PowerPoint Typing Text into Slides
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Typing text into slides in a PowerPoint presentation ranges from a simple bullet pointed set of items, to sentences, to a paragraph or two. The more text you type in a PowerPoint slide, the smaller the text becomes. For this reason, you want to be fairly brief in what you type on each slide. For example, if you have a twenty item bullet point list you need to type, you should consider dividing this list between two slides. Maybe you have a five paragraph item you want to display, but find that putting all five paragraphs on one PowerPoint slide makes the text small, and not pleasant for your target audience. Consider dividing the five paragraphs between two or three slides. Text in most cases is used to give a visual emphasis of what you are speaking. If you are talking about making a pizza, make the bullet point list simple, possibly the recipe, and very minimal instructions. You might put the recipe on one slide, and the simple directions on a second slide, and a picture of the pizza on the third slide.
Text is put into a slide when you start typing. Once you type the first letter you are placed in Edit View. After you finish typing you will need to hit the Escape key one time to move back into Object View. In Object View you will be able to Tab to the next part of the slide where you can type in more text. Remember to hit the Escape key when you finish typing in order to go back into Object View. After you type the title of a slide (which is the first part you type in when you create a new slide) to hit the Escape key, Tab to the next part of the slide, and then type. When you enter the second part of the slide and begin to type, PowerPoint automatically puts you in a bullet point list. This is fine if you want bullet points. If you do not want bullet points, type a letter, then backspace two or three times. You are now ready to type paragraphs.
Note: If you need to edit the text in the slide, hit Escape one time, Tab to the area you want to edit, hit the Enter key one time to move into the Edit View and all the text will be highlighted. Down arrow one time and the highlight turns off. You are now ready to arrow to the part of the text you want to edit. When you are finished hit the Escape key to move back into the Object View.
Try the following activity to develop the skill of typing text into a PowerPoint slide.
1. Hit the Windows key one time.
2. Type "powerpoint" (without the quotes).
3. Hit the Enter key one time. If you are in PowerPoint 2013, hit the Escape key one time to be placed into a blank PowerPoint slide.
4. Type "Text Practice" (without the quotes).
5. Hit the Escape key one time.
6. Hit the Tab key one time.
7. Type "By Your Name" (without the quotes).
8. Hit the Escape key one time.
9. Press and hold down the Control key and hit the letter m
10. Release the keys.
11. Type "Text Page Two" (without the quotes).
12. Hit the Escape key one time.
13. Hit the Tab key one time.
14. Type "First" (without the quotes).
15. Hit the Enter key one time to move to the next bullet point.
16. Type "Second" (without the quotes).
17. Hit the Enter key one time.
18. Type "Third" (without the quotes).
19. Hit the Enter key one time.
20. Up arrow, then down arrow through the three item bulleted list you just typed.
21. Hit the Escape key one time and you are out of Edit View. Note: If you try to up or down arrow now (in Object View), your box where the bulleted items are will move up or down, each time you hit the arrow key. On way to get back into the bulleted list is to type a letter to put you back in Edit View, backspace out the letter, and then use the arrow keys to go up and down the bulleted list. Remember to hit the Escape key to go back out of Edit View, and be back in Object View.
22. Press and hold down the Control key and hit the letter m to create a new slide.
23. Type "Text Page Three" (without the quotes).
24. Hit the Escape key one time.
25. Hit the Tab key one time.
26. Type a letter, or hit the spacebar one time.
27. Backspace two or three times and you will remove the bullet point, and be in a position to type in a paragraph.
28. Type a four or five sentence paragraph.
29. Hit the Escape key one time.
30. Hit the F12 key one time to bring up the "Save As" dialogue box.
31. Type "Text Practice One" (without the quotes).
32. Hit the Enter key one time to save the "Text Practice One" PowerPoint file into your Documents folder on the hard drive.
33. Press and hold down the Alt key and hit the F4 key to close the PowerPoint program.