394 Chapter 14 Work with Slide 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.When the border is dashed, you can enter or edit text.Clicking the dashed border changes it to a solid border. You can then manipulate the
text box as a unit.When the border is solid, you can manipulate the box.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).