Home | Products | PowerPoint | PowerPoint Tutorials | PowerPoint SmartArt

Text Pane For SmartArt Graphics in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2011
OS: Mac OS X

Date Created: September 19th 2011
Last Updated: September 19th 2011

Excerpt/Capsule: Learn how the Text Pane can help you to insert and edit text in your SmartArt graphics in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

SmartArt is a great option that lets you quickly create editable diagrams that also work as bulleted list alternatives. You have already learned how to convert your bulleted list to a SmartArt graphic -- but once you do that, you'll discover that it is neither easy nor intuitive to edit, add, or delete text that comprised your original bulleted list. Fortunately, you can get the bulleted list back within the convenient Text Pane of the SmartArt graphic -- any edits you make in the Text Pane also show immediately in your SmartArt graphic. This tutorial will help you explore working within the Text Pane for SmartArt graphics in PowerPoint 2011:

Showing and Hiding the Text Pane

When a Smart Art graphic is inserted on the slide, you may or may not see the Text Pane. If you don't see the Text Pane, select the SmartArt graphic so that you can see the Text Pane icon, as highlighted in red in Figure 1.


Figure 1: Text Pane icon within the SmartArt graphic

Click this icon to make the Text Pane visible on the left side of the SmartArt graphic, as shown below in Figure 2.


Figure 2: SmartArt graphics Text Pane

Working within the Text Pane

Within the Text Pane, start typing to add the text, as shown in Figure 3. You can also replace existing text. Whatever you type in the Text Pane is also reflected within the SmartArt graphic.


Figure 3: Add or edit text in the Text Pane

To create a new line of bulleted text in the Text Pane, just press the Return / Enter key. Type text, and you'll see that your SmartArt graphic has a new shape representing what you added, as shown in Figure 4.


Figure 4: New bullet in Text Pane inserts a new shape in SmartArt graphic

If you want to format the text in the Text Pane, first select the text to be edited. Then, carefully right-click to view the context menu shown in Figure 5.


Figure 5: Context menu options of Text Pane

Note that the context menu includes the options to cut, copy and paste the selected text.

Select the Font option (highlighted in red in the context menu in Figure 5 above) to make changes to font attributes. This will open the Format Text dialog box with Font tab active (see Figure 6). Here you can change the font, font color, etc. of the selected text within the Text Pane (and also within the SmartArt graphic). The Character Spacing tab enables you to adjust the spacing and placement of the same text.


Figure 6: Format Text dialog box

The Text Pane also includes six handy icons that allow you to change the hierarchy and position of the selected text to previous or next bullet levels (highlighted in red in Figure 7). Do note that these icons may be grayed out in some instances -- their availability in the Text Pane depends upon what type of SmartArt graphic variant you are working with.


Figure 7: Icons within the Text Pane to re-position the text within SmartArt graphic

These six icons function as explained (from left to right) below:

• Add: This icon with a green plus sign adds a new bullet to the hierarchy relative to the shape that was selected before clicking the Add icon.
  
  
• Delete: This icon with a red minus sign removes selected bullet from the hierarchy.
  
  
• Decrease Indent: The left arrow icon takes the selected text to one level up. For example, if Decrease Indent is applied to a Bullet Level 2 text, it will be converted to Bullet Level 1 text.
  
  
• Increase Indent: The right arrow icon increases the indent (or reduces the hierarchy by one level) of the selected text to the lower level, applying that level's style and formatting. For example, Bullet Level 1 text will be changed to Bullet Level 2.
  
  
• Move Up: The up arrow icon moves the selected text up so that it appears before previous item. The text is moved up without making any changes to its hierarchy though.
  
  
• Move Down: The down arrow moves the selected text down so that it appears after next item. Again, the text is moved down without making any changes to its hierarchy.

As mentioned above, some of the above icons might be grayed out depending upon the SmartArt graphic variant being used. For example you cannot add a new bullet level, or even a demoted level to the Basic Matrix SmartArt graphic once you hit the limit of 4 first level bullets (see Figure 8, the first icon, Add has been grayed out). Even if you try to add a new bullet by pressing Return key, you will see a cross mark in red as shown in Figure 8 indicating that the new bullet cannot be added .


Figure 8: Basic Matrix doesn't allow to add 5th level bullet

Some SmartArt graphic variants though let you add more bullets / shapes and are not as constrained as the Basic Matrix variant -- the Diverging Radial for instance lets you add many more bullets / shapes to an existing SmartArt graphic (see Figure 9 ).

              
Figures 9: Two variants of the Diverging Radial SmartArt graphic showing the effect of adding more bullets / shapes

See Also: Text Pane For SmartArt Graphics In PowerPoint 2010 for Windows | Text Pane For SmartArt Graphics In PowerPoint 2007