Changing Paragraph and Text Formatting

Not all presentation text is created equal, and not all text falls into PowerPoint's relentless and presumed point-by-point-by-point format. Sometimes you might want to center a line of text, to make it stand out. In other presentations, you might want to ensure each top-level bullet point has an extra bit of space after it, to make the presentation more readable from the back of the room. Then there's the inevitable bold text, and italic, and even the fontographer's nightmare, bold italic. All these treatments have a place in your repertoire of presentation tricks.

In general, PowerPoint paragraph and text formatting options mirror those available in Word. This section covers the few notable exceptions:

• To change paragraph or text formatting for all the "regular" slides in your presentation (that is, all slides except title slides), change the Slide Master.

• To change paragraph or text formatting for a title slide, it's generally easier to change the slide directly—providing your presentation has just one title slide.

• The normal rules of Windows apply: Select whatever you want to change—paragraphs, words, characters—and then apply the change.

→ To change all the slides, see "Using the Slide Master".

→ To change the title slide(s), see "Using the Title Master".

Using Paragraph Formatting

All the standard paragraph formatting settings found in Word are at your disposal, including alignment (right, center, and left), spacing (double and triple), and so on. These options are accessible directly from the Format menu.

To change tab stops and adjust the behavior of tab characters, you must use the ruler.

→ To tackle the ruler, see "Adding and Editing Text".

Some tab formatting options you might use in other Office applications do not exist in PowerPoint. For example, there is no easy way to put a tab stop in every cell of a table; you have to enter them all manually.

Using Fonts

Professional designers recommend you stick with one font for titles and another for text—better yet, use the same font for both. Using too many fonts detracts from a presentation.

To adjust any font effects, select some text, right-click, and choose Font from the shortcut menu. All standard effects are available in the Font dialog box: color, bold, italic, bold italic, underline, shadow, emboss, and superscript/subscript. You can also adjust the elevation of superscripts and subscripts in the Offset box.

If you're planning to deliver your presentation on a large screen, avoid italicized fonts, which often end up looking like wavy blobs. You can use underline instead, to emphasize a word or phrase, but underlining is traditionally reserved as a substitute for italic. If you absolutely must emphasize a word, bold is probably your best choice.

Replacing Fonts Throughout a Presentation

If you're trying to change all the Times New Roman in a presentation to Garamond, you might be tempted to change the Title Master and Slide Master, and call it a day.

Unfortunately, if you've applied any manual formatting to individual slides, the "link" between the slide and its master might be broken. In that case, even if the master is updated, the slide might not make the switch.

→ To change every slide in your presentation, see "Using the Title Master".

To truly change all occurrences of Times New Roman to Garamond, choose Format, Replace Fonts. Choose Times New Roman from the Replace drop-down list; choose Garamond from the With list. Click OK to apply the change throughout the presentation—even in the masters.