Objectives of this Tutorial

Generally: To format and proof text effectively. Specifically: On completion of this section, you will be able to:

• Understand design issues in PowerPoint
• Format and align text
• Change paragraph and line spacing
• Change the format of bullets
• Create numbered lists
• Use the Format Painter to copy formatting
• Check spelling in a presentation
• Find and replace text

In PowerPoint you can change the font, font size and font style of your text. You can also add special effects.

A slide showing a mixture of fonts, styles and effects

Formatting Text Slides Effectively

PowerPoint's tools give you a great deal of flexibility in formatting slides. Remember however, that legibility and clarity are the most important design criteria when formatting text. If your audience cannot read your presentation, then you have wasted both their time and yours. Always take care to check that your slides are visible from the back of the room you will be giving the presentation in.

• Font means a type family, such as Times New Roman, or Arial

As a general guide, select fonts from the Sans Serif family of fonts. These are fonts that do not have the little feet at the bottom of letters. Examples include Arial, AvantGarde, Century Gothic, Gill Sans, Helvetica, and Impact. Sans serif fonts are easier to read on-screen and from a distance.

Serif fonts are those with feet on the letters. The feet make the letters flow together. This makes them easier to read on the printed page. Typical serif fonts include Times New Roman, Book Antiqua, Bookman, Courier, and Garamond. You may want to use a serif font for your notes pages.

Choose a font style and stick with it through the presentation. Use no more than three or four different font types in the entire presentation.

Fonts that have the letters TT before them are called True Type fonts and are designed to match the screen display with what is printed. Fonts that are not True Type may look different when printed.

• Font size is expressed in points, with one point equalling 1/72"

Fonts should be large enough to be legible from the back of the room you will be giving the presentation in. As a guide do not use fonts smaller than font size 22. Titles on slides should fall within the range of font sizes 40-45, body text and bullet points should fall within the range 24-32.

Tip: In general type that is less than 22 points will be too small for your audience to read. If you have a large room or an older audience, or simply wish to ensure that everyone can read your slides, use larger type.

• Font styles include bold, italic or both bold and italic
• Special effects include underline, superscript, subscript and shadow text

Finally a word about colour, especially text colour. It is very important to keep the contrast between the background colour of your slides and the text high. For example, if you choose to use a dark blue background, selecting yellow, white or cyan will ensure the text is highly visible as these three colours contrast highly with the background colour.

Formatting Text

To change the font

• Select the text you want to format
• On the Formatting toolbar, click the arrow on the Font box

The font list is displayed. The most recently used fonts appear at the top of the list.

• Select the font you want to apply

Font style list box

Tip: If you want to change the font of all the text within a placeholder, click in the placeholder and select the text (SpeedKey: F2). Any changes that you now make will effect all the text within the selected placeholder.

To change the font size

• Select the text you want to format
• On the Formatting toolbar, click the number in the Font Size box
• Enter a new number
• Press Enter

OR

• On the Formatting toolbar, click the arrow on the Size box

The Font size box is displayed.

Font Size list box

• Click on the font size to apply

Continued...