A couple of tips on customized slides and adding text

[mhwarner]

This is not really a tutorial so I didn't post it in that section, but I just thought I would point out a couple of things that I figured out which have had me stumped for a bit. (If the moderators feel it belongs elsewhere, feel free to move it.)

1. The customized slide indicator. In version 4.x and before it was a depressed button immediately to the left of the "Customize Slide" button.

I know that it was not available in early betas of version 5 but I had recently seen references to it being fixed. For the life of me I did not see it and was about to post that it was still missing. After studying my screen intently, I found it in Beta 18 (and it was probably there in an earlier beta but I somehow missed out on it's location). Anyway, you can find the indicator (still the letter "P") down in the status bar now between the project size of the EXE file and the name of the current slide.

2. Adding and resizing text in the Objects and Animations window. This is probably obvious to some of you but it took me a bit of playing around (and some frustration) to discover. When you add text in the O&A window, you can resize by dragging the corner handles or the side handles of the text box. BUT ... it is always proportional. I wanted to make some text a bit taller and thinner to add a few more words for a title. I finally discovered that by holding down the shift key and dragging (the top, bottom, or side handles especially), you can make your text taller and thinner or shorter and fatter. Simple really, but not immediately obvious and since it is not possible to specify a font size for your text, the only way to get the size you actually need.

[jfa]

Thanks Mary,

I worked out 1. but you have answered something I had been wondering about in 2.

[jevans]

Just to add a cautionary note to the "customize slide" indicator. At present this will only show if you change the slide to use its own transition. If you alter the time, the "P" indicator will not show.

Jeff