9.1. Drawing on SlidesThe Internet's filled with photos and art you can use in presentations but sometimes you need a picture that's so specific you need to sketch it yourself. Imagine you're a defense attorney building a PowerPoint slideshow to present at trial, and you want to describe the route your client took from his desk to the bank vault. You can use stock images of desks, customers, and the bank vault, but you need to draw your own arrows to show your client's route.
Or say you're giving a presentation to management that explains why your department is over budget. You've created a chart (which you learned how to do in Chapter 6) that clearly shows the problem, but your audience (management, remember), needs things spelled out more clearly. You can use PowerPoint's drawing tools to place a big red circle around the negative total. And, right where the chart shows your department's performance taking a nosedive in October, draw a cartoon balloon with the words "Plant #2 burned down 10/15." If you're artistically challenged, don't worry. There's very little you have to draw freehand in PowerPoint (although you can if you want to). PowerPoint 2007 gives you special tools for drawing lines, curves, and some 80-odd standard shapes including banners, stars, flowchart symbols, and arrows (Figure 9-1). You can also add built-in visual effectslike gradients, shadows, and reflectionsto your drawings, and connect shapes with special lines called connectors that adjust themselves automatically when you reposition the shapes they're connected to. Note: The kinds of things you can draw haven't changed in PowerPoint 2007, but the way you draw them has. The shape gallery in PowerPoint 2007 replaces the AutoShapes toolbar that appeared in PowerPoint 2003 and earlier versions of the program. 9.1.1. Drawing Lines and ShapesDrawing in PowerPoint means choosing what you want to draw from a gallery of lines and shapes and then dragging them over your slide.
9.1.2. Drawing ConnectorsConnectors are special lines you draw between two shapes to connect them. The cool thing about connectors is that when you reposition one (or both) of the shapes, PowerPoint automatically adjusts the connecting line. Connectors are great for drawings like flow charts , where you frequently need to add and reposition shapes as you work. To draw a connector:
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Click one of the red connection squares on the first shape and drag toward the second shape.
PowerPoint displays red connection squares around the edge of your second shape.
When your cursor's over one of the red connection squares at the edge of your second shape, let go of the mouse button.
One red connector dot appears on each shape (Figure 9-4) to show where you've connected them.
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You can tell PowerPoint to redraw , or reroute , an existing connector so it looks better. (Sometimes dragging the connected shapes around leaves the connector looking cramped or oddly bent.) To reroute a connector, select it and then, from the Drawing Tools Format tab, choose Edit Shape Reroute Connectors.
If you're still not happy with the way PowerPoint reroutes your connector, you can do it yourself. To move the connection from, say, the top of a shape to the bottom of the shape, click the connector and move it until the end of the connector snaps to the red connector square at the bottom of the shape.
Drawing lines, curves, and predefined shapes is fine, but a bit limiting. PowerPoint also lets you draw freehand, like you'd draw on a piece of paper. While drawing freehand doesn't usually yield geometrically precise results, depending on the effect you're trying to achieve, it can be quickerand much more satisfying .
You draw freehand in PowerPoint using one of two options: Scribble (PowerPoint's virtual pencil) or Freeform (like Scribble, but with the added ability to draw perfectly straight lines and corners).
The Scribble tool is the closest thing to a pencil you'll find on a computer. When you turn it on (Figure 9-5), you can drag your mouse around, and PowerPoint shows your exact movements on the screen.
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Click Insert Illustrations Shapes. On the shape gallery, head to the Lines section and click the Scribble option (Figure 9-5). When you move the mouse over your slide, the arrow cursor turns into a miniature pencil. Drag it to draw on your slide; double-click to stop drawing. Figure 9-6 shows you a typical result.
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The Freeform tool gives you the best of both worlds . You can drag freely as with the Scribble tool, but also add perfectly straight lines and corners when you need to.
Click Insert Illustrations Shapes. On the shape gallery, click the Freeform option, and then mouse over your slide. The cursor changes from an arrow into a + sign. To draw on your slide, press the mouse button as you drag to create freehand lines and shapes. Click two points (without holding in between) to create a straight line. You can see an example of a shape created with freeform in Figure 9-6.
To return your cursor to normal, press Esc.
GEM IN THE ROUGH Tips for Faster Drawing |
Using a computer program to draw anything more complicated than a quick callout or arrow can be tedious , no matter which program you're usingand PowerPoint is no exception. PowerPoint includes some shortcuts for faster, easier drawing, but it doesn't make them obvious. So here they are, in no particular order:
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