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Apply Shadow Effects to Shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

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

Date Created: August 12th 2011
Last Updated: August 12th 2011

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Excerpt/Capsule: Learn how to apply Shadow effects to shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

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PowerPoint 2011 offer six types of Shape Effects -- what's more, you can apply more than one of these effects to a single shape. As is the case with almost anything you do in PowerPoint, you first select the object and then apply an attribute to it -- so, go ahead and select your shape, and we then show you how you can apply a Shadow effect to the selected shape. To see a sample presentation containing Shadow effects, scroll down to the bottom of this page.

Follow these steps to apply Shadow effects to a shape:

1. Select the shape you want to apply the shadow effect to, and double click it to activate the Format tab of the Ribbon (highlighted in red Figure 1). Within this tab, locate the Shape Styles group, and click the Effects button that you can see in Figure 1 (highlighted in blue).
   
   
   Figure 1: Effects button within Shape Styles group of Format tab
   
   
   Note: Format tab is a contextual tab. These tabs are special tabs in the Ribbon that are not visible all the time -- they only make an appearance when you are working with a particular slide object which can be edited using special options.
   
   
2. This brings up the Effects drop-down gallery. In this gallery, choose the Shadow option to bring up the sub-gallery shown in Figure 2.
   
   
   Figure 2: Shadow sub-gallery within Effects gallery
   
   

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3. The following options are provided within the Shadow sub-gallery (refer to marked areas in Figure 2 above):
   
   1. Outer: There are nine outer shadow styles available for various directions. These outer shadows are akin to drop shadows.
      
      
   2. Inner: You can choose from nine inner shadow styles. This effect applies a darkened edge within the shape itself in various directions.
      
      
   3. Perspective: Adds a long shadow that can sometimes cast off outside the slide area. There are five perspective shadow styles available.
      
      
   4. No Shadow: Use this option if the shape already has a shadow which you want to remove.
      
      
   5. Shadow Options: If you want to have more control on shadows, select this option to summon the Format Shape dialog box with the Shadow panel active (see Figure 3). Here you will find all possible shadow editing options which are explained in the next tutorial in this series.
      
      
      Figure 3: Format Shape dialog box with Shadow panel selected
      
4. Click on any shadow style to apply to the selected shape. In Figure 4 you can see that a shadow effect has been applied to the previously selected shape (refer to Figure 1 above).
   
   Figure 4: Rectangle shape with applied shadow effect
   
   
5. Remember to save your presentation often.

Sample Presentation

Click above to view on YouTube