Move Text Boxes on a Slide in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

You have already learned about the difference between a text box and a text placeholder. In this tutorial let us explore the ways to move text boxes all around in the slide area. Do note that we suggest you to move only text boxes, and not text placeholders since the positioning of the latter is normally controlled by the Slide Master. Do understand that although you can move them, but doing so overrides the defaults within the Slide Master. Typically, text placeholders are located in the same position on successive slides. So, if you really do need to move a text placeholder, do it within the Slide Master so that this change of position happens on all slides, providing a consistent look to your presentation. This will also prevent you from repeatedly moving the placeholders on each and every slide on your presentation.

Now that you are more aware of why you should not move text placeholders, this is for your information that all techniques explained on this page apply to both text placeholders and text boxes. Actually, they also apply to any shape in your slides that contains text. Learn more about how you can change the position of your text boxes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac, by following these steps:

1. Open any slide which has a text box. Our sample slide shown in Figure 1 includes three text containers (marked in Figure 1):
2. A. Slide Title (Text Placeholder)
3. B. Bulleted List (Text Placeholder)
4. C. Text Box (Not a Text Placeholder)
5. 
   Figure 1: Various text containers selected on the slide
6. Note that among the three text containers in Figure 1, only one text container is a text box, and that's the one marked as 'C' in Figure 1, and placed at the bottom-right corner of the slide (which contains blue colored text).
2. Select only the text box by clicking on its edge so that it shows a solid line with selection handles on its perimeter as shown in Figure 2.
3. 
   Figure 2: Text box selected
4. Now, move the cursor over the edge of the selected text box so that it changes to a double-crossed arrow, as shown in Figure 3.
5. 
   Figure 3: Cursor changed to a double-crossed arrow
3. Click on the border of the text box and drag it to the new position within the Slide Area without releasing the mouse button. Figure 4 shows the selected text box being moved to a new place.
4. 
   Figure 4: Text box being moved
4. In Figure 5 you can see the selected text box placed in a new position on the slide area.
5. 
   Figure 5: Text box placed in a new position
Tip: You can also move a selected text box by nudging it using the arrow keys on your keyboard.
5. Make sure to save your presentation often.