How to customize the PowerPoint Ribbon?

Do you want to customize a tab on the Ribbon in PowerPoint? Perhaps you want to add a feature to a PowerPoint tab that you use frequently? Yes, you can customize the PowerPoint Ribbon and it’s pretty easy. This guide includes an overview of the PowerPoint Ribbon as well as the list of steps to customize the PowerPoint Ribbon to display or remove PowerPoint features.

What is the PowerPoint Ribbon?

The PowerPoint Ribbon is the banner that runs across the top of your screen in PowerPoint. Across the top of the Ribbon in PowerPoint there is a series of tabs (for example the File tab, the Home tab, the Insert tab etc). When you click one of these tabs, the Ribbon displays the set of features specific to that tab. For example there is also a Draw tab, a Transitions tab. When you move from one tab to another, different functions are shown on the Ribbon. In addition, as you do specific activities in PowerPoint additional tabs may become available on the Ribbon. For example when you insert a table into a PowerPoint Slide, the Table Design and Layout tabs appear on the Ribbon. These Tabs will only display on the Ribbon when you are inserting a PowerPoint Table or once you return to and select the Table for editing. Similarly, if you use a PowerPoint add-in (aka PowerPoint plug in or PowerPoint addon), these typically trigger one or more additional tabs to display on the PowerPoint Ribbon

The screenshot below is an example of how the PowerPoint Ribbon displays. In the first screenshot below there is a blue callout around the PowerPoint Ribbon. An orange callout shows an example of a Tab (in this case, the Design tab). The green callout shows the PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar aka QAT (which will show different features based on what you have added to your QAT). In the second screenshot you can see the PowerPoint Ribbon with the PPT Productivity tab selected (PPT Productivity is an add-in for PowerPoint, when installed it behaves as a new tab on the ribbon plus side toolbars). As shown in the screenshot, when you click on the PPT Productivity tab, the PowerPoint Ribbon reveals the features/ functions specific to PPT Productivity. Clicking on another tab would hide these features and instead display the features of the tab selected.

Why customize the PowerPoint Ribbon?

Customizing the ribbon in PowerPoint makes it faster to access your favorite or most used PowerPoint features, rather than switching tabs to find your favorite functions.  

PPT Productivity add-in for PowerPoint has already exposed popular features in PowerPoint to the PPT Productivity ribbon or sidebars. However, there still may be a few of your favorite functions that you would like to access from the ribbon that are not already included on the PPT Productivity tab by default.

Customizing tabs on the ribbon is not limited to the PPT Productivity tab - you can also customize any of the tabs on the PowerPoint ribbon to add more features. Adding features to another ribbon will not remove the feature from its original location - it simply creates an extra way to access the feature.

How do I customize the PowerPoint Ribbon?

You can customize a PowerPoint Ribbon to include functions available on other PowerPoint tabs, or to remove functions that you do not use. Why remove features from the PowerPoint Ribbon? Removing features you do not frequently use makes more space available on the ribbon to add other features.  

For example, here’s how to add or remove a function from the PPT Productivity tab on the PowerPoint Ribbon. You can use the same method on any of the Ribbon tabs in PowerPoint.

To add a new function to the Ribbon on the PPT Productivity tab, you first need to create a new group. To do this, navigate to the PPT Productivity tab, then follow the steps and illustrations below

1. Right mouse click on the ribbon and select customize the ribbon

2. The ‘Customize the Ribbon’ menu will open. Select ‘All Tabs’ (Shown in screenshot below with #1) from the dropdown menu. Then highlight PPT Productivity (Shown in screenshot below with #2)
3. With PPT Productivity selected, click on New Group (Shown in screenshot below with #3) at the bottom of the right-hand side menu.

4. ‘New Group (Custom)’ will now appear on the list of groups featured on the PPT Productivity tab (indicated with #4 in the illustration). You can update the name according to your preferences.
5. Now simply go through the list of functions from other tabs you want to add to the PPT Productivity tab, and click ‘Add’ (indicated with #5)
6. Once you have added all required functions click ok (indicated with #6).
7. Your new group with your customized feature set will appear now on the PowerPoint Ribbon. In our example screenshot below, we've added the Preview, Spelling and Insert Pictures functions to the PPT Productivity Ribbon.
8. Similarly, to remove a feature from the Ribbon, select 'Customize the Ribbon', select 'All Tabs; and then select the Tab with the relevant feature. Select the specific feature you want to remove and select the Remove button.

Can I remove feature groups from the PowerPoint Ribbon?

You can remove groups of functions from the PowerPoint ribbon by following the same steps that you follow to add functions to the Ribbon.

1. To remove function groups from the PowerPoint Ribbon, right mouse click anywhere on the Ribbon and select 'customize the ribbon'.
2. From the ‘Customize the Ribbon’ menu, select which tab you would like to remove functions from, select the functions you would like to remove, click 'Remove'.
3. Once you have removed all the functions you do not require on the selected tab, click ‘ok’
4. The groups you have removed from the Ribbon will no longer appear on the tab.

How can I undo PowerPoint Ribbon customizations?

If you decide you would like to restore the PowerPoint Ribbon to it's original layout, you can reset the Ribbon.

To reset or undo the customizations you made to your PowerPoint Ribbon, right mouse click on the Ribbon and select the ‘Customize the Ribbon’ menu option.

1. At the bottom of the ‘Customize the Ribbon’ menu click on the ‘Reset’ dropdown (refer to the screenshot below).
2. Select either to ‘Reset only selected Ribbon tab’ to reset to default settings the tab you currently have selected, or ‘Reset all customizations’ to reset all PowerPoint Ribbon features back to the default settings across all tabs
3. Click 'ok'. Your PowerPoint Ribbon will now be reset back to the default settings.

Customizing the PowerPoint Ribbon vs Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)

The QAT for PowerPoint is a separate, thin, toolbar that sits either above or below the PowerPoint Ribbon. Features on the QAT can be viewed and accessed irrespective of which tab is displayed in PowerPoint. You can customize the QAT as well as or instead of customizing the Ribbon in PowerPoint. Learn more about the PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar.

Can I set up more shortcut keys for PowerPoint features instead of customizing the PowerPoint ribbon?

Yes you can! Although PowerPoint only offers shortcut keys for a subset of PowerPoint features, PPT Productivity lets you create shortcuts for more than 800 PowerPoint features using the PPT Productivity Shortcut Key feature.

If you're a PPT Productivity user, What new features would you like to see in PPT Productivity? Let us know.