Using Research Tools in PowerPoint 2010

Synopsis: In this article we look at how to use the researching tools in PowerPoint 2010. The use of these tools is similar in other components of the Office 2010 suite.

Sometimes you may need to find out more about a particular subject, or even about a single word. In common with other components of MS Office 2010, PowerPoint has built-in research facilities that can really help.

Let’s suppose that you are preparing a presentation on the US Government. You need some more information, and you‘re going to start by finding out about Congress. You’ve prepared a header slide but now you need to get some facts together.

First, select the Review tab. Then select the Research button in the Proofing group.

This opens the Research Task Pane. It appears on the right by default.

Once the pane is open, type the phrase “US Congress” in the Search for: box.

Now click on the arrow to the right of the Search for: box (the arrow has a screen tip of “Start Searching”) and the search for related information begins. In this case there are many hits on the phrase “US Congress” – almost 400 million in fact!

With each hit there is a hyperlink to the relevant source. So, for example, the first hit has a link www.house.gov in blue. If you click on the link a new window opens up and the linked web page appears.

From this link and page you can get some of the information you need. You can also browse through this site or use its own search facility to find out more.

When you’ve finished with this site, youcan close the window it’s in and return to the Research box. If you still need more information you could try one of the other links. The second link is to Wikipedia.

When using the Reference Task Pane you have a few options. When searching for the information on the US Congress above we accepted the default search with Bing. Clicking on the arrow to the right of that you can see that there are other options.

(Which ones are actually available to you depends on your own installation of PowerPoint 2010, and they’re unlikely to be exactly the same as mine.)

You can control which options are available by clicking on Research Options… at the bottom of the Research Task Pane. This brings up the Research Options dialog.

You can now choose which reference books to search by checking and unchecking the relevant boxes. Suppose, for example, that you wanted to include both the US and UK Encarta Dictionaries. Check the boxes as shown here, then click OK.

They will both now appear as options for your next search.

To find out more about one of the services, select it and click the Properties button. This shows the Service Properties dialog.

Click on Close when you’ve finished reviewing this information.

When the Research Options dialog is open, you can update services – or remove ones you don’t use – by clicking on the Update/Remove… button.

Select one of the services and you can update it by clicking Update… or remove it altogether by clicking Remove.

Simon Calder

Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA. He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!