Learn PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
Formatting Lines (and Shape Outlines)
We have already showed you how to use fills for shapes in PowerPoint 2016. A fill is something that is contained within the confines of the shape. Similarly, shapes have another attribute known as the "line" or the "outline". A line is the perimeter surrounding a closed shape or the line itself within an open shape -- we will explore more about lines later in this tutorial. In subsequent tutorials, we will show how you can work with shape outlines in PowerPoint 2016.
Insert Shapes
Shapes are the building blocks of whatever you create in PowerPoint -- in fact, even a text box that you add to your slide is essentially a shape with a No Fill attribute. Once you get proficient with shapes, you can do so much more -- for example, you can combine multiple shapes to create fancier shapes. However, you need to start with the very basics -- and there's so much to learn even at this foundation level. The first task you need to do is to insert a shape - fortunately,
PowerPoint makes it easy to do this task.
Duplicate Shapes Using Ctrl+D
It's easy to duplicate shapes by dragging, but while that's a nice way to duplicate five or ten shapes, it's not the best way to create ten, twenty, or more copies. We all know that you can press Ctrl+C to copy any shape in PowerPoint to the clipboard, and a resulting Ctrl+V always pastes a copy from the clipboard to the slide -- what many people don't realize is PowerPoint has this almost supernatural keyboard shortcut called Ctrl+D (yes, the D stands for duplicate),
and this Ctrl+D shortcut does more than just duplicate; in fact it creates a pattern of evenly-spaced and symmetrical shapes!
Rotate Shapes
When you insert any shape into your PowerPoint slide, more often than not you will want to make some changes to the default shape that you end up with. Mainly, you may want to resize and rotate the shape -- this is something we do a lot in our everyday life -- like rearranging our work desks, or even changing the position of our favorite chair so that we feel more comfortable. Similarly, all objects on your slide need to be arranged in a way that feels appropriate -- rotation is one way
of making this change happen.
Merge Shape Commands
Merge Shape commands are a set of five commands that work with shapes, text and pictures. Using these commands, you can play with shapes, text, and picture -- and merge them, or subtract one object from the other. The results can be fascinating, and playing with the Merge Shape commands can be addictive.
