AutoFit Text To Placeholder

[mcp6453]

In my 2003 presentation, several of my slides have more text than can fit on the
slide without activating "AutoFit Text to Placeholder." On two of the slides,
the text is made so small that there is 1/4 of the page left at the bottom. Is
there a way to cause the text to fill the screen? If I click on "Stop Fitting
Text to This Placeholder", the text runs off the bottom of the screen. While it
is necessary for PPT to reduce the font size, it is reducing too much. Is there
a fix?

 

[Troy @ TLC]

I generally do not have the 'fit to placeholder' option active. Instead I
manually size the text box to fit area, then manually adjust font size to
keep within preset text box size.

 

[Echo S]

What Troy said.

One problem with the autofit is that it jumps the font size by the amount in
the font dropdown. That is, the font dropdown goes from 24 to 20. There is
no "22" points. So when autofit sizes your text it goes from 24 point to 20
point, and sometimes that's too much. And, for example, if the 2nd level
bullet is 20 point to begin with, it drops by only 2 points, to 18 -- the
next on the dropdown list. So it can also be inconsistent if you have
different levels of bullets, and, depending what size your text is, the jump
could be good or bad.

Additionally, the autofit jockeys with the line spacing, and it's not
unusual to end up with .7 line spacing, which often cuts off the ascenders
and descenders of text. I prefer my line spacing not go below .8, but I
cannot control this with autofit.

These are the specific reasons I turn off autofit.

So I use the RnR Starter Set, a free add-in for PPT. http://www.pptools.com
It has a font size tool that increases/decreases text by 1-point increments.
(This and the "place exactly" tools are my favorites on the Starter Set.) I
use that tool to size text manually -- actually, I use PPT's to get it
close, then I use the RnR tool to get it exact. And, of course, because it's
a font sizing tool, it doesn't mess with my line spacing!