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Shaping Up Your Presentations

Ever wanted to insert a fairly basic shape into a presentation, but didn't want to draw it yourself? PowerPoint has a built in tool to do just this for you: The AutoShapes tool.

What are AutoShapes?

When viewing your slides in edit mode, you should see a button that reads "AutoShapes". This button will allow you to insert a number of basic shapes. Once you have created your shape, you will be able to change how it looks to be exactly what you want to see.

What shapes are available?

The shapes have been categorized into nine basic categories, as illustrated in this screen shot:



Each category of shape has several different optional shapes to choose from.

• Lines: 6 types of straight and curved lines, with and without arrows on the ends.

• Connectors: 9 mechanisms for connecting shapes and lines to each other

• Basic shapes: 32 shapes including squares, circles, faces, etc.
  The full list is shown above.

• Block Arrows: 28 different wide arrows including curved, straight, and corner arrows.

• Flowchart Symbols: 28 useful symbols for charting process and code flows.

• Stars and Banners: 8 different stars and 8 different banners for adding emphasis to your text

• Callouts: 4 thought balloons and 16 different boxes for marking information on a chart or diagram

• Action Buttons: 8 of the basic buttons used on web pages

• More AutoShapes: Cool tip for using clip art as shapes. Covered at the end of this article.

But my menu doesn't show all the options you have described here!

Do you see a double arrow pointing down? This arrow indicates that there are options you haven't used much. Hover your mouse over this arrow and the remainder of the AutoShape categories will appear.

SmartDraw is the easy drawing software that lets you create perfect charts, diagrams, and illustrations for all your PowerPoint presentations. SmartDraw has over 50,000 pre-drawn symbols and templates for you to use. Drawing is easy, simply drag and drop the images into your diagram. SmartDraw works seemlessly with PowerPoint, just copy and paste right into your presentation. Click here to download SmartDraw free for 30 days.

How do I use these shapes?

To insert a shape, start on the slide you wish to enhance. Click and hold on the AutoRun button. Slide up to the category desired. Slide right to the specific shape desired. Release the mouse button. Now, either click on the slide or click and drag on the slide to insert your shape. If you click, you will get the default sized shape. If you click and drag, you can make the shape any size youwish.

You now have a basic shape on your slide. If you inserted the thought balloon callout, for example, your slide might look like this:


Your initial shape will be different than this one, as a green fill has been preset for this shape to allow it to stand out on your screen.

Next, you need to change the look of your shapes. This next section will address what to do to customize your shapes to look just the way you want them. These options include:

• Change the size and orientation of the object

• Change the color and line of the object

• Add text to the object

Change the size and orientation of the shape

Check out the thought balloon in the picture above. Notice that it is surronded by a grey box with eight small white boxes imbedded in it? These boxes are "handles". They allow you to adjust the size of the shape in each dimension. The handles on the corners do a proportional change in two dimensions, the handles on the sides change only one dimension.

Now, look for the yellow diamond in the bottom circle of the thought balloon. This diamond will show up somewhere on each AutoShape. It allows you to change the orientation of shape. In the case of our thought balloon, it allows you to connect the thought balloon directly to the head of the character on your slide that is thinking. For example, you might want an effect somewhat like this:


Add text to the object

Now, we need to know what the person is thinking. One way to do this is to add text to the thought balloon.

To add text, right click inside the thought balloon and select "Edit Text. You can now type your text. The text will show up in your default text format. You can change the look of the text by selecting the text and choosing "Font" off the "Format" menu.

Did your balloon change its size as you typed? This happens when you have auto-resize turned on. To prevent this, right click on the shape and select the "Format AutoShape" option. Click on the "Text Box" tab. Click in the "Resize AutoShape to fit text" checkbox. Notice that there are other options here you may want to change. For example, you can chage where the text starts from the top of the shape to the bottom or middle of the shape.

Change the color and edge of the shape

Ready to complete the customization process? Next up is changing what is inside the thought balloon, behind the text. There are more fill and line options in PowerPoint than we could cover here. So, we will concentrate on the six options shown in this diagram:




Each of these thought balloons was created by changing the options on the "Colors and Lines" tab from the right click option "Format AutoShape" or the same choice on the "Format" menu.



Changes made for each shape are detailed in the following list:

1. Background of white, line of blue - Created by setting the color to white and the line to a blue one point line.

2. Turtle Clip - Created by setting the color to a piece of clip art and the line to a blue one point line. On the drop down box for color, select "Fill Effects". From here, select the "Picture" tab. Select a picture or graphic. PowerPoint will fill each balloon with the picture you select. You can achieve another picture-type effect by selecting the "Pattern" tab and selecting your picture or graphic for the pattern.

3. Background of blue, no line - Created by setting the color to light blue and selecting none for the line

4. Gradient with fine line - Created by setting the color to a gradient and the line to a burgundy two point line. On the drop down box for color, select "Fill Effects". From here, select the "Gradient" tab. Choose a preset gradient or create one of your own. This one is a two color, light blue to dark blue, going diagonally up.

5. Background with a line - Created by setting the color to none and the line to a blue one point line. This allows whatever is behind the shape to show through. In this case, it shows the background.

6. Background fill with a line - Created by setting the color to the background and the line to a blue one point line. To accomplish this, select background from the color drop down box. This will take the background color or design and use it to fill the shape. If you change the background, the shape will change as well. The difference between this and the previous choice is that the background is centered in the shape here, where the other shape shows the section of the background the shape is over.

What if I want to reuse a shape?

If you are going to use the same color and line style for many shapes, go to the properties page for the shape you wish to duplicate. At the bottom of the Color and Lines" tab, you will see a check box labeled "Default for new objects". Click this box and all future shapes will default to the setting on this tab. You can still customize them as you desire, but they will start one step closer to your goal.

What more can I do?

Remember that "More AutoShapes" option we mentioned at the beginning of the article? Well, that option lets you take the functionality you have just learned for AutoShapes and apply it to basic clip art pieces.

You will have the option of changing the background color or the line style of all clips. In addition, on simple clips, you will actually have the option of changing the color of the shapes themselves.

Copyright 2002

Looking for more great autoshape tricks?

Check out Glen Millar Communications! Glen ofers information on using PowerPoint to create 3D presentation pages and complex animations in PowerPoint.