Using Text Art | Hampden-Sydney College

Text Art

Now we’ll use some Text Art. In the Drawing Bar, which should be open, find a “blue A” that is slightly tilted (like the one on the right). When you pass your cursor over this “button,” it will indicate: insert WordArt. If the Drawing Bar is not available, click-on View in the Menu Bar, then click-on Toolbars and select Drawing by clicking-on it. Click-on the Insert WordArt button. The following WordArt Gallery menu screen will appear. Select one of the WordArt patterns by clicking on it. We chose the one indicated by the arrow below. Next, click-on OK.

The following Edit WordArt Text screen will appear. Where the screen indicates Your Text Here, type-in: Enjoy your Sandwich. Select a different font and size, if you desire, then click-on ok.

You will return to Slide 8 and see the WordArt you created. You may use the “grabbers” (little circles on the corners) to make the text larger (like we did on Page 23). It would be a good idea to make your Text Art about three times this size. You may also move your text as you desire.

If you want to change the “look” of your WordArt, you’ll need to be able to see the WordArt toolbar. It looks like the toolbar below.

Most of the time the toolbar appears when you click on OK and the WordArt you selected appears. If the toolbar does not appear, point to the center of the WordArt and click the RIGHT mouse button. A WordArt drop down screen will appear. A choice will be: Show WordArt toolbar. Click on Show WordArt toolbar and the toolbar will appear.

We’ll click-on the different “buttons” in the WordArt toolbar to edit our text.

Starting from the left (in the WordArt toolbar) you already know what the first two buttons will do. The blue A will allow you to add another WordArt. The Edit Text button will allow you to change the text in your WordArt.

If, for some reason, you accidentally “click-away” from your WordArt, you’ll loose the grabbers and your WordArt toolbar. Not a big deal. To “activate” both, simply place the cursor over the WordArt and click the left button on the WordArt. Both will re-appear.

The third button in from the left will bring up the WordArt Gallery again. If you do

not like the WordArt “style” you chose, you can choose another by clicking-on this button.

The fourth button in from the left will allow you to change a number of “things” in WordArt, and in other PowerPoint features. When you click on this button the menu screen to the below will appear.

Notice that there are a number of “tabs” at the top of the menu. You can click-on the tabs and get a “feel” for what each will do. We’ll just click-on the Color choice for now (see arrow at left). We’ll click-on the small “down triangle” to bring up the menu below.

When you click-on Color the drop down menu to the left will appear. We’ll work with a similar menu later. For now, just move your cursor down to More Colors and click on it. The Colors menus will appear similar to the one at the top of the next page.

There are a lot of really unique features with the color palettes in Microsoft software. The Custom color pallet, which you see on the left, has two “neat” features. The first feature is that you can click anywhere in the pallet and the color in the area where you click will be shown in the lower right corner. After you have selected a color you can “drag” the small arrow “triangle” on the right of the screen up and down to lighten or darken the color you chose. We’ve marked where you can click to choose a color, and the “up and down” triangle, with arrows in the image on the left. Select a color and give it a try.

Once you have selected a color, click-on OK. You will see the changes in your WordArt.

When you click-on the fifth button from the left (it has an “Abc” on it), the image at the right will drop down. If you would like to change the shape of your WordArt text to a new shape, click-on one of the shapes in the choices chart to the right. You will see your WordArt change to that shape. Give it a try.

The last four buttons on the right adjust text spacing, alignment, etc. Work with them, as you desire.

When you have finished your editing, you can close the WordArt edit toolbar by clicking-on the little “X.” in the upper right corner of the toolbar.

Text Box

The last “tool” we’ll work with is the Text Box. The Text Box is also in the Drawing toolbar. The Text Box button will allow you to insert text in your slides if the template you chose does not have the desired Title and Bullet boxes. To insert text, click on the Text Box button. It has an “A” in the upper left corner of the button with some text below (it looks like the button above on the right). After you click-on the Text Box button, move the cursor into an “open” area of Slide 8. It will look like a “little sword.”. When you get to an appropriate place, click the left mouse button and a “text entry area” will appear (it looks like the image on the right).

Don’t worry about its size. Just type the following: THE END. The text box will automatically resize to the text entered. You may now highlight this text, and by clicking-on Format in the Menu Bar and Font, as you have done before. Edit this text – make it larger, change the font and pick a color that you like.