Section 3.3. Manually Aligning and Indenting Text

3.3. Manually Aligning and Indenting Text

To effectively convey your message on a slide, your text must above all be readable. After all, your audience may have to read it across a large conference room, or on a small laptop monitor. Make things easier on your audience's eyes by making sure your words are neatly and attractively lined up.

Figure 3-15. PowerPoint offers a quick-pick gallery of the most popular text effects, including outlines, colored fills, and 3-D beveling.

3.3.1. Aligning Text and Creating Columns

Neatly arranged text can mean the difference between an easy-to-read, professional-looking slide, and a jumbled mess.

PowerPoint gives you two ways to align text:

You can align text with respect to its bounding placeholder box . For example, you can center heading text inside its box or position it flush left or flush right. If you've got a paragraph's worth of text, you can justify it (add spaces between the words so the ends of each line up) or turn it into two or more columns.
You can align a text placeholder box with respect to the slide it's on . This type of alignment's called layout , and it's covered in Section 4.1.3.

This section shows you how to align text with respect to its bounding placeholder box.

To align text:

Click in a text box .

The Drawing Tools Format contextual tab pops up, and PowerPoint activates the formatting options on the Home tab.
Go to Home Paragraph and choose an alignment option .

You can see examples in Figure 3-16, left:
- Align Text Left . Positions text at the top left of the bounding box.
- Center . Positions text at the top center of the bounding box.
- Align Text Right . Positions text at the top right of the bounding box.
  
  Note: Unless you tell it different, PowerPoint assumes you want to align text at the top of the bounding box. Choosing Align Text Left, for example, has the effect of aligning your text at the left and top of the bounding box. (The distinction becomes important when your text box is really big.)
- Justify . Adds spaces between your words so that the left and right edges of your sentences line up nicely .
- Columns . Lets you split your text into one, two, or three columns. Simply click the number of columns you'd like, and PowerPoint reformats your text immediately. Clicking More Columns lets you choose four or more columns, and lets you adjust the space between your columns.
  
  Tip: If you need absolutely precise layouts (because, for example, you're mocking up a program interface or a printable brochure), you can align text in a text box by setting internal margins (left, right, top, and bottom). To do so, in the Home tab, click Alignment More Options to display the Format Text Effects dialog box with the Text Box option selected.

Figure 3-16. Left: Align Text Left, Center, and Align Text Right refer to horizontal alignment. To specify vertical alignment (top, middle, or bottom), click the Align Text (vertically) icon.
Right: If you need absolutely precise layouts (because, for example, you're mocking up a program interface or a printable brochure), you can align text in a text box by setting internal margins (left, right, top, and bottom). To do so, in the Home tab, click Alignment More Options to display the Format Text Effects dialog box with the Text Box option selected.

Tip: PowerPoint offers one additional, seldom-used alignment option, the Distributed alignment option, which (like Justify) lines up the left and right edges of your text, but (unlike Justify) stretches out the last (orphaned) line so that it, too, lines up left and right. To apply the Distributed alignment option, first select your text. Then, on the Home tab, click the Paragraph dialog launcher and, in the Paragraph dialog box that appears, head to the Alignment drop-down box and choose Distributed.

GEM IN THE ROUGH
Copying Formatting with the Format Painter

You've spent half an hour tweaking, testing, and perfecting, and at long last, your slide headings are perfectly formatted. PowerPoint gives you an easy way to copy your formatting and apply it to new headings using the Format Painter (the icon shaped like a little paintbrush that appears both on the Home Clipboard group , and on the Mini Toolbar).

To copy formatting using the Format painter:

Click anywhere on the text that has formatting you want to copy.
Click the Format Painter. (Notice that, when you mouse over your slide, your cursor turns into a little paintbrush).
Click the text you want to format.

To copy formatting to a bunch of different text elements in one fell swoop:

Click anywhere on the text that has formatting you want to copy.
Double-click the Format Painter. (Once again, your cursor turns into a little paintbrush).
Click-drag or double-click to select the text element. As you select, PowerPoint applies the copied formatting to that element. You can repeat this step as many times as you like.
When you're finished, click the Format Painter icon again or press Esc. Your icon turns back into a pointer.

3.3.2. Creating Lists

For better or worse PowerPoint slides and bulleted lists are practically synonymous. The fact is, lists (both bulleted and numbered) like the ones you see in Figure 3-17 are a natural fit for PowerPoint because they let you organize information clearly and concisely.

In fact, when you find yourself adding a lot of lists to your slides, let PowerPoint format them for you automatically. After you do, each time you type in an asterisk or a number followed by some text and then the Enter key, PowerPoint automatically changes the asterisk to a basic bullet and types in a new bullet (or number). To turn on automatic list formatting, select Office PowerPoint Options Proofing AutoCorrect Options AutoFormat As You Type and then turn on the checkbox next to "Automatic bulleted and numbered lists."

Of course, you can always turn a series of sentences into a list manually. Here's how:

Figure 3-17. Here they are, the bread and butter of PowerPoint slides the world over: numbered lists and bulleted lists. You can choose different bullet and numbering schemes, as shown in Figure 3-19.

Click in a text box .

The Drawing Tools Format context tab pops up, and PowerPoint activates the formatting options on the Home tab.
Select the text you want to turn into a list. Then, go to Home Paragraph and click one of the list buttons shown in Figure 3-18 .

These buttons are toggles. Clicking once adds the bullets or numbering; clicking again removes it.
- Bullets . The program applies bullets to the beginning of each selected word or sentence .
- Numbering . The program applies sequential numbers (beginning with number 1) to the beginning of each selected word or sentence.

Figure 3-18. Clicking either the Bullets or Numbering option automatically applies a standard bullet (or numbering) scheme to the text you've selected. If you prefer to customize the standard scheme, instead of clicking the button itself, click the tiny down arrow beside it to see a menu of different styles.

Tip: An alternativeand fasterway to display bullet and numbering options is to right-click your text and then, from the menu that appears, choose Bullets or Numbering.

3.3.2.1. Customizing bulleted lists

PowerPoint lets you customize your bulleted lists by choosing one of several built-in bullet graphics, or by using your own image for the bullet. You can also resize and recolor your bullets. Here's how.

Select the list you want to customize. Go to Home Paragraph, and then click the down arrow next to the Bullets button .

A list of bullet options appears (Figure 3-19).
Click a bullet option .

PowerPoint automatically reformats your list based on the option you chose.

If you don't see a bullet you like, from the option list, choose Bullets and Numbering .

The Bullets and Numbering dialog box appears with the Bullets tab already selected (Figure 3-20).

Figure 3-19. Most of the time, one of these standard bullet options will fit the bill. But for those times when you want to substitute an itty-bitty globe or daisy for the standard dot, choose Bullets and Numbering to see additional options.

In the Bullets and Numbering dialog box, click Customize. In the Symbol dialog box that appears, select a symbol and click OK, and then Close .

The Symbol dialog box disappears and PowerPoint returns you to the Bullets and Numbering dialog box, where a new bulleted option appears featuring the symbol you selected. Click OK to apply the new bullet to your selection.

After you click OK, you're back in the Bullets and Numbering dialog box. If you like, you can now change the color and size of your bullets, as described in the next two steps.
To change the color of your bullets, click Color. Select a color swatch from the color picker .

The Bullets and Numbering dialog box redisplays all the bullet options using the color you just selected.

Figure 3-20. The Bullets and Numbering dialog box, shown here, lets you change the way standard bullets and list numbers appear.
If you like, you can change the size of your bullets. In the Bullets and Numbering dialog box, click to increase and decrease the "Size % of text" counter, or type your own number .

100% means the bullet appears the same size as the largest upper-case letter of text, 50% means the bullet appears half that size, and so on.
When the Bullets and Numbering dialog box displays the precise bullet option you want, click OK .

PowerPoint applies your customized bulleting scheme to your selection.

3.3.2.2. Customizing numbered lists

This procedure is a lot like customizing a bulleted list.

Select the numbered list you want to tweak. Go to Home Paragraph Numbering and click the down arrow .

A slew of numbering options appears (Figure 3-21).

Figure 3-21. Here are the most popular numbering schemes. (If you're wondering, choosing "None" just indents the list.) Click Bullets and Numbering to color, resize, or choose a new starting number for your list.

Click a numbering option .

PowerPoint automatically reformats your list based on the option you chose.
To change the color of a list number, select Bullets and Numbering. When the Bullets and Numbering dialog box appears (Figure 3-22), click Color, and then select a color swatch from the color picker that appears .

The Bullets and Numbering dialog box redisplays all of the list number options using the color you just selected.
If you like, you can specify how large you want your number to appear in relation to your text: In the Bullets and Numbering dialog box, select the numbering option you want to resize, and then click to increase and decrease the "Size % of text" counter, or type your own number .

100% means the number appears the same size as largest uppercase letter of text; 50% means the number appears half that size; and so on.

Figure 3-22. Because details matter, PowerPoint lets you choose from a variety of list-numbering options.
If you like, you can change the first number in your list from 1 to something else. From the Bullets and Numbering dialog box, click the "Start at" box and then click the counter or type in your own starting number .

The options in the dialog box change automatically.
When the Bullets and Numbering dialog box shows the customized numbering option you want, click to select it, and then click OK .

PowerPoint applies your customized numbering scheme to your selection.

3.3.3. Changing Indents

Unlike a word processing program, the text you add to your slides typically doesn't need a whole lot of special indenting. After all, one of the first rules of creating a great PowerPoint presentation is to keep your text briefwhich means multiple paragraphs are out (and with them, the need to fiddle with your indents).

But if you do need to change the indentationif you want to adjust the spacing between a bullet and its associated list item, for examplethen you can.

Here's how it works: An indent is the space PowerPoint automatically leaves before the first line of every paragraph you add to a slide. Out of the box, PowerPoint assumes an indent of half an inch, but the program gives you three ways to change that setting:

Choose Home Paragraph Decrease List Level or Home Paragraph Increase List Level . Selecting Home Paragraph Decrease List Level decreases the indent for the currently selected text box by one-half inch (or whatever youve set the indent to; see the third bullet below). Home Paragraph Increase List Level increases the indent by one-half inch (or whatever youve sent the indent to). Your text redisplays automatically. PowerPoint doesn't apply your changes to any unselected text or any other text boxes on your slide.

Note: If you select a list item and then choose Home Paragraph Decrease List Level or Home Paragraph Increase List Level, PowerPoint demotes or promotes the list item, adjusting text size as appropriate.
Ruler). Selecting text and then dragging an indent tells PowerPoint to redisplay your selected text automatically based on the new indent. (PowerPoint doesnt apply your changes to any unselected text, or to any other text boxes on your slide.)
Use the Paragraph dialog box to specify a numeric value (in percentages of inches) for indentations . To see the Paragraph dialog box shown in Figure 3-24, click the dialog box launcher at the bottom of the Paragraph group (or right-click selected text and then chose Paragraph from the shortcut menu. The indentation options include:

Before text . Indents the entire paragraph from the left margin.

Special . Lets you apply your indents to the first line only, to every line but the first line (hanging), or to none of the text.

By . Lets you choose the width of the indent. PowerPoint displays width options in tenths of an inch, but you can type in hundredths of an inch if you like.

Figure 3-23. In this example, the top paragraph has just been demoted. The top triangle you see in the ruler is the first line indent; the bottom arrow is the indent for the remaining lines in the paragraph. Drag the square to move both in one fell swoop.

Figure 3-24. The alignment you choose affects your indents. If you set the Alignment field to Left, for example, your indents start at the left; if it's set to Center, your indents start from where your text is centered.

3.3.4. Changing Tab Stops

A tab is the amount of space PowerPoint leaves when you press the Tab key. For example, you can scoot the first sentence of a paragraph over by clicking in front of the first word in the paragraph and pressing Tab, and you can scoot an entire list over by selecting the list and pressing Tab. You can also use tabs to create columns.

Note: You don't have to use tabs to create columns; in fact, PowerPoint has a special columns option you can use (Section 3.3.1), and it's a lot easier to work with for columns.

Out of the box, PowerPoint sets tab stops every inch, but you can set your tab stops wherever you like. PowerPoint gives you two ways to do that:

Turn on rulers and drag your tab stops where you want them . Figure 3-23 shows you the rulers, indents, and tab stops you see when you turn on rulers (View Show/Hide Ruler). Selecting text and then dragging a tab stop tells PowerPoint to redisplay your selected text automatically based on the new tab stop. (PowerPoint doesnt apply your changes to unselected text, or to any other text boxes on your slide.)
Use the Tab dialog box to specify a numeric value (in percentages of inches) for tab stops . To see the Tabs dialog box shown in Figure 3-25, click the Home Paragraph dialog box launcher and then, in the Paragraph dialog box that appears, click Tabs. The tab options you can set include:

Add a tab stop . Click to choose a number in the Tab stop position field, and then click Set.

Delete a tab stop . Select the tab stop you want to delete, and then click Clear.

Delete all the tab stops for this slideshow . Click Clear All.

Change how far apart PowerPoint places its built-in tab stops . Change the number in the Default tab stops field.

Change a custom tab stop . Delete the tab stop and create a new one.

Figure 3-25. After you add, change, or delete a tab stop, click OK to apply the change and dismiss the dialog box.

3.3.5. Changing Text Direction

Most languages read left to right, so most of the time, that's the way you want to display your text. But PowerPoint lets you rotate your text so that it reads top-to-bottom, right-to-left , left-to-right , upside downpretty much any direction you like. PowerPoint gives you two options for changing the direction of your text: using the Text Direction option, and using the Size and Position dialog box.

3.3.5.1. Using the Text Direction option

This option is the one to use if you want to rotate text all the way to the left or all the way to the right, or to stack your text from the top of your text box to the bottom. (Typing your text first and then changing its direction is much easier than changing the direction of a text box and then typing in your text.)

Click anywhere in a text box. Choose Home Paragraph Text Direction (the A with arrows icon). From the menu that appears, choose one of the following options (see examples of each in Figure 3-26) :
- Horizontal . Basic left to right.
- Rotate all text 90 . Positions text on the right side of the slide, rotating each letter so that the text reads from top to bottom.
- Rotate all text 270 . Positions text on the left side of the slide, rotating each letter so that the text reads from bottom to top.
- Stacked . Stacks letters on top of each other, from top to bottom, without rotating any letters .
Because PowerPoint doesn't automatically change the size of your text box when it repositions your text, you may have to resize your text box yourself to make your text readable in its jaunty new position .

If you don't remember how to resize a text box, see Section 1.3.2.

Figure 3-26. Changing the direction of your text makes your text harder to read. So unless you want to use one of these effects as a graphic design element, you can safely skip this trick.