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You can add text to the following areas of a slide:

• Text Placeholders (placeholders: Boxes with dotted borders that are part of most slide layouts. These boxes hold title and body text or objects such as charts, tables, and pictures.)
• Text boxes (text box: A movable, resizable container for text or graphics. Use text boxes to position several blocks of text on a page or to give text a different orientation from other text in the document.)
• Shapes

  Notes  

It's important to note that there is a difference with how you use a text placeholder versus a text box in Slide Master view. Here's the difference:

• Add a text placeholder from within Slide Master view when you want to prompt users of your template to replace the prompt text with text that is pertenent to their own project. Normal behavior of custom prompt text in a text placeholder is that it disappears when you begin typing. For procedures on how to do this, see Add a text placeholder with custom prompt text.
• Add a text box from within Slide Master view when you want it to contain permanent, uneditable text.

  When you add a text box in Normal view, the text is editable by anyone.

• Add text to a placeholder

• Add text to a text box

• Add text that is part of a shape

• Add text that is idenpendant of a shape

Add text to a placeholder

Below, the dotted border represents the placeholder that contains the title text for the slide.

To add text to a text placeholder on a slide, do the following:

• Click inside the placeholder, and then type or paste the text.

   Note   If your text exceeds the size of the placeholder, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 reduces the font size and line spacing incrementally as you type to make the text fit.

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Add text to a text box

Use text boxes to place text anywhere on a slide, such as outside a text placeholder. For example, to add a caption to a picture (picture: A file (such as a metafile) that you can ungroup and manipulate as two or more objects, or a file that stays as a single object (such as bitmaps).), create a text box and position it near the picture.

 Note   When you add a text box in Normal view, the text is editable by anyone. When you add a text box in Slide Master view, the text you add to it will become permanent and uneditable outside the Slide Master.

• To add text to a text box that anyone can edit, in Normal view, click inside the text box, and then type or paste the text.
• To add text to a text box that is contain permanent and uneditable, in Slide Master view, click click inside the text box, and then type or paste the text.

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Add text that is part of a shape

Shapes such as squares, circles, callout balloons, and block arrows can contain text. When you type text into a shape, the text attaches to the shape and moves and rotates with it.

• To add text that becomes part of a shape, select the shape, and then type or paste the text.

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Add text that is independent of a shape

A text box is handy if you want to add text to a shape, but you don't want the text to attach to the shape. You can add a border (border: The visible line around the edge of an object. For example, the four lines of a rectangle that comprise its border.), fill, shadow, or three-dimensional (3-D) effect to text in a text box.

• To add text that moves independently of a shape, add a text box, and then type or paste the text.

  Add a text box

  1. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box.

      Note   If you are using an East Asian language, from the Text Box drop-down menu, click either Horizontal or Vertical alignment.

  2. Click the slide, and then drag the pointer to draw the text box.

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