<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Objects

Each slide you create is a kind of "container" for the objects which you insert in it. A frequently used object type is the text frame, for example. Pictures and tables are also objects that you can insert into a slide. Overall, Presentations supports the following types of objects:

▪Placeholders (as described in the previous section)

▪Text frames

▪Tables

▪Pictures

▪Charts

▪OLE objects (only available on Windows)

▪Drawings (lines, rectangles, circles, etc.)

▪AutoShapes (arrows, stars, smileys, speech bubbles, etc.)

▪TextArt objects (lettering with text effects, similar to Microsoft WordArt)

▪Media objects (movies and sounds)*

When you create a slide, you usually fill existing elements with content. Most slides already contain predefined placeholders for either entering text or inserting a picture to emphasize your point. Furthermore, you can add more objects at any time to make a presentation more varied.

Tip: Be careful not to include excessive objects in your slides and thus lose the attention of your audience.

Inserting objects

To insert an object into a presentation, choose one of the commands on the ribbon tab Insert | group Objects (alternatively: ribbon tab Home | group Objects | New object).

You would thus choose the ribbon command Insert | group Objects | Picture frame if you wanted to insert a picture, for example.

The selected object is either inserted immediately in the slide or the program opens a dialog box with further instructions – this picture, for example, contains a prompt to select a corresponding file.

Editing objects

After inserting an object, you can change its position and size at any time. To change its position, click on the object and drag it to the desired location while holding down the mouse button. To change its size, drag one of the round handles surrounding the object.

All objects have certain properties that you can change at any time – for example, their fill color, border lines, etc. To change them, select the object by clicking on it and switch to the contextual ribbon tab Object (or: ribbon tab Picture). This ribbon tab appears automatically as an additional tab on the far right as soon as you select an object.

Alternatively: To open the dialog box with advanced settings for Object properties, right-click on the object in the context menu to select (Picture:) Properties.

To delete an object, click on it to select it and press the Del key.

For more information on working with objects, see Working with objects.