Selecting text

Selecting text in a “Placeholder box” can be done in various ways.
The most common way is with the help of the mouse.
Click in the “Placeholder box” to select the text.
Keep the mouse button pressed and drag it over the text you wish to select.
Selected text is highlighted with a blue background.

To “de-select” text, click anywhere inside the “Placeholder box”.

If you want to select just a word, double-click the word.
To select an entire paragraph, click the paragraph thrice.

A second way to select text is, to place the mouse pointer at the beginning of the text, press the “Shift” key on your keyboard, and click on the place in the “Placeholder box” where you want to end the selection.

To select non-adjacent text, keep the “Ctrl” key on your keyboard pressed.

There are other ways to select text, but if I should mention them all here, I’ll probably fill three pages and this is not my intention.

Modifying Text:
We also have different ways of entering text in “PowerPoint”.
To begin with, place the cursor at the location of the text in the “Placeholder box” where you want to modify.
To remove a character before the cursor, hit the “Backspace” key on your keyboard.
To move one character after the cursor hit the “Esc” key on your keyboard.
If you want to delete a whole word, or words, first select the word and then press the “Detete” key on your keyboard.
If you want to remove all the text from a “Placeholder box”, select the text box and press the “Delete” key on your keyboard. This only removes the text from your “Placeholder box”, not the “Placeholder box” itself.
If you wish to delete your “Placeholder box”, repeat these actions.

To modify a word, select the word that is to be changed and start typing. This is the quickest way.
To insert the text, place the cursor at the point in the “Placeholder box” where you want to insert text and start typing.

Formatting Text
To format text in our presentation, we use the various options in the “Font” section under the “Home” tab in the “Ribbon”.
All these buttons can also be found in any application of “Office” 2007. I’m not going to dwell much on this.
You have the font, font size, increase font size, decrease font size and remove all formatting buttons.
Among them are: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, text shadow, character spacing, capitalization, and text color.
I think that the only one that is not in “Word” is “Text shadow” and this does not need much explanation.

Some of these options have the “Live Preview” feature which is a new feature in “PowerPoint” 2007 .
This displays the format of the text in our slides, before it is applied.

 

It is very useful and time saving.

If you wish to change the layout of the entire text in a “Placeholder box”, select the “Placeholder box”.
If you want to change only certain parts of a text, select only those parts you want to change.

To revert back to the previous format, please use the “Clear Formatting” button.
This will undo the layout of all your text in the “Placeholder box” .
Of course, this is if the text is selected,.

Here’s another tip: Do not use a font size smaller than 18pt., otherwise it will be very difficult for your audience to read.

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