Before we finish discussing some of the Font commands, let me show you two great commands,
the Increase and Decrease font size commands. These commands just let you gradually increase
and decrease the font of selected text. You may be thinking, but why wouldn't I just
use the font size menu? It's true that you can change the font size that way, but in
PowerPoint, you'll find that designing slides is really about figuring out what looks good
on the slide and tweaking and changing little things from slide to slide.
And sometimes that means making text a little bit bigger or a little bit smaller.
These commands let you do that easily. Before we leave this slide, I want to show
you the Alignment commands in the Paragraph group.
You can use the Alignment commands to align text in a certain area.
Let's select the title text and click through the alignment commands so you can see how
they work. This is the Align Text Right command, Center,
and Align Text Left command. You also have this Justify command that works
for paragraphs of text and makes the left and right margins equal.
One thing to notice is that the alignment commands aligns the text within the placeholder
or text box that it's in, not across the slide. So far we've been working with placeholders,
you can also insert text into text boxes. Text boxes work just like placeholders, only
they only hold text and not other items such as pictures and charts.
Text boxes really allow you to add to the predefined layouts so that you can place text
wherever you want, even if there isn't a layout that exactly meets your needs.
To insert a text box, select the Insert tab on the Ribbon.
Then, click the Text Box command in the Text group.
Your cursor will turn into a crosshair. Just click your mouse anywhere on the slide
where you want the text box to appear and while holding down the mouse button, drag
your mouse across until the text box is the desired width and then release the mouse button.
Ok, so now you have your text box. You can just insert your text.
When I press Enter, the text box height increases and I can add more text.
I really don't want this text box at the top of my slide.
To move it, click the text box and your cursor becomes a cross with arrows on each end.
While holding the mouse button, drag the text box to the desired location on the page and
then release the button. You can also move the text box in different
directions. Just click the green circle and rotate the
text box to the left or right. The squares are resizing handles.
Just click one of the squares on the left or right side, hold down the mouse button,
and drag the mouse until the box is the desired width.
Then, release the mouse button. Sometimes you will need to resize the text
box if you want to increase your font size or make other formatting changes.
Before we wrap up talking about text, let's take a look at how you can move text from
place to place. I'm going to show you how use the copy and
paste commands. Let's say I want to copy this quote on slide
1 and put it on slide 2. Just select the text, and then click the copy
command on the Home tab. Now, I can paste this text on this slide or
on any other slide. Since I want it on slide 2, I'll just click
that slide in the task pane, and place my insertion point wherever I want the text to
appear. Now, just click the Paste command on the Home
tab. And there you go...the text you copied now
appears on slide 2. I actually want to delete that, so I'll click
Undo on the Quick Access toolbar. Well, that wraps up the basics when it comes
to formatting and editing text in PowerPoint.