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Microsoft PowerPoint
2003
Windows XP

Formatting Slides in PowerPoint 2003

Getting Started button Slide button Format Slides button Graphics and Media button Charts and Tables button Slide Show button What's New button

Text Attributes

PowerPoint lets you change the style and characteristics of your text.

To change the text format, choose the Format menu > Font to display the font dialog box. From this dialog box you can choose the font, point size, font style, and text color for the selected text.

You can make your text shadowed by choosing the Shadow option in the effects box. The Superscript option raises the text above the current text line and the Subscript option places the text below the current line.

Font dialog box
 

PowerPoint also lets you define formatting characteristics for paragraphs of text. The Format > Alignment menu command lets you select the alignment of the text within the paragraph. The Format > Line Spacing menu command is used to set the spacing between lines of a paragraph. The Before Paragraph and After Paragraph boxes are used to set the line spacing before and after each selected paragraph.

Slide Designs

Slide Design pane

PowerPoint provides slide designs as a quick and easy way to create a background and design style for your fonts and bullets. There are various different slide designs that you can choose by going to the Slide Design pane in the Task Pane.

In the Task Pane:

    1. Click on the down arrow in the top right corner. A list of all the different panes will appear.
    2. Select Slide Design. The Task Pane will change and thumbnail images of each slide design will appear.
    3. If you click on one of them, your slide will automatically apply that slide design.

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Find And Replace

PowerPoint lets you find and replace text relatively quickly. To find a word or line of text, select the Edit menu > Find. In the dialog box, enter the desired text to find and select the appropriate options. When you are done, click on the Find Next button. If PowerPoint finds the text, it will be highlighted in the active slide. Continue to click on the Find Next button to find each occurance of the word or phrase.

To replace a word or line of text, select the Edit menu > Replace. In the dialog box, enter the word or line of text you wish to replace the old text with and select the appropriate options. When done, select Find Next to find the next occurrence without replacing it, select Replace to replace the next occurrence, or Replace All to replace all occurrences of the word or line of text.

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Spell Checking

PowerPoint provides a spell checker. To ensure no spelling mistakes, select the Tools menu > Spelling. PowerPoint will then search all your slides for misspelled words.

If an unknown word is found, PowerPoint will display a dialog box with possible corrections. To correct the misspelled word, click on the correct spelling and select Change or Change All to change the current and any future misspellings of the word.

The Add button will let you add the word to your personal dictionary. This is useful for commonly used words such as your name, which PowerPoint may not recognize.

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Slide Transitions

Slide transitions refer to the way slides change from one to the next during a slide show. They can be used to break the monotony of changing slides, and include effects like fade out and fade to black.

To set a slide transition for the current slide, select the Slide Show menu > Slide Transition. This displays the transition information in the task pane from which you can choose the type and speed of the transition. Selecting an option from the task pane displays an example of the transition on your current slide.

The Modify Transition section lets you modify the speed of the transition and allows you to designate a sound for each transition.

The Advance slide section lets you select the number of seconds the slide will be displayed before PowerPoint automatically advances to the next slide or whether you would like to transition manually. Use this only if you need a timed slide.

Choosing Apply to Master or Apply to All Slides applies that transition to every slide. If you do not select either button, the transition will only effect the slide you are working on.

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Wizards

Wizards let you easily create slides by clicking on the desired options and letting PowerPoint do all the formatting. Wizards are a great way to create professional looking slides with very little effort.

Selecting Photo album... is a quick and easy way to create a photo slide show with digital images. You can choose multiple images at once and PowerPoint will automatically insert them into the slides for you.

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Slide Master

The slide master contains the default formatting of the title, text, and background items that appear on all the slides in the presentation. Any changes you make to the slide master automatically occur in all slides in the presentation.

To edit the slide master, select the View menu > Master > Slide Master. This makes the slide master the current slide for editing. All changes you make are applied to the slide master. When you are done, select the View menu > Normal. All slides will now have the changes made to the slide master.

If you wish a slide to differ from the slide master, make the slide active by clicking on it once in the Slides view. Any new changes made to the slide will apply only to the current slide, and not to the slide master or other slides in the presentation.

If you wish to change the design of a particular slide:

    1. Select the slide you wish to modify by clicking on it in the Slides view.
    2. Select the Format menu > Slide Design.
    3. Choose the design you would like to use from the task pane by selecting the drop down arrow that appears when you hover your mouse over the preview slide.

      Slide Design Preview Window

    4. Select Apply to Selected Slides.

Any further changes to the slide master will not erase the formatting you specifically defined for this slide.

If you wish to reapply the slide formats:

  1. Select the Format menu > Slide Design to display the layout information in the task pane.
  2. Choose the slide listed under Used In This Presentation.
  3. From the drop down arrow select Apply To All Slides to change all slides to the formats of the slide master.
  4. If you would only like to change certain slides, select them in the Slides view and choose Apply To Select Slides.

    Please note: This will not modify the slide master's color scheme.

To apply the color scheme from the slide master:

    1. Select the Format menu > Slide Design
    2. Select Color Schemes from the Slide Design information in the task pane.
      • Here you can choose standard or custom color schemes.
      • Custom color schemes are available for edit by choosing the Edit Color Schemes... link at the bottom of the task pane.
    3. To select a color scheme, use the drop down arrow and select the option you wish to use.
    4. If editing your own color schemes, choose the Apply button when you are finished.

A background item can be removed from an individual slide by first making it the active slide. Then, choose the Format menu > Background. Verify that the checkbox labeled Omit Background Graphics from Master is unchecked and after selecting the changes, choose Apply.

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