Toolbox in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Other than the menus, the toolbars, and the Ribbon, PowerPoint 2011's interface contains a floating set of tabs called the Toolbox. The Toolbox (see Figure 1) has four tabs:

1. Custom Animation
2. Scrapbook
3. Reference Tools
4. Compatibility Report

Each of these tabs is filled with options that let you perform important tasks within PowerPoint, and you can learn more about these individual tabs by clicking links to individual pages above. The Toolbox sports the name of the selected tab in the Title bar above, Figure 1 below shows the Custom Animation tab.

Figure 1: Custom Animation tab within the Toolbox

Let us now explore those parts of the Toolbox that are visible within all tabs:

1. Interface buttons: These buttons are located at the upper-left corner of the Toolbox. There are three buttons, but only two buttons work (the middle button is grayed). These are:
2. The Close button (red button with a cross sign) that closes the Toolbox altogether
3. The Collapse button (green button with a plus sign, the last button) that collapses the panel without closing the Toolbox (see Figure 2). Click the same green button to open the collapsed panel again.
4. 
   Figure 2: Collapsed panel
2. Title bar: This displays the name of the currently selected tab.
3. Tabs: The four tabs from left to right are: Custom Animation, Scrapbook, Reference Tools, and Compatibility Report.
4. Toolbox Settings button: Click this button to open the Toolbox Settings dialog, this has been explored in our Customizing the Toolbox in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.

Can't see the Toolbox within PowerPoint 2011? Turn it on by clicking the Toolbox button on the Standard Toolbar (highlighted in red in Figure 3).

Figure 3: Toolbox button within the Standard toolbar in PowerPoint 2011

Alternatively, choose the View | Toolbox menu option. Here, you'll find options to directly bring up any of the individual tabs of the Toolbox (highlighted in red in Figure 4).

Figure 4: View menu options to enable Toolbox tabs