Exploring Object Creation and Formatting

PowerPoint includes more drawing and object formatting options than you'll probably ever use. These features are simple enough to meet the needs of the casual user, yet powerful enough to handle the customization requirements of a sophisticated PowerPoint designer. The Drawing toolbar is the centerpiece of PowerPoint's suite of drawing tools and includes buttons that enable you to insert images, shapes, WordArt, and clip art. This toolbar also provides access to detailed and varied options for coloring, positioning, formatting, and manipulating the drawing objects you create.

In this chapter you learn

• How to use the Drawing toolbar PowerPoint's Drawing toolbar enables you to place a variety of different shapes and images on your presentation slides.

• Applying colors The effective use of color can really make your presentation stand out. Using the Drawing toolbar, you can apply fill, font, and line color as well as patterns.

• When to use the Format dialog box The Format dialog box enables you to make a multitude of formatting changes all in one place. You can adjust the color, size, position, and other characteristics of a selected object.

• Manipulating objects PowerPoint makes cutting, copying, pasting, moving, and resizing objects a simple and straightforward task.

• Applying shadow and 3D effects You can apply a variety of shadow and 3D effects to a selected object and can even adjust the lighting, surface, and exact position using special settings toolbars.

• Aligning and adjusting objects Setting alignment, nudging, snapping to a grid or shape, grouping, setting order, rotating, and flipping are all additional modifications you can make to a PowerPoint object.