Chapter at a Glance
In later chapters of this book, we show you ways to add fancy effects to electronic presentations so that you can really grab the attention of your audience. But no amount of animation, jazzy colors, and supporting pictures will convey your message if the words on the slides are inadequate to the task.
For most of your presentations, text is the foundation on which you build everything else. Even if you follow the current trend of building presentations that consist primarily of pictures, you still need to make sure that titles and any other words on your slides do their job, and do it well. So this chapter shows you various ways to work with text to ensure that the words are accurate, consistent, and appropriately formatted.
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to enter and edit text on slides, on the Outline tab, and in text boxes. You’ll see how the AutoCorrect feature helps you avoid typographical errors and the AutoFit feature makes the words you type fit in the available space. Then you’ll see how the spell-checking feature can help you correct misspellings. Finally, you’ll learn how to replace one word with another throughout a presentation by using the Find And Replace feature, which you also use to ensure the consistent use of fonts.
Note
Practice Files Before you can complete the exercises in this chapter, you need to copy the book’s practice files to your computer. The practice files you’ll use to complete the exercises in this chapter are in the Chapter14 practice file folder. A complete list of practice files is provided in Using the Practice Files at the beginning of this book.
When you add a new slide to a presentation, the layout you select indicates with placeholders the type and position of the objects on the slide. For example, a Title And Content slide has placeholders for a title and either a bulleted list with one or more levels of bullet points and subpoints or an illustration such as a table, chart, graphic, or movie clip. You can enter text directly into a placeholder on a slide in the Slide pane, or you can enter text on the Outline tab of the Overview pane, where the entire presentation is displayed in outline form.
When you point to a placeholder on a slide, the pointer changes to an I-beam. When you click the placeholder, a blinking cursor appears where you clicked to indicate where characters will appear when you type. As you type, the text appears both on the slide and on the Outline tab.
In this exercise, you’ll enter slide titles, bullet points, and subpoints, both directly in placeholders on a slide and on the Outline tab.
Note
SET UP You don’t need any practice files to complete this exercise. Open a new, blank presentation, and save it as BuyingTripsA. Then follow the steps.
In the Slide pane, click the slide’s Click to add title placeholder.
A selection box surrounds the title placeholder, and the cursor appears in the center of the box, indicating that the text you type will be centered in the placeholder.
Type Buying Trips. (Do not type the period.)
By tradition, slide titles have no periods.
Tip
If you make a typing error while working through this exercise, press Backspace to delete the mistake, and then type the correct text. For information about more sophisticated ways of checking and correcting spelling, see Correcting and Sizing Text While Typing and Checking Spelling and Choosing the Best Words, both later in this chapter.
In the Overview pane, click the Outline tab.
Notice that the text you typed also appears there.
Note
Troubleshooting The appearance of buttons and groups on the ribbon changes depending on the width of the program window. For information about changing the appearance of the ribbon to match our screen images, see Modifying the Display of the Ribbon at the beginning of this book.
In the Slide pane, click the Click to add subtitle placeholder.
Type Ensuring Successful Outcomes, and then press Enter to move the cursor to a new line in the same placeholder.
Type Judy Lew, Purchasing Manager.
As you enter titles and bullet points throughout the exercises, don’t type any ending punctuation marks.
On the Quick Access Toolbar, click the Save button.We won’t tell you to save your work again in this exercise. Suffice it to say that you should save often.
Add a new slide with the Title and Content layout.
Note
See Also For information about adding slides, see Adding and Deleting Slides in Chapter 13.
PowerPoint creates a slide with placeholders for a title and either a bulleted list or an illustration. The Outline tab now displays an icon for a second slide, and the status bar displays Slide 2 of 2.
Without clicking anywhere, type Overview.
If you start typing on an empty slide without first selecting a placeholder, PowerPoint enters the text into the title placeholder.
On the Outline tab, click to the right of Overview, and then press Enter.
PowerPoint adds a slide to the presentation, and an icon for slide 3 appears in the Outline pane.
Press the Tab key.
The new slide changes to a bullet point on slide 2. The bullet is gray until you enter text for the bullet point.
Type Preparing for a buying trip, and then press Enter.
PowerPoint adds a new bullet at the same level.
Type Traveling internationally, and then press Enter.
Type Meeting the client, and then press Enter.
Press Shift+Tab.
On the Outline tab, the bullet changes into an icon for slide 3.
Type Preparing for a Buying Trip, press Enter, and then press Tab.
Type Know your needs, and then press Enter.
On the Home tab, in
the Paragraph group, click the Increase List Level button.PowerPoint creates a subpoint.
Tip
You can use the Increase List Level button to
change slide titles to bullet points and bullet points to subpoints,
both in the Slide pane and on the Outline tab. You can also use the
Decrease List Level
button to change subpoints to bullet points and bullet points to
slide titles in both places. However, when you’re entering
text
on the Outline tab, it’s quicker to use keys—Tab and
Shift+Tab—to perform these functions than it is to take your
hands off the keyboard to use your mouse.Type Know your customers, press Enter, and then type Know the current trends.
Press Ctrl+Enter.
Instead of creating another bullet, PowerPoint creates a new slide.
The size and position of the placeholders on a slide are dictated by the slide’s design. Every slide you create with a particular layout of a particular design has the same placeholders in the same locations, and the text you type in them has the same format.
If you want to add text that does not belong in a placeholder—for example, if you want to add an annotation to a graphic—you can create an independent text box and enter the text there. You can create a text box in two ways:
You can click the Text Box button, click the slide where you want the text to appear, and then type. The text box grows to fit what you type on one line, even expanding beyond the border of the slide if necessary.
You can click the Text Box button, drag a box where you want the text to appear on the slide, and then type. When the text reaches the right boundary of the box, the height of the box expands by one line so that the text can wrap. As you continue typing, the width of the box stays the same, but the height grows as necessary to accommodate all the text.
When you click inside a text box, the box is surrounded by a dashed border. You can then enter new text or edit existing text.
Clicking the dashed border changes it to a solid border. You can then manipulate the text box as a unit.
You can move a text box by dragging its border, and you can copy it just as easily by holding down the Ctrl key while you drag. You can drag the blue squares and circles around the border of the box, which are called sizing handles, to change the size and shape of the text box. If you want the text in the text box to be oriented differently than the rest of the text on the slide, you can drag the green circle, which is called the rotating handle, to accomplish this purpose.
If you want to create a text box of a specific size or shape, you can right-click the box’s border, click Format Shape, click Size in the Format Shape dialog box, and then change the settings. On the Text Box page of this dialog box, you can change the direction of text by displaying the Text Direction list and clicking one of the Rotate options. You can click Stacked in this list to keep the individual characters horizontal but make them run from top to bottom in the box instead of from left to right.
Tip
If you want to change the size, shape, or behavior of a placeholder on an individual slide, you can use the same techniques as those you use with text boxes. If you want to make changes to the same placeholder on every slide, you should make the adjustments on the presentation’s master slide. For more information about working with master slides, refer to Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Step by Step, by Joyce Cox and Joan Lambert (Microsoft Press, 2010).
On the Text Box page, you can also specify whether PowerPoint should shrink the text to fit the box if it won’t all fit at the default size (18 points), and whether the text should wrap within the box.
To deselect the text box, you click a blank area of the slide. The border then disappears. If you want a text box to have a border when it’s not selected, you can display the Format Shape dialog box, and on the Line Color page, select either Solid Line or Gradient Line. You can then fine-tune the border’s color or gradient to achieve the effect you want.
In this exercise, you’ll select and deselect a placeholder to see the effect on its border. You’ll create one text box whose height stays constant while its width increases and another whose width stays constant while its height increases. You’ll manipulate these text boxes by rotating and moving one of them and sizing the other.
Note
SET UP You need the BuyingTripsB_start presentation located in your Chapter14 practice file folder to complete this exercise. Open the BuyingTripsB_start presentation, and save it as BuyingTripsB. Then follow the steps.
Move to slide 2, and then on the slide, click the slide title.
The cursor and dashed border indicate that the placeholder is selected for editing.
Point to the border of the placeholder, and when the pointer changes to a four-headed arrow, click the mouse button once.
The placeholder is selected as a unit, as indicated by the solid border. Although you won’t usually want to change the size or location of a text placeholder, while the placeholder has a solid border, you can size and move it just like any other text box. Your changes will affect only the placeholder on the current slide, not corresponding placeholders on other slides.
To deselect the placeholder, click outside it in a blank area of the slide.
Move to slide 5, and then click anywhere in the bulleted list to display its placeholder.
On the Insert tab,
in the Text group, click the Text
Box button, and then point below and to
the left of the placeholder for the bulleted list.The pointer shape changes to an upside-down t.
Click the slide to create a text box.
A small, empty text box appears with a cursor blinking inside it.
Type Critical to get things off to a good start.
The width of the text box increases to accommodate the text as you type it.
To rotate the text so that it reads vertically instead of horizontally, point to the green rotating handle that is attached to the upper-middle handle of the text box, and drag it 90 degrees clockwise.
Tip
You can also rotate a text box by selecting the
box for manipulation, and then on the Format contextual tab, in the
Arrange group, clicking the Rotate button. In the list that appears,
you can select an option to rotate the text box by 90 degrees to the
left or right or to flip it horizontally or vertically.Point to the border of the box (not to a handle), and then drag the box up and to the right, until it sits at the right edge of the slide.
Right-click the border of the box, and then click Format Shape.
In the Format Shape dialog box, click Line Color. Then click Solid Line.
The page changes to allow you to pick the line color you want.
Click the Color button, and in the top row of the Theme Colors palette, click the orange box (Orange, Accent 6). Then click Close.
Click a blank area of the slide to deselect the text box so that you can see the orange border.
Move to slide 6, and then in the Text group, click the Text Box button. On the left side of the area below the bulleted list, drag approximately 2 inches to the right and 0.5 inch down.
No matter what height you make the box, it snaps to a standard height when you release the mouse button.
Type The Buyer manual has important information about the minimum requirements.
The width of the box does not change, but the height of the box increases to accommodate the complete entry.
Click the border of the text box to select it as a unit. Then drag the solid border and the white sizing handles until the box is two lines high and the same width as the bullet points.
Click a blank area of the slide to deselect the text box.
The border of the text box is no longer visible.
After you enter text in either a placeholder or a text box, you can change it at any time. You can insert new text by clicking where you want to make the insertion and simply typing. However, before you can change existing text, you have to select it by using the following techniques:
Word Double-click the word to select the word and the space following it. Punctuation following the word is not selected.
Adjacent words, lines, or paragraphs Drag through them. Alternatively, position the cursor at the beginning of the text you want to select, hold down the Shift key, and either press an arrow key to select characters one at a time or click at the end of the text you want to select.
Bullet point or subpoint Click its bullet on either the Outline tab or the slide.
All the text in a placeholder Click inside the placeholder, click the Select button in the Editing group on the Home tab, and then click Select All.
All the objects on a slide Select a placeholder (so that it has a solid border), click the Select button, and then click Select All. All the other objects on that slide are added to the selection. You can then work with all the objects as a unit.
Tip
Clicking Select and then Selection Pane displays the Selection And Visibility task pane, where you can specify whether particular objects should be displayed or hidden. You might want to hide an object if you’re using the slide in similar presentations for two different audiences, one of which needs more detail than the other.
Selected text appears highlighted in the location where you made the selection—that is, on either the slide or the Outline tab.
To replace a selection, you type the new text. To delete the selection, you press either the Delete key or the Backspace key.
If you want to move or copy the selected text, you have three options:
Drag-and-drop editing Use this feature, which is frequently referred to simply as dragging, when you need to move or copy text within the same slide or to a slide that is visible on the Outline tab without scrolling. Start by using any of the methods described previously to select the text. Then point to the selection, hold down the mouse button, drag the text to its new location, and release the mouse button. To copy the selection, hold down the Ctrl key while you drag.
Cut, Copy, and Paste buttons Use this method when you need to move or copy text between two locations that you cannot see at the same time—for example, between slides that are not visible simultaneously on the Outline tab. Select the text, and click the Cut or Copy button in the Clipboard group on the Home tab. (The cut or copied item is stored in an area of your computer’s memory called the Microsoft Office Clipboard, hence the name of the group.) Then reposition the cursor, and click the Paste button to insert the selection in its new location. If you click the Paste arrow instead of the button, PowerPoint displays a list of different ways to paste the selection.
Pointing to a button under Paste Options displays a preview of how the cut or copied item will look when pasted into the text in that format, so you can experiment with different ways of pasting until you find the one you want.
Note
See Also For more information about the Clipboard, see the sidebar About the Clipboard later in this chapter.
Keyboard shortcuts It can be more efficient to press key combinations to cut, copy, and paste selections than to click buttons on the ribbon. The main keyboard shortcuts for editing tasks are listed in the following table.
Task
Keyboard shortcuts
Cut
Ctrl+X
Copy
Ctrl+C
Paste
Ctrl+V
Undo
Ctrl+Z
Repeat/Redo
Ctrl+Y
Tip
While moving and copying text on the Outline tab, you can collapse bullet points under slide titles so that you can see more of the presentation at one time. Double-click the icon of the slide whose bullet points you want to hide. Double-click again to redisplay the bullet points. To expand or collapse the entire outline at once, right-click the title of a slide, point to Expand or Collapse, and then click Expand All or Collapse All.
If you change your mind about a change you have made, you can reverse it by clicking the Undo button on the Quick Access Toolbar. If you undo an action in error, you can click the Redo button on the Quick Access Toolbar to reverse the change.
To undo multiple actions at the same time, you can click the Undo arrow and then click the earliest action you want to undo in the list. You can undo actions only in the order in which you performed them—that is, you cannot reverse your fourth previous action without first reversing the three actions that followed it.
Tip
The number of actions you can undo is set to 20, but you can change that number by clicking the File tab to display the Backstage view, clicking Options to display the PowerPoint Options dialog box, clicking Advanced, and then in the Editing Options area of the Advanced page, changing the Maximum Number Of Undos setting.
In this exercise, you’ll delete and replace words, as well as move bullet points and subpoints on the Outline tab and on slides.
Note
SET UP You need the BuyingTripsC_start presentation located in your Chapter14 practice file folder to complete this exercise. Open the BuyingTripsC_start presentation, and save it as BuyingTripsC. Then follow the steps.
On the Outline tab, in the first bullet on slide 2, double-click the word buying.
When you select text on either the Outline tab or the slide, a small toolbar (called the Mini Toolbar) containing options for formatting the text appears. If you ignore the Mini Toolbar, it fades from view.
Note
See Also For information about using the Mini Toolbar, see Changing the Alignment, Spacing, Size, and Look of Text in Chapter 15.
Press the Delete key.
In the slide 3 title, double-click Buying, and then press the Backspace key.
In the third bullet point on slide 5, double-click good, and then type lasting, followed by a space.
What you type replaces the selection. Notice that the text also changes in the Slide pane.
On slide 4, click the bullet to the left of Know the culture.
The entire bullet point is selected, including the invisible paragraph mark at the end.
Tip
When you want to work with a bullet point or subpoint as a whole, you need to ensure that the invisible paragraph mark at its end is included in the selection. If you drag across the text on the slide, you might miss the paragraph mark. As a precaution, hold down the Shift key and press End to be sure that the paragraph mark is part of the selection.
On the Home tab, in
the Clipboard group, click the Cut button.
Click to the left of the word Make in the first bullet point on slide 5, and then click the Paste button.Display slide 3 in the Slide pane, and click the bullet point to the left of Know your needs to select the bullet point and its subpoints.
Drag the selection down and to the left of Read the Buyer manual.
On the Quick Access Toolbar, click the Undo button to reverse your last editing
action.The Redo button appears on the Quick Access Toolbar, to the right of Undo. When you point to the Undo or Redo button, the name in the ScreenTip reflects your last editing action—for example, Redo Drag And Drop.
On the Quick Access Toolbar, click the Redo button to restore the editing
action.
About the Clipboard
You can view the items that have been cut or copied to the Clipboard in the Clipboard task pane, which you display by clicking the Clipboard dialog box launcher on the Home tab.
To paste an individual item at the cursor, you simply click the item in the Clipboard task pane. To paste all the items, click the Paste All button. You can point to an item, click the arrow that appears, and then click Delete to remove it from the Clipboard and the task pane, or you can remove all the items by clicking the Clear All button.
You can control the behavior of the Clipboard task pane by clicking Options at the bottom of the pane, and choosing the circumstances under which you want the task pane to appear.
To close the Clipboard task pane, click the Close button at the right end of its title bar.
We all make mistakes while typing text in a presentation. To help you ensure that these mistakes don’t go uncorrected, PowerPoint uses the AutoCorrect feature to catch and automatically correct many common capitalization and spelling errors. For example, if you type teh instead of the or WHen instead of When, AutoCorrect immediately corrects the entry.
Tip
If you don’t want an entry you type to be
corrected—for example, if you want to start a new paragraph with a
lowercase letter—click the Undo button on the Quick Access Toolbar
when AutoCorrect makes the change.
You can customize AutoCorrect to recognize misspellings you routinely type or to ignore text you do not want AutoCorrect to change. You can also create your own AutoCorrect entries to automate the typing of frequently used text. For example, you might customize AutoCorrect to enter the name of your organization when you type only an abbreviation.
In addition to providing the AutoCorrect feature to correct misspellings as you type, PowerPoint provides an AutoFit feature to size text to fit its placeholder. By default, if you type more text than will fit in a placeholder, PowerPoint reduces the size of the text so that all the text fits, and displays the AutoFit Options button to the left of the placeholder. Clicking this button displays a menu that gives you control over automatic sizing. For example, you can stop sizing text for the current placeholder while retaining the AutoFit settings for other placeholders.
Tip
You can also change the AutoFit settings for a placeholder on the Text Box page of the Format Shape dialog box. In the Autofit area, you can change the default Shrink Text On Overflow setting to Do Not Autofit. You can also specify that instead of the text being sized to fit the placeholder, the placeholder should be sized to fit the text.
You can change the default AutoFit settings by clicking Control AutoCorrect Options on the AutoFit Options button’s menu to display the AutoFormat As You Type page of the AutoCorrect dialog box.
In this exercise, you’ll use AutoCorrect to fix a misspelled word and you’ll add an AutoCorrect entry. Then you’ll use AutoFit to size text so that it fits within its placeholder and to make a long bulleted list fit on one slide by converting its placeholder to a two-column layout.
Note
SET UP You need the CommunityServiceA_start presentation located in your Chapter14 practice file folder to complete this exercise. Open the CommunityServiceA_start presentation, and save it as CommunityServiceA. Then follow the steps.
Display slide 2, and click the content placeholder.
Being careful for the purposes of this exercise to include the misspellings, type Set up teh teem, press the Enter key, and then type Gather adn analyze data.
Almost immediately, AutoCorrect changes teh to the and adn to and. Notice that AutoCorrect does not change teem to team, or even flag it as a misspelling because teem is a legitimate word. PowerPoint cannot detect that you have used this homonym for team incorrectly. (A homonym is a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning.)
Click the File tab to display the Backstage view, click Options, and then in the left pane of the PowerPoint Options dialog box, click Proofing.
In the AutoCorrect options area, click AutoCorrect Options.
The AutoCorrect dialog box opens.
The top part of the dialog box lists general rules for correcting errors such as capitalization mistakes. You can change any of these rules by clearing the associated check box.
In the lower part of the dialog box, scroll through the huge table of misspellings.
When you type one of the entries in the first column, PowerPoint automatically substitutes the correct spelling from the second column. For this exercise, suppose you often misspell the word category as catigory.
In the Replace box above the table, type catigory, and then press the Tab key.
The table below scrolls to show you similar words that are already in the AutoCorrect list.
In the With box, type category, and then click Add.
Now if you type catigory in any presentation, PowerPoint will replace it with category.
Click OK to close the AutoCorrect dialog box, and then click OK again to close the PowerPoint Options dialog box.
On slide 2, with the cursor to the right of the word data, press Enter, type Assign to a catigory, and then press Enter.
PowerPoint changes the word catigory to category.
Display slide 1, click the subtitle placeholder, and type Community Service Committee.
Without moving the cursor, hold down the Shift key, and click to the left of Community to select the three words you just typed. Then press Ctrl+C to copy the words to the Clipboard.
Open the PowerPoint Options dialog box, and then open the AutoCorrect dialog box.
With the cursor in the Replace box, type csc. Then click the With box, press Ctrl+V to paste in the words you copied to the Clipboard, and click Add.
Close the AutoCorrect dialog box, and then close the PowerPoint Options dialog box.
Display slide 3, and click to the left of Responsibilities. Then type csc, and press the Spacebar.
PowerPoint changes the initials csc to Community Service Committee.
Display slide 1, and click at the right end of the title.
Notice that the setting in the Font Size box in the Font group on the Home tab is 44.
Type : (a colon), press Enter, and then type Planning, Selling, and Executing a Project.
When you type the word Project, AutoFit reduces the size of the title to 40 so that it fits in the title placeholder.
Click the AutoFit
Options button.A menu of options appears.
Press the Esc key to close the menu without making a selection.
Display slide 8, click at the right end of the last subpoint, and notice that the font size is 28. Then press Enter, and type How do we know if we are successful?
The text size changes from 28 to 26.
Click the AutoFit Options button.
The menu of options appears.
Click Change to Two Columns.
The placeholder is instantly formatted to accommodate a two-column bulleted list.
Click a blank area of the slide.
When the placeholder is not selected, it is easier to see the results.
The AutoCorrect feature is very useful if you frequently type the same misspelling. However, most misspellings are the result of erratic finger-positioning errors or memory lapses. You can use two different methods to ensure that the words in your presentations are spelled correctly in spite of these random occurrences.
By default, PowerPoint’s spelling checker checks the spelling of the entire presentation—all slides, outlines, notes pages, and handout pages—against its built-in dictionary. To draw attention to words that are not in its dictionary and that might be misspelled, PowerPoint underlines them with a red wavy underline. You can right-click a word with a red wavy underline to display a menu with a list of possible spellings. You can choose the correct spelling from the menu or tell PowerPoint to ignore the word.
Instead of dealing with potential misspellings while you’re creating a presentation, you can check the entire presentation in one session by clicking the Spelling button in the Proofing group on the Review tab. PowerPoint then works its way through the presentation, and if it encounters a word that is not in its dictionary, it displays the Spelling dialog box. After you indicate how PowerPoint should deal with the word, it moves on and displays the next word that is not in its dictionary, and so on.
The English-language version of Microsoft Office 2010 includes English, French, and Spanish dictionaries. If you use a word or phrase from a different language, you can mark it so that PowerPoint doesn’t flag it as a misspelling.
You cannot make changes to the main dictionary in PowerPoint, but you can add correctly spelled words that are flagged as misspellings to the PowerPoint supplemental dictionary (called CUSTOM.DIC). You can also create and use custom dictionaries and use dictionaries from other Microsoft programs.
PowerPoint can check your spelling, but it can’t alert you if you’re not using the best word. Language is often contextual—the language you use in a presentation to members of a club is different from the language you use in a business presentation. To make sure you’re using words that best convey your meaning in any given context, you can use the Thesaurus feature to look up alternative words, called synonyms, for a selected word.
Tip
For many words, the quickest way to find a suitable synonym is to right-click the word, and point to Synonyms. You can then either click one of the suggested words or click Thesaurus to display the Research task pane.
In this exercise, you’ll correct a misspelled word, mark a French phrase so that PowerPoint won’t flag it as a misspelling, and check the spelling of an entire presentation. You’ll then use the Thesaurus to replace a word on a slide with a more appropriate one.
Note
SET UP You need the CommunityServiceB_start presentation located in your Chapter14 practice file folder to complete this exercise. Open the CommunityServiceB_start presentation, and save it as CommunityServiceB. Then follow the steps.
Display slide 2, and right-click infermation, which PowerPoint has flagged as a possible error with a red wavy underline.
PowerPoint doesn’t know whether you want to format the word or correct its spelling, so it displays both a Mini Toolbar and a menu.
On the menu, click information to replace the misspelled word.
Move to slide 7.
The French words Médecins and Frontières have been flagged as possible errors.
Select Médecins Sans
Frontières, and then on the Review tab, in the Language
group, click the Language button, and
then click Set Proofing Language.Scroll down the list of languages, click French (France), and then click OK.
Behind the scenes, PowerPoint marks Médecins Sans Frontières as a French phrase, and the words no longer have red wavy underlines.
Click a corner of the slide so that no placeholders are selected, and then press Ctrl+Home.
On the Review tab,
in the Proofing group, click the Spelling button.PowerPoint begins checking the spelling in the presentation. The spelling checker stops on the word Persue and displays the Spelling dialog box.
In the Suggestions list, click Pursue, and then click Change.
The spelling checker replaces Persue with the suggested Pursue and then stops on the word CSCom, suggesting Como as the correct spelling. For purposes of this exercise, assume that this is a common abbreviation for Community Service Committee.
Click Add.
The term CSCom is added to the CUSTOM.DIC dictionary.
Tip
If you do not want to change a word or add it to the supplemental dictionary, you can click Ignore or Ignore All. The spelling checker then ignores either just that word or all instances of the word in the presentation during subsequent spell checking sessions.
Next the spelling checker stops on the because it is the second of two occurrences of the word.
Click Delete.
The duplicated word is deleted. Now the spelling checker identifies employes as a misspelling.
In the suggestions list, click employees, and then click AutoCorrect.
PowerPoint adds the misspelling and the selected spelling to the AutoCorrect substitution table.
Click Change to change succesful to successful.
When a message box tells you that the spelling check is complete, click OK.
This presentation still has spelling problems—words that are spelled correctly but that aren’t correct in context. We’ll leave it to you to proof the slides and correct these errors manually. In the meantime, we’ll finish the exercise by using the Thesaurus to find a synonym.
On slide 1, select the word Executing (but not the space following the word).
On the Review tab,
in the Proofing group, click the Thesaurus button.The Research task pane opens on the right side of the screen, displaying a list of synonyms for the selected word.
Below Performing, point to Completing, click the arrow that appears, and then click Insert.
At the right end of the Research task pane, click the Close button.
Note
CLEAN UP If you want, display the AutoCorrect dialog box, and remove the employes entry from the replacement table. To remove CSCom from the supplemental dictionary, display the Proofing page of the PowerPoint Options dialog box, and click Custom Dictionaries. Then in the Custom Dictionaries dialog box, click Edit Word List. Click CSCom, click Delete, and click OK three times. Then save and close the CommunityServiceB presentation.
Sometimes a word you use might be correctly spelled but just not be the correct word. You can find and change specific text in a presentation by clicking the buttons in the Editing group on the Home tab to do the following:
Click the Find button to locate each occurrence of a word, part of a word, or a phrase. In the Find dialog box, you enter the text, and then click Find Next. You can specify whether PowerPoint should locate only matches with the exact capitalization (also known as the case); in other words, if you specify person, you don’t want PowerPoint to locate Person. You can also tell PowerPoint whether it should locate only matches for the entire text; in other words, if you specify person, you don’t want PowerPoint to locate personal.
Click the Replace button to locate each occurrence of a word, part of a word, or a phrase and replace it with something else. In the Replace dialog box, you enter the text you want to find and what you want to replace it with, click Find Next, and then click Replace to replace the found occurrence. You can also click Replace All to replace all occurrences. Again, you can specify whether to match capitalization and whole words.
You can also click the Replace arrow, and in the Replace list, click Replace Fonts to find and replace a font throughout a presentation. In the Replace Font dialog box, you can specify the font you want to change and the font you want PowerPoint to replace it with.
In this exercise, you’ll first find and replace a word and then find and replace a font.
Note
SET UP You need the CommunityServiceC_start presentation located in your Chapter14 practice file folder to complete this exercise. Open the CommunityServiceC_start presentation, and save it as CommunityServiceC. Then follow the steps.
On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click the Replace button.
The Replace dialog box opens.
In the Find what box, type department, and then press Tab.
In the Replace with box, type unit.
Select the Match case check box to locate text that exactly matches the capitalization you specified and replace it with the capitalization you specified.
Click Find Next.
PowerPoint finds and selects part of the word departments on slide 2.
PowerPoint replaces departments with units, and then locates the next match.
Click Replace All.
A message box tells you that PowerPoint has finished searching the presentation and that the replace operation changed nine occurrences of the text.
Click OK, and then in the Replace dialog box, click Close.
Because you selected Match Case for this replace operation, one occurrence of Department has not been changed. We’ll leave it to you to change it manually.
Click a blank area of the current slide so that no placeholder is selected, press Ctrl+Home to move to slide 1, and then click the title.
Notice that Calibri (Headings) is displayed in the Font box in the Font group.
Display slide 2, and click first the title and then any bullet point.
Notice that the font used for these elements is Times New Roman. Let’s change this font to make it consistent with the title slide.
Click a corner of the slide so that no placeholder is selected.
In the Editing group, click the Replace arrow, and then click Replace Fonts.
Display the Replace list, and click Times New Roman.
The Replace list includes only Arial and the fonts in the presentation.
Display the With list, and click Calibri.
The With list includes all the fonts available on your computer.
Click Replace.
All the Times New Roman text in the presentation changes to Calibri.
Click Close to close the Replace Font dialog box.
You can enter and edit text both on the Outline tab or directly on a slide, depending on which is most efficient.
You can place text wherever you want it on a slide by using text boxes.
PowerPoint provides assistance by correcting common spelling errors and adjusting the size of text so that it fits optimally on a slide.
The spelling checker flags possible misspellings so that you can take care of them as you type. Or you can check the spelling of an entire presentation.
You can take advantage of the Find and Replace features to ensure consistent use of terms and fonts throughout a presentation.