When you apply one of PowerPoint's text layouts to a slide, the text box appears with placeholder text. You can replace the placeholder text with your own text.

Add and Edit Slide Text

ADD SLIDE TEXT

EDIT SLIDE TEXT

Tip

How do I add slide text in Outline view?

You can use PowerPoint's Outline view to see your entire presentation in an outline format. When viewing a slide in Normal view, the Slides and Outline tabs appear in the left pane. To add text to slides in Outline view, follow these steps:

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  PowerPoint immediately changes the text on the slide.

When you assign slide layouts and designs, they use a default font and size for the text. You can change the font and size to change the appearance of your slide text. For example, you might want to increase the size of a slide's title text, or change the font of the body text to make the words more legible on a background color.

Change the Font and Size

CHANGE THE FONT

CHANGE THE SIZE

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Is there another way to change both the font and size at the same time?

Yes. You can use the Font dialog box to make all kinds of changes to the font, size, font style, text color, and more. Follow these steps:

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  The Font dialog box appears.

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  PowerPoint applies your changes to the selected text.

You can change the color of your slide text to create a different look for a slide. For example, you may need to change the text color to make the text more legible against the slide background.

Change the Text Color

CHOOSE A COORDINATING COLOR

OPEN THE COLORS DIALOG BOX

Tip

How do I set a custom color?

You can use the Colors dialog box to create your own custom color to use with the slide text or other slide elements. To set a custom color, follow these steps:

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  PowerPoint assigns the custom color.

You can quickly change the appearance of text by changing the text style. You can choose from four different font styles: bold, italic, underline, and shadow.

Change the Text Style

You can change the horizontal positioning of text in a text box by assigning a different alignment command. By default, PowerPoint usually centers the text in text objects, with the exception of bulleted text, which uses left alignment.

Change the Text Alignment

You can change the line spacing to create more or less space between lines of text. For example, you might want to increase line spacing so the text fills up more space in the text box, or to make the text easier to read.

Set Line Spacing

PowerPoint installs with a variety of designs, called themes, which allow you to give every slide in your presentation the same look and feel. Themes include preset fonts, colors, and backgrounds. When you assign a theme, PowerPoint applies the new theme to the entire presentation.

Assign a Theme

You can change a slide's layout at any time. For example, you may want to change a slide to include a bulleted text box or use one of PowerPoint's many content layouts.

If you assign a new slide layout to a slide with existing text, you may need to make a few adjustments to the text position and size to fit the new layout. For best results, you should assign a new layout before adding content to your slides.

Change the Slide Layout

You can add new text boxes to a slide when you need to customize a layout. Text boxes are simply receptacles for text in a slide. With new text boxes, you can control the placement and size of the text object.

Add a New Text Object

Note

To delete a slide object that you no longer need, select the object and press

You can add artwork to a slide by inserting clip art images. Clip art is premade art. Office installs with a clip art collection that includes many illustrations for a variety of topics. You can add clip art to a placeholder object or insert a new clip art object.

Add Clip Art to a Slide

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How do I insert a photo or image file instead of clip art?

To insert a photograph or other image file onto a slide, follow these steps:

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  The Insert Picture dialog box appears.

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  PowerPoint inserts the file.

If you also use Excel 2007 on your computer, you can add a chart to a PowerPoint slide to turn numeric data into a visual element that your audience can quickly interpret and understand. You can create a chart in PowerPoint using an Excel worksheet. You can type your own chart data and choose the type of chart that you want to display.

Add a Chart to a Slide

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Can I insert an existing Excel chart into my PowerPoint slide?

Yes. You can use the Copy and Paste commands to copy an Excel chart and insert it into a PowerPoint slide. You can also link and embed an Excel chart. To learn more about copying and pasting data between Office programs, see Chapter 2.

How do I make changes to my chart formatting?

When you click a chart, the Ribbon shows a collection of tabs called Chart Tools that you can use to make changes to the chart. Click the Design tab to find options for changing the chart layout and style. Click the Layout tab to find tools for changing individual elements on the chart, such as the axis or legend. Click the Format tab to find tools for changing fill colors and shape styles. To remove a chart entirely, select the chart and press

You can add tables to your slides to organize data in an orderly fashion. Tables use a column-and-row format to present information. For example, you might use a table to display a list of products or classes.

Add a Table to a Slide

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How do I add a column or a row to my table?

To add a column or a row to a table, follow these steps:

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  PowerPoint immediately inserts a new row or column.

You can move any slide element to reposition it in the slide. For example, you can move a text box to make room for a clip art box, or move a title to make the text fit better on a slide.

Move a Slide Object

You can resize any slide element to make it larger or smaller on the slide. For example, you can resize a text box to make room for more text, or resize a clip art box to make the artwork larger.

Resize a Slide Object

PowerPoint layouts determine the positioning of objects on a slide, such as text boxes, clip art, and charts. You can choose from a variety of preset layouts that install with PowerPoint, or you can create your own custom layouts to reuse. When you create a custom layout, you control how many placeholder objects appear on the slide, as well as their size and placement. You can use Slide Master view to create custom layouts.

Create a Custom Layout with the Slide Master

Tip

What are the default placeholders?

By default, every new layout that you create in Slide Master view starts with a title placeholder, along with three footer placeholders for date/time, footer, and slide numbers. You can keep the existing placeholders, or remove them entirely and add your own custom slide objects. You can quickly remove the default placeholders by clicking the Title and Footers check boxes (

How do I assign a background to my custom layout?

To add a custom background to the layout, simply choose a theme from the Themes palette on the Slide Master tab, or set a new background style by clicking the Background Styles button and selecting a new style.