The time-saving Microsoft SmartArt feature is a fast and easy way to create
professional looking graphics in your PowerPoint slides. Yet,
there may be times when you want to add your own shapes or custom graphics,
such as boxes, circles, and arrows. Hi, I'm Dawn Bjork, The Software Pro.
In this training,
we'll look at tricks to help you save time creating and formatting shapes in
Microsoft PowerPoint. First, let's review the basics to add a shape.
Pick Insert > Shapes. Notice the wide range of options that are available.
Select the shape, and then click and draw. And once you create the shape,
you can add text, change the formatting, and apply other special effects.
Keep in mind these options for creating and formatting shapes also work in other
Microsoft Office programs, including Word, Excel, and Outlook.
If you've ever tried to draw a circle,
you might have noticed that the tool is actually called an ellipse which does
not actually give you a perfectly proportional shape.
We have the same issue if we want to have a square.
We're actually using the rectangle shape.
So if you want a perfectly proportional shape, here's the trick.
We go back to Insert and we pick Shapes. And in this case,
let's say I want to create a square. I pick rectangle,
move out into the slide and hold down the SHIFT key while
dragging Notice that doesn't matter where I move my mouse.
This is perfectly proportional. As long as I'm holding down the SHIFT key.
Let go of your mouse first and then the SHIFT. Once the shape is selected,
look for the four-headed arrow.
So this can be moved to a different location as needed.
This trick can also be used for drawing other shapes like stars, octagons,
triangles, and more. Let's look at this real quickly. Again, Insert > Shapes.
This time, I'll pick a star. Hold SHIFT,
click and drag, and it's proportional. If I let go of the SHIFT,
notice that I have different options. Hold SHIFT,
it becomes proportional.
And once again with a triangle. Now, what if I want more copies of a shape?
Well, an easy way to do that is to simply press CTRL+D on the selected shape.
And now I have a copy. Or another trick,
select the shape,
press and hold down the CTRL key while dragging the shape to another
location. And here we have a copy. And here's another trick.
As I'm moving this shape,
I have a lot of flexibility about where I want to put it,
but if I want to maintain the same horizontal position or vertical position,
this is where we use SHIFT. So notice I can simply move this,
or if I hold SHIFT, now it locks in,
that is I can try to move it around,
but it's locking into that horizontal plane.
Or drag it down and it's vertically aligned.
So that can really help you when you're wanting to place multiple shapes,
whether or not they're the same size. Or another trick.
If I wanna make a copy of it and keep it in the same plane,
I'll hold SHIFT and CTRL and drag it to the right.
And I have a copy that's also lined up.
And here's another way to quickly make copies of a shape. Once again,
we'll go to Insert > Shapes. Let's say,
I want an arrow this time. I can draw that arrow. And as we saw,
we have other tricks like CTRL+D or CTRL drag,
but under those Shapes here,
I have an option where I can right-click on that shape.
And we have Lock Drawing Mode.
Now that assumes that I want to continue creating the same shape over and over
again, whether or not it's the same proportions.
And I can continue to draw, draw and can continue to repeat. Now,
the other tricks might make more sense,
especially if you have applied formatting before you make the copies,
but try that Lock Drawing Mode to see if that is something that will be helpful
as you are creating these shapes in PowerPoint.
Once you're done with the Lock Drawing Mode, simply return back to that shape.
Now,
the shapes that I've used recently will show up here also in Shape Format
in that contextual Ribbon tab,
or we can go back to Insert and Shapes and you'll see your Recently Used
Shapes here as well. So notice because of that Lock Drawing Mode,
that it's pushed in. So I can move to any place where I see this, right-click,
left-click to pick Lock Drawing Mode. And I've turned that off. Now,
what about adding text? If any of your shapes are closed, such as an ellipse,
a square, an arrow, a star simply select it.
Right-click and choose Edit Text.
Format this text as you would with any other text. You can select it.
Here's my mini toolbar.
Maybe I want this to be bold and I'd like it to be larger.
What about formatting? Once you have a shape,
simply select it and move to the Shape Format tab in the Ribbon.
Now here we have the options to change the appearance such as the Shape Fill.
Now these color choices are coming from whatever the current theme is.
You can explore the themes and more detail under the Design tab.
But with this theme, we have these compatible colors that are available to us.
So it would be an easy to change this or explore some of the
Theme Styles here. You could get some very professional looking,
nice applications for the fill without having to spend a lot of time on that.
So you might decide that that's the way to go simply because you have a lot of
other priorities as you are creating your PowerPoint slides.
Another design tip for shapes is that typically we don't want to actually have a
color for that outline. The shape will look more professional without it.
So for this Shape Outline, we might come in here and say No Outline.
It will look cleaner this way. Or as we saw,
we could pick from one of these other options that are available in the
Styles here. Again, without that outline.
Another trick with the shape is to be able to control the proportions.
You can see this, for instance, with the arrow selected. Here,
we have some yellow control handles. Now, depending upon the shape,
you may have one or two or even more.
This allows us to make some changes to some of the proportions. For instance,
by grabbing this one, I can change what the head of the arrow looks like.
And for this one I can control then the height of the
body of the arrow. Now, I'm not sure if I'm a big fan of that,
but let's make this wider and that might work even better for me.
So you can see that you get a lot of control over how these shapes might
look, and this can be especially fun and helpful with some specialty shapes.
For instance,
if we come in and maybe I want a sunshine here,
I'll hold SHIFT first of all, so that I can get this proportional.
We'll go to our Shape Format and change the style.
That looks better. It looks more appropriate for a sunshine.
But then here is that yellow control handle that I could use
to decide what the body of that looks like.
So lots of fun,
little tricks for how you can work with these shapes in PowerPoint.
When you have multiple objects, whether they're shapes or text boxes,
images, we often might want to work with them together to move, to copy.
So the trick with that is we simply can select a shape and then hold
SHIFT while you select the others. Now,
whatever you do next applies to all of the selected shapes,
whether you're changing the formatting or perhaps we simply want to
reposition the shapes.
Another option is to click outside of the shapes into a
blank area and click and drag around by surrounding
these. Then anything within that boundary will be picked.
Which of these tricks will you use to create edit and format shapes in your
PowerPoint presentations?
For more tips on being productive with Microsoft PowerPoint or to sign it from
my tips newsletter, visit TheSoftwarePro.com/PowerPoint.
If this training was helpful,
please like this video and subscribe to this channel. This is Dawn Bjork,
The Software Pro. Thanks for watching.