Shape Subtract
PowerPoint 2013 lets you change the appearance of merged shapes -- don't get fooled by how easy-to-use this is because the results you can end up with can be seriously impressive. In all, there are 5 options that let you merge shapes, and we have already explored 4 of them. In this tutorial, we'll show you how you can use the Subtract option to subtract one shape from another shape or even shapes. Shapes with the Subtract option applied result in a single, cutout shape.

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Convert Text to Shapes
PowerPoint 2013 has several new features but there's nothing quite like what we will explore on this page -- an option to convert regular text into a shape. First of all, this is an undocumented feature -- so it was really cool discovering how this was done. And then, this is such an utterly useful option -- people find all sorts of excuses to use this feature. For example, you can now easily create logos in PowerPoint without using any other application. Or use a fancy font and then share that presentation with others in the knowledge that recipients can see the font exactly as intended, even if it's not installed on their computers.

Table Styles
PowerPoint 2011 makes repetitive table formatting easy and consistent with the Table Styles option. These are pre-defined styles that contain combinations of formatting elements such as fills, borders, and font colors. PowerPoint provides various such styles to choose from -- just a single click can make your Table look great.

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Select Table Cells, Rows, and Columns
While it is easy to work with tables in PowerPoint 2011, you will always need to select some particular part of the table to work with -- this means you will have to select an individual table cell, or even separate rows and columns while performing various tasks such as populating tables with content, or adding and removing table rows/columns, or merging and splitting table cells. Sometimes you will also need to select contiguous cells in both rows and columns, or even the entire table itself. Follow these guidelines to learn about how to select the entire table, an individual row, a column, a cell, or even contiguous cells in PowerPoint 2011.

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Distribute Rows and Columns in Tables
Tables can make your data or other content look organized and make it easy for your audiences to quickly understand how the content in one or more cells relates to the content in other cells. However, even with all this organization built-in within the tabular structure, tables still need aesthetics. A table on your slide looks good when its rows and columns are arranged and sized in a proper manner, and the table cell content is aligned well.