A box with a fill color and edges

Since a “Placeholder box” or text is regarded as a shape, we can provide a background color to this, a gradient, a texture, or a picture.

To fill a “Placeholder box” or “Text box”, first select the box.

This gives us a tab called “Format” under a “Drawing Tools” contextual tab.

 

Then click the “Shape Fill” button.

Click this button or on the paint pot, as I call it. Then your box gets colored with the last fill color.

Click this button on the text, or the downward-pointing arrow will open a drop-down menu with various options.

At the top we find the colors used in the different themes, more on themes in a later lesson.

Below that we have the standard colors.

The “No Fill” option removes the fill color, if you had set one.

The “More fill colors” option gives us a dialog where we can choose from more colors.

The “Picture” option opens the “Picture” dialog, where we can navigate to the image we want to set as background.
Select the file and click the “Insert” button in the dialog.

 

The “Gradient” option gives us a short list of four options.

1. “No Gradient”, 2. “Light variations”, 3. “Dark variations” and 4. “More Gradients”.

The possibilities are many but, that they are to be tried.

 

The “Texture” gives us a menu with a number of available textures and the “More textures ” option from which we can choose our custom texture, by clicking on the “File” button and navigating to your texture .

 

All options also display a “Live Preview” here.

 

The “Shape Outline”, is actually just the same. Only difference available here is about the “Weight” and “Dashes” .

The “Weight” refers to the line width of the edge and the “Dashes” are related to the line type of the edge. It is clear, I think.

 

To fill with transparent background, click the downward pointing arrow next to the “Shape Effects” button in “Format” tab.

This opens the “Format Shape” dialog box.

On the left of this dialog, select the “Fill” tab and on the right side, slide the slider to the desired transparency.

 

Rotating a shape

Each shape in our slides, including the “Placeholder box” and text, have a turn handle on top.

This is the green circle that you see when this box is selected.

 

When we move the mouse pointer over the circle, it changes this into a circular arrow.

To rotate the “Text box”, click and hold the mouse button and drag the mouse pointer left or right.

 

A second way to rotate a shape is by using the “Spin” button in the “Format” tab in the “Ribbon”.

This opens a drop-down menu with five options of which, the first four seem obvious to me .
The fifth option opens a dialog, where we can enter the rotation angle.

 

Multiple columns in a box

Since “PowerPoint” 2007 version, we have the “Columns” option.

What this does is, you guessed it! It places the text into columns.

 

We find the “Columns” under the “Home” tab in the “Ribbon”.

First, select the text you want to divide into multiple columns.

Click the “Columns” button in the tab.

This opens the drop-down menu where we have the option of choosing 1, 2 or 3 columns.

Below the drop-down menu, we have the “Multiple columns” option.

When we click it, it opens a dialog window with two fill-in boxes.

In the upper box, you determine the number of columns and in the lower, you will determine the spacing between the columns.

Click the OK button when you’re done.

 

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