Retaining Font Style

[shiesl]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

My style is set to a particular font, color, shadow. Every time I paste text into a slide it puts it in a different font, color, and shadow. I've double checked my Master slides. I dislike the idea of changing every time I add some text as that's why I set the style up. Suggestions?

Thanks.

Rick

 

[Jeff Chapman]

Rick,

By "style", I assume that you mean the settings
on your slide master, is that correct? PowerPoint
doesn't have "styles" per se in the same sense as
Word does, so I'm a little confused as to what
you mean.

You say that the font, color, and shadow don't look
the way you want when you "add some text".
How are you adding text - by means of a text box
on the Drawing toolbar? - or by adding text to the
placeholder on the slide?

If you are adding text by means of text boxes,
try setting the text font, color, and shadow as
you want it for a single text box. Then, do a right
click on the text box, and select "Set As
Default Text Box". Now, try drawing a few more
text boxes, and typing in new text.
The formatting should match your default, including font
size, color, shadow and font face.
It's sort of like a global text box style that works
throughout the entire presentation.

Just remember: the text box default formatting does not
necessarily have anything to do with the slide
master formatting you set. Changing one will not
have any effect on the other. This might be the source
of your current frustrations.

Let us know how it worked out for you, or if you
need any more help.

Jeff

 

[shiesl]

Jeff -

Thanks for your answer although I'm not sure that it helps.

I give a monthly lecture. All of the lectures are based on the same Master theme.

I have my formatting set for:

• font name - Minion Pro
• font size - 24
• font color - Accent 2
• alignment - Center
• font shadow - checked
• font shadow style - outer
• font blur - 3 pt.
• font transparency - 0%

If I add a new text box - or do a copy - I get:

• font name - New Roman Times
• font size - 18
• font color - White
• alignment - Center
• font shadow - Not checked - when I check I get
• font shadow style - outer
• font blur - 4 pt.
• font transparency - 57%

If I right click in the text box there is no option to "Set As Default Text Box" whether I have the text highlighted or only the text box. And, in fact, even after adding all changes to the text in the new text box the result is different.

Rick

 

[Jeff Chapman]

Hello Rick,

When you copy text and then paste it, do you see the
Paste Options icon right next to the text?
This is the first tool that you can use to select whether
the original formatting or the destination formatting
is used to paste the text. If you don't see that, go
to the PowerPoint - Preferences - Edit tab and add
a checkmark to the "Show Paste Options buttons" option,
and try the copy-paste operation again.

Just to confirm, when you draw a new text box on an empty slide,
select the entire text in the box, change the font and text
color, press the ESC key, and then do a
right-click on the selection boundary of the text box (NOT the
inside of the text box itself), do you see the option,
"Set as Default Text Box"?

The options on the context menu that I see when I do a
control+click or right-click on the boundary of a text box
are:

Help
Cut
Copy
Paste
Edit Text
Save as Picture...
Grouping
Arrange
Custom Animation...
Action Settings...
Set as Default Text Box
Convert to Freeform
Format Text...
Format Shape...
Hyperlink...
Spotlight

If you are using PowerPoint 2008 for Mac, you should see
something similar.

You mentioned something about French.
Are you using the French version of PowerPoint?
I thought that perhaps if you couldn't find the Set as Default
Text Box option, this might be a bug in the French version.

Let us know how it goes.

Jeff

 

[shiesl]

Jeff -

Sorry to take a while to get back to you.

In my Powerpoint Preferences - Edit Tab - the "Show Paste Options Button" is checked.

The options I have with a right-click on the boundary are:

Help
Cut
Copy Paste
Edit Text
Save as Picture
Grouping
Arrange
Custom Animation
Action Setting
Set as Default Shape
Convert to Freeform
Format Text
Format Shape
Hyperlink

Thus I have "Set as Default Shape" and not "Set as Default Text Box".

I'm using the American English version of PowerPoint.

Rick

 

[Jeff Chapman]

Rick, it appears from the context menu options you described that you are
working with a shape, not a text box or a placeholder.

Perhaps you are using the rectangle tool to draw text boxes? There is a
difference between the rectangle tool and the text box tool, even though
they can be made to look almost identical.

What happens when you draw a text box using the text box icon? It's got the
little letter "T" in the icon, and you can find it on the Drawing toolbar.

Note: the formatting you will get with the text box tool will be different
from the formatting you get with the shape tools. The text you add with the
shape tools generally follow the formatting of the document theme; whereas
the text boxes drawn with the text box tool have a mind of their own (they
follow the default text box style for that presentation, and appear to be
set on a per-presentation basis).

Also note: if you've previously made font or color changes to a text box,
PowerPoint won't touch them (shouldn't touch them, anyway) when you alter
the document theme or slide master.
Also, even if you manually change the font in the slide master, the default
text box style won't change. You have to actually set the default style for
text boxes yourself, if you want it changed.

So... there are a lot of confusing terms here for generating text in
PowerPoint... we can use text boxes, placeholders for text, or add text to
shapes. (And on top of that, there's Word Art, which is nothing more than a
glorified shape with stylized text...) I'm sorry if my explanation is poor,
but suffice to say that the font styles you get with each tool may be
different. Try opening a blank presentation, using the three different
methods of adding text to a slide, and you'll hopefully see what I mean.

Let us know if you still need more help or if I've turned your brain into
pretzels...

Jeff

 

[Guest]

Jeff -

It seems that you are right and many of the text boxes I'm using are really Shape Boxes based on the context menu options. I expect that I did this once or twice and then simply duplicated the pages.

Is there a simple way to change all of the Shape Boxes into Text Boxes? Or is there a way to set the default text for the Shape Boxes? (I'm still confused as to why the Shape Box would have a default of Shadow 4 pt Blur and 57% Transparency.

Thanks.

Rick

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Deb;

(I'm still confused as to why the Shape Box would have a default of Shadow 4
pt Blur and 57% Transparency.

Ah, that's an easy one... Because someone at MS [most likely in Marketing -
sorry, Sheridan ] thought it looked "cool & inviting" ;-)

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Jeff Chapman]

A method to convert shapes to text boxes?
Ummm, no... at least not that I could ever find.
Not even Paste Special will give you a text box -
it will give you a shape with text inside.

Unless, of course, you can find or write a handy
AppleScript to take care of this for you via
automation. Once a shape, always a shape... maybe.

Anyway, glad you could get things worked out at
last.

Jeff