Using Drop Shadows

Shadows are vital tools in Keynote because they give objects on your slides an appearance of depth. You can use the Graphic Inspector to add a drop shadow to objects and to control the shadow's color , angle, how far it is offset from the object, how blurry the shadow is, and the shadow's opacity.

To apply a shadow to an object

1.	Select the object to which you want to add the shadow.
2.	Click the Shadow check box in the Shadow section of the Graphic Inspector ( Figure 5.50 ). Figure 5.50. Apply drop shadows with the Shadow section in the Graphic Inspector. The shadow appears under the object.
3.	(Optional) Click the color well in the Shadow section to open the Colors window, then select a color in that window to change the shadow color from the default black.
4.	Use the Angle wheel to set the angle for the shadow. or Type a value for the shadow angle in the Angle field. Changing the shadow angle changes the apparent light source for the shadow.
5.	Set the shadow offset (the distance in pixels the shadow is from the object) by typing a number in the Offset field, or by using the field's arrow buttons . Higher values will cause the shadow to appear more separated from the object ( Figure 5.51 ). The maximum shadow offset value is 50 pixels. Figure 5.51. The drop shadow for this image uses the maximum 50-pixel shadow offset.
6.	Adjust the shadow's blur by typing a number in the Blur field, or by using the field's arrow buttons. Higher blur values will make the shadow appear more dispersed.
7.	Set the shadow's opacity by typing a number in the Opacity field, or by using the field's arrow buttons ( Figure 5.52 ). Figure 5.52. The Blur and Opacity settings have been applied so that this drop shadow looks more natural. You can set the shadow's opacity separately from the object's opacity; see the "Adjusting Object Opacity" section next in this chapter.

Tips

• If you have more than one object with drop shadows, it's usually a good idea to give all the objects the same shadow values.

• You can copy and paste shadow settings from one object to another by selecting the first object, choosing Format > Copy Style, selecting the second object, and choosing Format > Paste Style. Be aware that this will also copy and paste the stroke, fill, and opacity of the object.