Applying Effects for Shapes in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows

PowerPoint 2007 takes the entire "effects" concept to a much more sophisticated level than the shadows and 3-D effects you could attain in Poweroint 2003 and previous versions of PowerPoint. These effects are usually applied to selected shapes on a slide. There are six effects available in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows:

1. Shadow,
2. Reflection,
3. Glow,
4. Soft Edges,
5. Bevel, and
6. 3-D Rotation.

We'll explain each of these effects in individually detailed pages within this series. In this first tutorial of the series, we'll explain the basics of applying effects.

Follow these steps to apply an effect to a shape in PowerPoint 2007 Windows:

1. Select the shape that you want to apply the effect to. 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 2007 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 Shape gallery that you can see in Figure 1. 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.
3. 
   Figure 1: Shape gallery
3. Select the shape so that the Ribbon area now shows the Drawing Tools Format tab, as shown in Figure 2. Activate this Ribbon tab.
4. 
   Figure 2: 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 Effects group, as shown in Figure 3.
5. 
   Figure 3: Shape Effects
5. All the seven options (one preset and six effect types) are explained below:

A. Preset

6. This option provides some ready to use Shape Effects, which can be applied to any shape. Learn More.

B. Shadow

7. Applies shadow effects to the selected shape. PowerPoint provides three types of shadows: outer, inner and perspective, and you can apply any of these, or customize them to your requirement. Learn More.

C. Reflection

8. This option applies a reflection to the selected shape, and you can choose from several reflection styles. Remember you don't want to use shadow and reflection for the same slide object such as a shape. Learn More.

D. Glow

9. Glow adds a hazed, blurred color perimeter outside the shape area. PowerPoint provides several glow variations; the glow colors are based on the Theme colors, although you can also choose any other color you like. Learn More.

E. Soft Edges

10. This effect type makes the shape edges feathered. There are some soft edges variations available. Learn More.

F. Bevel

11. Apply bevel effects to the shape. You can also customize your own bevel. Learn More.

G. 3-D Rotation

12. With this effect type, you can apply parallel, perspective, and oblique 3-D effects to shape. Learn More.
6. 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.