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Apply Glow Effects to Shapes

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2007
OS: Microsoft Windows XP / Vista

Date Created: March 16th 2009
Last Updated: March 16th 2009

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Excerpt/Capsule: Glow adds a hazed color perimeter outside the shape area. PowerPoint provides several glow variations, and in this tutorial I'll show you how to apply glow effects to a shape.

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In previous tutorials, I have showed you how you can add preset, shadow, and reflection effects to shapes in PowerPoint 2007. Now I move on to the next effect: Glow. Glow adds a hazed color perimeter outside the shape area. PowerPoint provides several glow variations, and in this tutorial I'll show you how to apply glow effects to a shape.

To see a sample presentation containing Glow effects in PowerPoint 2007, scroll down to the bottom of this page.

Follow these steps to apply glow effects to a shape:

1. Select the shape you want to apply the effect to. Selecting a shape activates the Drawing Tools Format tab in the Ribbon -- activate this tab and locate the Shape Effects button that you can see in Figure 1 (highlighted in yellow at the bottom right of the Figure).
   
   
   Figure 1: Shape Effects
   
   
2. This brings up the Shape Effects dropdown gallery, as you can see in Figure 2. From the Shape Effects dropdown gallery, choose the Glow option.
   
   
   Figure 2: Glow
   
   
3. This opens the Glow sub-gallery (refer to Figure 2 above) that provides the following options:
   
   
   1. No Glow: Use this option to remove the glow effect from a selected shape. You can use this option only if the shape has a glow applied.
      
      
   2. Glow Variations: This option provides several glow variations based on color and spread.
      
      Color: The six color variations are based on the six accent colors of the active Theme -- learn more about Themes here...
      
      Spread: There are four glow thickness (spread) variation available.
      
      
   3. More Glow Colors: Opens color swatches so that you can choose more colors for glow. Learn More...
      
      
4. Mouse over any of the effects within the Glow gallery to see a live preview of the effect. Click on an effect to apply it to the selected shape.
   
   
5. Remember to save your presentation often.
   
   
   
   Related Link: My book Cutting Edge PowerPoint 2007 For Dummies covers many aspects of PowerPoint 2007. A free chapter excerpt PowerPointing with the Best of Them is available on this site.

   
   
   

Sample Presentation


Click above to view on Slideboom

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