Editing Text

When you change the text on a PowerPoint slide when you cut it, copy it, replace it, or move it aroundwhat you are doing is editing your text. To see most of the editing tools PowerPoint offers, all you have to do is take a look at the ribbon's Home tab.

In contrast, when you change the way your text lookswhen you make it bold, italicize it, choose a different font or background color for it, and so onwhat you're doing is formatting.

Selecting Text

Before you can do anything to the text on your slides, you first have to select it. Text can appear in any of three places on a slide: in one of the title or subtitle placeholder text boxes that PowerPoint automatically adds to your slide, in a text box that you have added to a slide or in a shape that you have added to a slide.

Clicking the Home tab shows you your editing options, but you can not actually use any of them until you click inside a text box. When you do, PowerPoint activates the text editing options (except Paste and Clipboard, which remain grayed out until you cut or copy text, in other words, until you have something to paste from the Clipboard) and the Drawing Tools | Format tab appears.

To select text:

• Click anywhere in an existing text box, placeholder text box, or on a shape. PowerPoint highlights the outline of the text box you clicked in. In addition, PowerPoint displays the Drawing Tools/Format context tab and activates the text-related options in the Home tabunderlining, font size, alignment, and so on.
  When you click in a placeholder text box (one that says Click to add title or Click to add subtitle), PowerPoint erases the placeholder text. (Placeholder text does not appear in Slide Show view, nor does it appear when you run your slideshow, it is just there to remind you to type your own text.)
  
  
• Drag to select as much text as you like. Alternatively, you can press Shift and use the arrow keys (or click again). Or double-click to quickly select a single word. To select discontinuous words or phrases, press Ctrl while you select each word or phrase. Whichever method you use, PowerPoint highlights the text you select.

Cutting Text

As you edit and reorganize the content of your slideshow, you may run into a situation where you want to remove text from one slide and either ditch it permanently or reserve it so that you can paste it back into your slideshow later (on a different slide, perhaps).

Cutting text was designed for just such situations. When you cut text, you remove it from your slide and stow it away for safekeeping on the Office Clipboard. You can then choose to paste the cut text back onto the original slide or another slide; if you do not, eventually the Office Clipboard simply discards it. The box on the next page tells you more about the Clipboard.

To cut text:

• Select the text you want to cut. PowerPoint highlights the selected text.


• Choose Home => Clipboard => Cut (the Cut icon looks like a tiny pair of scissors, or press Ctrl+X. PowerPoint removes the selected text from your slide and adds it to the Clipboard. Another way to cut text is to right-click your selection and then, from the menu that appears, choose Cut.

Copying Text

When you copy text, you tell PowerPoint to place a copy of the text on the Office Clipboard so that you can replicate it latereither by pasting it onto the same slide, onto another slide, or into another document (such as a Word document) altogether. Copying text is useful for those times when you need to repeat lengthy or tricky-to-spell words or phrases throughout your presentation.

To copy text:

• Select the text you want to copy. PowerPoint highlights the selected text.


• Choose Home => Clipboard => Copy (the Copy icon looks like two tiny identical documents, or press Ctrl+C. PowerPoint adds the selected text to the Clipboard. Another way to copy text is to right-click your selection and then, from the menu that appears, choose Copy.

Pasting Text

When you paste text, what you are actually doing is telling PowerPoint to take a hunk of information you have already placed on the Clipboardeither by cutting or copyingand slap that information onto your slide. So in order to paste something, you must first cut or copy it.

The text you paste into your slides does not have to be only text you have copied or cut from within PowerPoint. You can paste stuff you have cut or copied in Word, Excel, or any other Office program (and most non-Office programs, too).

The Clipboard can hold up to 24 separate pieces of information, so you have two options when it comes to pasting: You can quickly paste the last thing you cut or copied, or you can hunt through the entire contents of the Clipboard and choose what you want to paste. After you cut or copy a chunk of text once, you can paste it into your presentation as many times as you like.

Automatically Pasting the last Chunk of Text you Cut (or copied)

Like a lot of Microsoft programs, PowerPoint gives you a super-quick way to paste the last thing you cut or copied to the Clipboard. This procedure is one of the All Time Most Popular Office Tricks.

Here is how you do it:

• Click to position your cursor in the text box where you want your pasted text to appear. PowerPoint highlights the outline of the text box you clicked in.


• Either click the Paste icon or choose Home => Paste => Clipboard => Paste. Keyboard jockeys save time by pressing Ctrl+V.

You can also right-click in the slide where you want to paste your item and then, from the menu that appears, choose Paste.

PowerPoint pastes the last thing you cut or copied onto your slide, and a tiny Paste Options icon appears briefly near your cursor.

Choosing what to Paste

Use this option when you want to paste multiple bits of information, or when you can not remember how long ago you cut (or copied) the text you want to paste.

To choose the text you want to paste into a slide:

• Click in the text box where you want your pasted text to go. PowerPoint highlights the outline of the text box you clicked in.
  
  
• Click the Clipboard dialog box launcher. The Clipboard task pane appears on the left side of your screen.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  If you have been busy copying and cutting, then you may have filled up the Clipboard. In that case, you will need to use the scroll bars to scroll down through the contents of the Clipboard and find what you are looking for. Clicking Paste All pastes the entire contents of the Clipboard to wherever you have positioned your cursor, beginning with the first cut (or copied) item and ending with the last.

• In the Clipboard task pane, click to select the text you want to paste. PowerPoint pastes the selected text onto your slide.
  
  
• To close the Clipboard task pane, click the X in the upper-right corner of the pane.

Choosing how to Paste

In most situations, simply pasting text onto your slides the standard way is what you want. But PowerPoint gives you a few additional options for pasting certain types of information onto your slides. For example, when you want to be able to use PowerPoint's picture-formatting options to edit the pasted text, you will want to paste it directly onto your slide as a picture.

To choose how to paste text onto your slides:

• Click the down arrow next to Paste and then, from the menu that appears, choose Paste Special. The Paste Special window appears.
  
  
  
  

  The options the Paste Special window displays depend on the kind of information you cut (or copied), the program you were in when you cut (or copied) it, and whether or not the program you cut (or copied) it from is still running on your computer.

• Choose how you want to paste the information onto your slide. Your options depend on the type of information you are pasting, but they include:
  
  
  • Pasting the information directly. Turning on the radio box next to Paste, lets you choose one of several options including pasting the text as document object, pasting it as a picture, and pasting it as formatted text. Which option you want to choose depends on how you plan to format the text. For example, pasting text as a picture lets you use the options on PowerPoint's Picture Tools | Format contextual tab to format the text.
    
    
  • Pasting a link to the information. Turning on the radio box next to Paste Link lets you paste the text onto your slide, with a twist: double-clicking the pasted text lets you edit it not in PowerPoint, but in the program you used to create the text.

After you have made your choice, click OK. PowerPoint pastes the most recently cut or copied text based on your selection.

Moving Text

When all you want to do is move a bit of text from one spot on your slide to another spot on the same slide, you can certainly choose to cut the text and then paste it. But PowerPoint offers an easier way to accomplish the same thing: moving the text.

To move text:

• Select the text you want to move. Then, click your selection (but do not let go of your mouse button just yet). The "moving" box appears beneath your cursor.
  
  
  
  

  After you have selected a chunk of text, clicking your selection displays the "moving" box you see here. Now all you have to do is drag the selection to where you want it and let go of your mouse.

• Drag the selection and drop it where you want it to appear. The "moving" box disappears, and PowerPoint moves the text.

Deleting Text

Unlike cutting text, which tells PowerPoint to save the text on the Clipboard in case you want to reuse it later, deleting text erases it completely. The only way to get deleted text back is to click Undo.

To delete text:

• Select the text you want to delete. PowerPoint highlights the selected text.
  
  
• Do one of the following:
  
  
  • Press Delete. (PowerPoint deletes the selected text.)
    
    
  • Type some new text. (PowerPoint deletes the selected text and replaces it with your new text.)

To delete individual characters, position your cursor after the character you want to delete and press Backspace, or before the character you want to delete and press Delete.