Working with text

Text on a slide lives in shapes: title and content placeholders, text boxes, rectangles and ellipses. Nixt Slides edits a shape’s text as a whole, in a dialog, and formats all the text in a shape at once.

Type or change text

1. On the canvas, double-click the shape.
2. A dialog opens with the shape’s text. Its title is Edit text for an ordinary shape, or names the placeholder — for example Edit title, Edit subtitle or Edit content.
3. Type. Each line is one paragraph: press Return (Enter) to start a new paragraph. The empty field shows the hint “One line per paragraph”.
4. Click Apply to put the text on the slide, or Cancel to leave it unchanged.

An empty placeholder on the canvas shows a prompt such as “Click to add title”. Double-click it to type.

Typing in the same shape several times in a row is merged into one undo step, named “Typing”.

When you apply the dialog, every paragraph takes the paragraph settings of the shape’s first paragraph (indent level, alignment, bullets and spacing), and all the text takes the character formatting of its first piece of text (font, size, colour, bold, italic and link).

To edit the text in a table, see Type in a cell.

Insert a symbol

The text dialog has a SYMBOLS row under the text field with 24 characters that keyboards often lack:

→  ←  ↑  ↓  ⇒  ↔
—  –  •  ·  …  ™
©  ®  °  ±  ×  ÷
≈  ≤  ≥  ≠  €  £

1. Double-click the shape to open the text dialog.
2. Click in the text where you want the symbol, or select text to replace.
3. Click the symbol. It is inserted at the cursor, and the cursor moves after it.
4. Click Apply.

For any other character, paste it into the text field.

Format text

Select a shape, then use Home › Text. Each button applies to all the text in the selected shape.

Without a selected shape these buttons are unavailable, with the tooltip “Select a shape first”. Each click is its own undo step.

Other text settings

• Text colour — apply a Quick style, which sets the colour of all the text in a shape together with its fill and outline. See Quick styles.
• Fonts — the heading and body fonts are set for the whole presentation on Design › Fonts. See Change the fonts.

How text is drawn

• Font. Text uses the font the file names for it. Otherwise titles use the presentation’s heading font and all other text uses its body font. If a font isn’t installed on your computer, a substitute is used on screen; the font name is still saved in the file.
• Size. Text uses the size the file sets on it. When the text itself has no size, it takes the size its indent level has in the shape’s own style, then in the slide layout, then in the slide master, and for a text box that isn’t a placeholder, in the presentation’s default text style — the same order PowerPoint uses. Only when none of them sets one are titles drawn at 32 points and other text at 18 points.
• Paragraphs. Indent levels, left, centre, right and justified alignment, bullets, bullet characters, numbered lists (1., 2., 3.), line spacing and the space before and after paragraphs are drawn.
• Position in the box. Text sits at the top, middle or bottom of its box as the file says.
• Overflow. Text that doesn’t fit its box is cut off at the box’s edge.
• Colour. Text uses the colour the file gives it. When the text itself has no colour, it takes the colour its indent level has in the shape’s own style, then in the slide layout, then in the slide master, and for a text box that isn’t a placeholder, in the presentation’s default text style — the same order PowerPoint uses. Only when none of them sets one is text drawn dark or white, whichever reads better on the shape’s fill or, for a shape with no fill, on the slide’s background colour. The same colour is used in PDF export. To give text a colour of its own, apply a Quick style.
• Links with no colour of their own are drawn underlined, in indigo.

Link a shape to a web address

A link applies to all the text in a shape. In the slide show, clicking the shape opens the address in your web browser.

1. Select a shape that has text.
2. Choose Insert › Links and click the link button (tooltip Link this shape to a web address).
3. In the Link this shape dialog, type the full address, such as https://example.com.
4. Click Link, or press Return (Enter).

The text is drawn underlined, and in indigo unless the text has its own colour.

Change or remove a link

• To change it, select the shape and click the link button again. Its tooltip reads “Change the link —” followed by the current address, and the button is highlighted. Edit the address and click Link.
• To remove it, select the shape and click Insert › Links › Remove the link, or open the link dialog, clear the address and click Link.

The link button is unavailable, with the tooltip “Select a shape with text first”, when no shape with text is selected. The remove button is unavailable, with the tooltip “This shape is not a link”, when the selected shape has no link.

How links behave

• While editing, clicking a linked shape selects it; links don’t open.
• In the slide show, clicking a shape whose text all links to the same address opens that address. Only http:// and https:// addresses are opened. For any other kind of address, such as mailto:, nothing opens, and when you leave the slide show the status bar says “That link is not a web address, so it was not opened:” followed by the address. If your computer can’t open a web address, the status bar says “Could not open” followed by the address.
• Links from PowerPoint that cover only part of a shape’s text are drawn as links and kept when you save.