Have you ever tried your text to fit along the edge of a circle, or even within a circle? Or, on a curved path, or even as a roller coaster? Most of the time, you need not play as much with words but sometimes if you want to create a quick logo, or even an easy graphic, then you will find PowerPoint's Transform tools for text very useful. Look at Figure 1 below to explore some quick text effects possible right within PowerPoint.
Figure 1: Examples of Transforms text effects
Transform is a special stylizing option available in PowerPoint only for text. Follow these steps to explore more in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows:
- Select the text that you want to apply a transform effect to? You can also select the entire text box or place holder as shown in Figure 2, below.
Figure 2: Drawing Tools Format tab of the Ribbon- Alternatively, if you just want to follow this tutorial step-by-step, launch PowerPoint. You will see theĀ Presentation Gallery. Here, select the Blank Presentation option to open a blank presentation with a new slide. You can then change the slide layout to Blank by selecting the Home tab | Layout | Blank. Insert a text box and type some text in it. You can also change the text font to something blockier, such as Arial Black (see Figure 2, above). Select the text, or select the entire text box by clicking on the edge of the placeholder, to bring up the Drawing Tools Format tab on the Ribbon as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, above.
- Within the Drawing Tools Format tab, click the Text Effects button that you can see highlighted in red within Figure 3.
Figure 3: Text Effects button- This opens the Text Effects drop-down gallery, as shown in Figure 4. Within the Text Effects drop-down gallery select the Transform option, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4.
Figure 4: Transform option within Text Effects drop-down gallery- This opens the Transform sub-gallery as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Transform sub-gallery- Various effects within Transform sub-gallery are explained below, as marked in Figure 5, above:
- Removes any transform effect already applied to the selected text.
- These Transform effects make your text to flow in a certain path like a circle, or an arc etc.
- Here you will find Transform effects that twist and turn your text in various directions, and also make them wavy. To explore more Warp effects, use the scroll bar towards right (highlighted in blue within Figure 5, above).
- When you hover your cursor over any of the Transform effects within the Transform sub-gallery, you will see a Live Preview of the effect on your selected text. Click on any effect to apply it to the selected text. In Figure 6 you can see the selected text applied with Chevron Up effect.
Figure 6: Transform Effect applied- Do you notice the pink handle on the left of the text box in Figure 6, above (highlighted in red)? You can use that to create more transforms for text. We explain how you can tweak Transform effects using that pink handle in our Advanced Text Transforms in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows tutorial. Remember to save your presentation often.
A. No Transform
B. Follow Path
C. Warp
See Also:
Text Transforms in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac
Text Transforms in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows