Here's a real stumper. I've been trying to figure this one out for a while. How can you edit the text shadow inside of a 'callout'. It seems to be locked. I've tried dropping text inside, highlighting text, changing the slide design settings, replacing all fonts in the presentation, you name it. Once again a problem that seems to be simple but is rather perplexing. I can't figure out why callouts don't have the same level of editing control that a simple text box has.

Shadows are influenced by two options:

1. Select the text and click the Shadow icon on the Drawing toolbar. Then click Shadow Settings to open the Shadow Settings toolbar. The last icon on this toolbar lets you change the shadow color.

2. Select the text and then choose Format | Font - if the Shadow option is selected, deselect it and work with the option 1.

It looks like text in an AutoShape (such as a callout) can only have shadows using option 2 though unless:

The base shadow settings give you a default background color. Remove the background color (i.e. no fill in the format autoshape window) and the callout text will perform just like any other textual text box.

Friday, May 27, 2005