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I have explained the basics of formatting shape outlines in PowerPoint 2010. Now I take you further ahead to explore more advanced options for all line formatting characteristics like weight, dash style, arrow style, gradient lines, etc. I cover each of these aspects in individual tutorials -- this particular page explores how you can change line weight to make the outlines thinner and thicker -- I also cover compound lines such as those that encompass double or triple lines.

Weight is the thickness attribute of the shape outline. You can change the weight all the way from a hairline thin line to a chunky thick line. Figure 1 shows you some weight variations in outlines.


Figure 1: Width (weight) variations in outlines

Follow these steps to change the shape outline weight:

1. Select the shape that you want to change the line attributes for. Alternatively, if you just want to follow this tutorial step-by-step, launch PowerPoint. Most of the time, PowerPoint will open with a new slide in a presentation -- PowerPoint 2010 users can change the slide layout to Blank by selecting Home tab | Layout | Blank.
   
   
2. Under the Home or Insert tab of the Ribbon, choose the Shapes button to view the Shapes gallery that you can see in Figure 2. Select the Rectangle or any other shape and then either drag and draw, or click once on the blank slide to place an instance of the shape. (I used a Rectangle shape as you can see later in Figure 3).
   
   
   Figure 2: Shapes gallery
   
   
3. Select the shape so that the Ribbon area now shows the Drawing Tools Format tab, as shown in Figure 3. Activate this Ribbon tab by clicking on it.
   
   
   Figure 3: Drawing Tools Format tab of the Ribbon
   
   
   
   Note: The Drawing Tools 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.
   
   
4. From the Drawing Tools Format tab, locate the Shape Outline button, then select the Weight option to view the Weight drop-down gallery that you can see in Figure 4. Within this gallery, choose any weight (thickness) value for the selected shape. Or choose the More Lines... option (again see Figure 4).
   
   
   Figure 4: Shape Outline gallery with Weight option selected
   
   
5. This opens the Format Shape dialog box as you can see in Figure 5.
   
   
   Figure 5: Format Shape dialog box with Line Style options
   
   The Format Shape dialog box provides lot of options to format the outline, but we will only explore options related to the weight attribute on this page.
   
   
6. In the Format Shape dialog box, make sure you are on the Line Style tab.
   
   
   1. Width: Add a weight for the selected line in pts. You can opt to create a really thick line -- even 100 pt or more! However, choose something that works best for you.
      
      Remember you can either type in the outline width in the box, or use the up and down arrow buttons in the control to adjust the outline width.
      
      
   2. Compound type: Selecting this option reveals a drop-down from where you can choose any of the compound types available for outlines, as shown in Figure 6. Note that compound lines in PowerPoint are limited to two or three lines compounded to each other. You need to choose the compound line options that PowerPoint provides and cannot create your own custom compound line.
      
      
      Figure 6: Compound types for outlines
      
      
   3. Dash type: This option allows you to apply dash attribute to the shape outline.
      
      
   4. Cap type: This allows you to choose between a square, round, or flat line end type, as shown in Figure 7. This option only works with outlines within open shapes. Also, if you apply this option to a dashed line, it influences all individual dashes within the line.
      
      
      Figure 7: Cap type
      
      
   5. Join type: This allows you to choose between round, bevel, and miter joins, as shown in Figure 8. This influences the joins in an outline such as a corner of a triangle or rectangle.
      
      
      Figure 8: Join type
      
      
   6. Arrow settings: Arrow settings work only with outlines used as open shapes. We will cover this in a subsequent tutorial.
      
7. After choosing required shape outline attributes, click the Close button to dismiss the dialog box. In Figure 9 below you can see the Rectangle shape which was selected earlier with outline weight increased to 6 pts.
   
   
   Figure 9: Shape with outline weight changed
   
   
8. Don't forget to save your presentations often.
   

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