“Placeholder boxes” vs. “Text boxes”As I had discussed previously, “Placeholder boxes” are used to maintain consistency between the different slides in our presentation ( Lesson 4.)
These can hold text, but are still very different from an ordinary “Text box”.

Firstly, “Placeholder boxes” can only be inserted via the “Slide Master” tab, which I will explain in a later lesson.
Secondly, if you want to remove all text that is entered, from a “Placeholder box”, you will see that the standard text in “Placeholder box” re-appears.

Thirdly, a “Placeholder box”, whether it be a title box, a subtitle box or a caption box, they all have a preset size, independent of the text that is entered.
Fourthly, the information from a “Text box” is not listed in the “Outline” view.

Fifthly, if it is an empty box, it disappears completely.
Sixthly, the size of a text box changes depending on the length of text that we enter.
This is in contrast with a “Placeholder box” where changes are made to the font of the text.

Manual entry of a “Text box”

If you want to insert a “Text box” in a slide, click on the “Text Box” button
under the “Insert” tab in the “Ribbon”.                                    
The mouse pointer changes to an inverted cross.
Now, you have two options:
1. Click and start typing, but then, all your text will be placed on one line, even if the text moves outside the slide margins. This is a good solution if your text only contains a few words.
2. Click and drag the mouse pointer in your slide, in order to determine the width of your “Text box”.

The text will automatically go to the next line. Text wrap, as they call it, is when you reached the end of the line the text moves to the next line.

“AutoFit”, a “Text box”, and a “Placeholder box”
Thus, as mentioned before, the size of the “Text box” adapts to the size of a “Placeholder box”.
The opposite is that a “Textbox”, here changes the size of the box according to the length of text.
This we can adjust using the “AutoFit” feature.
To do this, right-click the text box or “Placeholder box” and select “Format Shape …” from the drop-down menu.
This opens the “Format Shape” dialog box.
The “Format Shape” dialog box consists of two parts.
On the left side are the various categories and on the right side, we find the various options under these categories.
Select the “Text Box” category.
“Text Layout”, “AutoFit” and “Internal margin” are the various sections in this category.
The upper “Text Layout” section seems clear.
The lower, “Internal Margin” section also seems clear.
I will elaborate a little on the “AutoFit” section.
In the “AutoFit” section, we have three options.

1. “Do not AutoFit“. When this is checked, the size of the “Text box” or “Placeholder box” that was selected is not adapted to the length of text. This may lead to this text going beyond the edges of the box.
2. “Shrink Text on overflow“. This is the default setting for a “Placeholder box” but, can also be set for a “Text box”. When this is checked, the text size adapts to the size of the box.
3. “Resize shape to fit text“. This is the default setting for a “Text box” but, can also be set for a “Placeholder box”. When this has been checked, the size of the box will adapt to the size of the text.

Whatever changes you make, they are applied only to the selected text or “Placeholder box”.
But we also have the ability to set this for all “Text boxes” and “Placeholder boxes”.
Just click the “Office” button at top left of the “Ribbon”.
Select the “PowerPoint Options” at the bottom of the menu.
In the “PowerPoint Options”, select the “Proofing” tab.
Click the “AutoCorrect Options” button.
This opens a second dialog box, “AutoCorrect”.
Select the “AutoFormat As You Type” tab.
Select the “AutoFit title to text placeholder” check box and uncheck the “Autofit Body to text placeholder” check box.
Click OK when you want to save these settings.

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