Microsoft KB Archive/111818

PPT4: Version 4.0 and Higher Cannot Set as Body or Set as Title

PSS ID Number: Q111818 Article last modified on 07-08-1998

windows: 4.0,4.0a,4.0c; macintosh:4.0,98

MACINTOSH WINDOWS

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= SUMMARY =

Microsoft PowerPoint version 4.0 and later do not have the capability to choose a text object on a slide and set it to either Title or to Body. This feature was available in PowerPoint 3.0. It was useful when converting a presentation where the Title or Body placeholders were not used correctly, to a presentation where the text could be formatted globally (using the Slide Master) and edited in the Outline view.

Typical problems that will be experienced if your presentation doesn’t make use of the Title and Body placeholders include:


 * Choosing a build has no effect on the slide.
 * Changes to the Title Area for AutoLayouts on the Slide Master do not affect your title frame.
 * Changes to the Object Area for AutoLayouts on the Slide Master do not affect your body text frame.
 * Text does not appear in Outline view.

= MORE INFORMATION =

Without this ability to set a selected text frame as either the title or the body for a given slide, text and formatting must be copied from existing text frames into the placeholders provided by the AutoLayout for either the title or the body. Only the text in these placeholders can be edited in the Outline view and its formatting adjusted automatically when modifications are made to the Slide Master.

You will have to do the following for each slide that has to be modified:

  In Slide view go to the slide that you want to edit.   Click the Layout button or choose Slide Layout from the Format menu.   In the Slide Layout dialog box choose from among the 21 available layouts the one that is closest to the layout that you want for the slide. Choose the OK button. NOTE: Remember that you can move and resize the placeholder objects that are created by the Slide Layout dialog box.   Copy the text and formatting from the original object to the empty Title or Body placeholder object by doing the following:   Select the original text object. If you don’t see resize handles appear around the object, press the F2 function key (Windows) or the ENTER key on the numeric keypad (Macintosh).   Choose Cut from the Edit menu (or from the Toolbar).   Select the empty destination text placeholder by clicking on the dashed line that appears around empty placeholders. If you don’t see the resize handles appear around the object, press the F2 function key (Windows) or the ENTER key on the numeric keypad (Macintosh). NOTE: There may be more than one Body text placeholder depending on the Slide Layout choice you made in step 3. If your intention is to use a build effect with the body text, you will need to choose the Body text placeholder whose original location is closest to the upper-left corner of the slide because it is the only placeholder that will build and be editable in Outline view.   Choose Paste from the Edit menu (or from the Toolbar). </li></ol> </li>  If necessary, reposition and/or resize the text object to correspond to the size and location of the original text object. </li></ol>

This can be an extremely time consuming process so it is important that you use the placeholders when creating presentations (and encourage others that are sharing their presentations with you) to use the placeholders and the layouts as much as possible. Only use the text tool to create new text objects when absolutely necessary (no existing layout can be adapted for the particular slide).

It is important to remember that even though the objects that are part of each layout have default locations, you can move and resize them anywhere you want on the slide (just like any other PowerPoint objects).

If the presentation was originally created in PowerPoint 3.0 and you still have the presentation in PowerPoint 3.0 format, you may want to open the file in PowerPoint 3.0 to take advantage of its Set As Title and Set As Body commands before opening the file in PowerPoint 4.0 because it is much easier and faster.

= Additional query words: 4.00 3.00 Set as Title acppt winppt 4.00c Set as Body =

Keywords : kbusage Version : windows: 4.0,4.0a,4.0c; macintosh:4.0,98 Platform : MACINTOSH WINDOWS Hardware : MAC x86 Issue type : kbinfo ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1998.