In Normal view, layout placeholders indicate where you can insert different types of slide content. For example, a Title And Content slide has placeholders for a title and for a bulleted list or a graphic element such as a table, chart, picture, or movie clip.
You can enter content on a slide either into the layout placeholders that are already in place or directly onto the slide.
In Normal view, layout placeholders look like boxes. When you are viewing a slide in Slide Sorter view or in a slide show, the placeholders aren’t visible. Any content you enter into a placeholder is visible in all three views.
When you point to a placeholder on a slide, or to text on the Outline page of the Navigation pane, the pointer changes to an I-beam. When you click the placeholder or text, a blinking insertion point appears where you clicked, to indicate where characters will appear when you type. As you type, the text appears both on the slide and in the outline.
You can add text and graphic elements to a slide by following these guides in the layout placeholders:
To enter a slide title, click the words Click to add title, type the slide title, and then press Return.
To enter bulleted text, click the words Click to add text in the content holder, type the text of the first bulleted list item, and then press Return to create another list item.
See Also
For information about formatting lists and paragraphs, see "Format Slide Text" in Chapter 10.
To insert a table, chart, SmartArt graphic, image file, clip art image, or movie clip, click the corresponding control, and then follow the instructions that appear.
Alternatively, you can enter text on the Outline page of the Navigation pane, where the text of the presentation is displayed in outline form.
Tip
If you enter more text in a text box than can comfortably fit at the default text font size, PowerPoint automatically changes the font size to fit the text into the box, and the AutoFit Options button appears. If you don’t want PowerPoint to change the size of text that doesn’t fit into a box (for example, if you intend to resize the text box to maintain the font size), click the AutoFit Options button and then, in the list, click Stop Fitting Text To This Placeholder.
See Also
For information about adding tables to a slide, see "Work with Tables in PowerPoint 2008 for Mac" on the book’s companion Web site at www.microsoft.com/mspress/companion/9780735626171. For information about images, charts, SmartArt graphics, and other graphic elements, see Chapter 12.
You can modify, add to, or remove the text you enter onto a slide. You can insert new text by clicking where you want to make the insertion and simply typing. Before you can change existing text, you have to select it by using one of the following techniques:
Select an individual word by double-clicking it. The word and the space following it are selected. Punctuation following a word is not selected.
Select adjacent words, lines, or paragraphs by dragging through them.
Alternatively, position the insertion point 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.
Select the title and all the text on a slide by clicking its slide icon on the Outline page of the Navigation pane.
Select an entire list item by clicking its bullet or number on either the Outline page or the slide.
Select all the text in a placeholder by first clicking inside the placeholder and then clicking Select All on the Edit menu or pressing Command+A.
Selected text appears highlighted in the location where you made the selection—that is, either on the slide or in the outline. To replace a selection, you type the new text. To delete the selection, you press the Delete key.
To move a selection to a new location, you can simply drag it. You can also move and copy text, and undo and redo changes, by using the same tools and techniques that you do in Word. You can work on the slide itself when moving or copying text within a slide, but it is more efficient to work on the Outline page of the Navigation pane when moving or copying text between slides.