  • Outline/Slides Pane: an area in Normal view where you can organize and develop presentation content in text or slide miniature form.
  • Paragraph: text that begins and end when you press Enter.
  • Portrait: vertical orientation of an image or output media where the object is higher than it is wide.
  • PowerPoint Viewer: a program that allows you to show a slide show on a computer that does not have PowerPoint installed.
  • Pure Black and White: a black and white image that displays only black and white without any shades of gray.
  • Resize Handle: a white circle on each corner and side of an object that you can drag to change the objects size.
  • Scaling: resizing an entire object by a set percentage.
  • ScreenTip: a yellow box that tells you the name of or more information about a button, icon, or other item on the screen when you place the pointer over the item.
  • Selection Box: A grey slanted line or dotted outline around an object.
  • Slide Master: see Master Slide.
  • Slide Pane: an area in the Normal view where you can view a slide and add text, graphics, and other items to the slide.
  • Slide Show View: a view where you can preview the presentation.
  • Slide Sorter View: a view where you can see all the slides in a presentation as thumbnails.
  • Slide Timing: the period of time that a slide appears on the screen.
  • Status Bar: the bar at the bottom of the presentation window that displays messages about the current state of PowerPoint.
  • Task Pane: a pane that allows you to quickly access commands related to a specific task without having to use menus and toolbars.
  • Template: a presentation whose format and colour scheme is used as the basis for other presentations.
  • Text Animation Slide: a slide with text that you set to appear incrementally.
  • Text Label: a text object used primarily for short phrases or notes.
  • Text Object: a box that contains text in a slide.
  • Text Placeholder: a dotted-lined box that you can click to add text.
  • Title Master: a master slide that contains placeholders that are similar to those of the Slide Master but that affect the title slide only.
  • Title Slide: the first slide in a presentation.
  • Title Text: text that identifies the name or purpose of a slide.
  • Toolbar: a graphical bar in the presentation window with buttons that perform some of the common commands in PowerPoint.
  • Window: an area of the screen used to display a PowerPoint program or presentation window.
  • Word Processing Box: a text object used primarily for longer text.
  • Word Wrap: a feature that automatically moves the insertion point to the next line within an object as you type.