Apply Soft-Edges to Shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2011
OS: Mac OS X
Date Created: September 5th 2011
Last Updated: September 5th 2011
Excerpt/Capsule: Learn how to apply Soft Edges to shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
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We have already explored all the Shape Effects that show up in the Shape Effects gallery of PowerPoint 2011 for Mac. In addition, PowerPoint 2011 also provides you with an extra effect called Soft Edges that is not directly accessible from the Shape Effects gallery. To get to Soft Edges, you will have to choose the Glow effects options as we will show you later in this tutorial.
The Soft Edges effect adds an eaten-up, feathered edge to any selected shape. Soft edges work best with larger shapes, especially if you use some of the larger soft edge variations available. To see a sample presentation containing shapes with Soft Edges applied in PowerPoint, scroll down to the bottom of this page.
Follow these steps to apply Soft Edges to a shape in PowerPoint 2011:
- Select the
shape you want to apply the Soft Edges to (if there's no shape
on your slide, insert
a new shape). Double click the selected shape to activate the Format tab of the Ribbon (highlighted in red in 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: Format tab of the Ribbon
Note: Format tab is a contextual tab. Contextual 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.
- This brings up the Effects drop-down gallery, as you can see in Figure
2. Choose Glow | Glow
Options in the Effects drop-down gallery as shown in Figure 2 -- this will bring up the Format Shape dialog box.
Figure 2: Glow Options selected within the Glow sub-gallery
Alternatively, you can right-click the selected shape and from the context menu, choose Format Shape option as shown in Figure 3 below.
Figure 3: Format Shape option selected
- Either of the ways will summon the Format Shape dialog box. Make sure that the Glow & Soft Edges option is selected in the Sidebar, as shown highlighted in red in Figure 4. The options here pertain to both the Glow
and Soft Edges effects -- for reasons of clarity, the Glow options have been faded out in Figure 4. Glow options have already been discussed in
our Advanced Glow
Options In PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.
Figure 4: Soft Edges option within Format Shape dialog box
- There is only one attribute that Soft Edges have, and that is the Size. Use the Size slider that you can see in Figure 4 above, or enter the soft edges size
value in points to increase or decrease the size (spread) of
the soft edge.
Note: When you are making changes to the shape attributes from within Format Shape dialog box, you can see the live preview of the changes in the selected shape. So, always make sure that the Format Shape dialog box is not covering the selected shape.
- Click OK when you are done. In Figure 5 you can see Soft Edges applied to the selected Rectangle
shape (compare it with Figure 1 to see the difference).
Figure 5: Soft Edges applied to the Rectangle shape
Soft Edge effects applied to shapes with picture fills provide a cool effect.
- Remember to save your presentation often.
Sample Presentation
Click above to view on Slideshare
Click above to view on YouTube