Inserting and editing a Text Box

A Text box was used to produce the 1 + 2 = 3 part of the slide you see above.

Step 1 - Open PowerPoint, click in the circle by Blank Presentation and then click on the OK button.

Step 2 - In the New Slide window choose the Blank slide, that is the empty box in the bottom right corner of the window. Then click on the OK button.

Step 3 - Locate the Drawing toolbar. Unless settings have been changed on your computer, the drawing toolbar is located at the bottom of the screen:

"Help! That tool bar isn't on my window. What do I do now?"
Go to the View menu, select Toolbars then select Drawing. Whoop, there it is!

Step 4 - In the Drawing toolbar, click on the Text Box button

Step 5- In the upper left portion of the slide, click and a text box appears.

Step 6 - Type the number 1, highlight the number, make it bold and change the size to 72 point. There are two easy ways to change the point size

• Click on the down arrow in the font size box and slide down to 72
• Click several times on the Increase Font Size button.

Step 7 - Click in the gray dotted area surrounding the box. Your cursor becomes a four-headed arrow. Click in the gray area and drag the text box down in the slide. Note - this is very different from moving a graphic. If you are moving clip art, your cursor will be a four headed arrow when you place it anywhere on the image. However, with a text box, you must click in the gray area only . Be sure that you do not click on one of the white boxes.

Step 8 - With the gray box around the number, copy the number.

• Move your cursor to the Edit menu and select Copy
• Click on the Copy button in the Standard toolbar
• Use the keyboard combination to copy (Ctrl+C for IBM or Command+C for Macintosh)

Step 9 - Paste four additional copies of the number. Why four? If you copy and paste, each of the text boxes will already be formatted and you will not need to change the size, or to make the text bold. You only highlight the number 1 and change it.

• Move your cursor to the Edit menu and select Paste
• Click on the Paste button in the Standard toolbar
• Use the keyboard combination to copy (Ctrl+V for IBM or Command+V for Macintosh)

After pasting you will see five overlapping numbers. Only the last one will be highlighted.

Step 10 - One at a time, click on the numbers and drag them into place across the top of the slide in the same place as the 1 + 2 = 3 on the slide.

Step 11 - Click on the number, highlight and change them one at a time until the top of the slide says 1 + 2 = 3.

After you complete this process for each of the other three text boxes the top of your slide should look something like this:

Go to the next lesson - Drawing a rectangle and changing the Fill Color