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Changing Fill, Line, and Effects for Shapes within SmartArt in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

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

Date Created: October 5th 2011
Last Updated: October 5th 2011

Excerpt/Capsule: Learn about fill, line, and effect options for shapes within SmartArt graphics in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

Once a SmartArt graphic is inserted within PowerPoint 2011, you can recolor the entire SmartArt graphic any time -- this applies new colors to the entire SmartArt graphic including the various shapes in it. However, there may be times when you want one of the shapes to look differently -- in this tutorial we'll explore how you can change the fill, line, and effect attributes for individual shapes within a SmartArt graphic in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac:

1. Select any individual shape within your existing SmartArt graphic, as shown in Figure 1. As you can see, we have selected the largest of the three gear shapes.
   
   
   Figure 1: Shape selected within the Gears SmartArt graphic
   
   
2. This will bring up the Format tab for SmartArt on the Ribbon as shown highlighted in red in Figure 1. Click this tab to view the options within this tab -- locate the Shape Styles group which includes Fill, Line, and Effects options for the selected shape, and also some Shape Styles (presets) as shown in Figure 2.
   
   
   Figure 2: SmartArt Format tab of the Ribbon
   
   These options are explained below:
   
   
   1. Fill: Click the downward pointing arrow next to this button to bring up the Shape Fill drop-down gallery that you can see in Figure 3. Select any color to fill the selected shape, or choose from other options. Learn more about various Shape Fill types here.
      
      
      Figure 3: Fill drop-down gallery
      
      
   2. Line: Click the downward pointing arrow next to this button to bring up the Line drop-down gallery that you can see in Figure 4. Here you can select any color, effect, style or thickness to apply to the outline of the shape selected. Learn more about Shape Outlines (Lines) here.
      
      
      Figure 4: Line drop-down gallery
      
      
   3. Effects: Click this button to open the Effects drop-down gallery, as shown in Figure 5. You can select any of the effects for your selected shape. Learn more about Shape Effects here.
      
      
      Figure 5: Effects drop-down gallery
      
      
   4. Shape Styles: These are the collection of some preset Styles that can be applied to the shapes. To apply, click on any previews in the Shape Styles gallery that you can see in Figure 6. Learn more about Shape Styles here.
      
      
      Figure 6: Shape Styles drop-down gallery
      
      
3. You can select any of the above options for the selected shape. Similarly, you can select other shapes within the SmartArt graphic, and change their appearance. Figure 7 shows the Gear SmartArt graphic -- notice that the shapes have different fills, outlines, effects, and styles applied (compare with Figure 1).
   
   
   Figure 7: Different fills, outlines, and effect applied to individual shapes within the SmartArt graphic
   

See Also:

Changing Fill, Line, and Effects for Shapes within SmartArt in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
Changing Fill, Line, and Effects for Shapes within SmartArt in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows
Changing Fill, Line, and Effects for Shapes within SmartArt in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows