Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances

Chapter 2. Dumb Defaults

The development team for every computer application has to decide how the program will act straight out of the box. Sometimes they get the default behavior right, and sometimes they don’t.

PowerPoint is no exception. In many places, the PowerPoint development team made very wise decisions regarding the default behavior for the program settings. In other places, well, let’s just say those decisions were less than inspired.

In this chapter, we’ll discuss some of the default settings in PowerPoint. You’ll learn how to keep stuff from moving around when you don’t want it to, how to restore some items that seem to be missing, and how to deal with file size issues.

STUFF KEEPS MOVING AROUND

Turn Off AutoFit Body Text to Placeholder

THE ANNOYANCE: Here I am typing along in a placeholder, and my text keeps getting smaller and smaller! How can I make the font size stay put?

THE FIX: You want to turn off "AutoFit body text to placeholder.” In PowerPoint 2003 and 2002, select Tools → AutoCorrect Options, click the AutoFormat As You Type tab, and uncheck the “AutoFit body text to placeholder” box (see Figure 2-1). In PowerPoint 2000 and 97, select Tools → Options, click the Edit tab, and uncheck the “Auto-fit text to text placeholder” box.

Figure 2-1. Uncheck the “AutoFit body text to placeholder” and “AutoFit title text to placeholder” boxes to prevent your text from shrinking. ...