How to Add Text to PowerPoint & Make Amazing Text Effects (+Video)

How to Quickly Use Text Effects in PowerPoint (Video)

Check out the video below for a walkthrough of how to work with text in PowerPoint. This screencast illustrates how to add text on PPT in a variety of ways. I’ll show you how to get started with adding and changing text and then apply text effects.

Read on for an illustrated guide on how to use font options in Microsoft PowerPoint, choose text styles, and apply text effects. Discover how to highlight text in PowerPoint, create WordArt effects in PowerPoint, and more.

How to Add Text in PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a powerful multimedia tool. Successful presentations use all kinds of content:

• text
• images
• videos
• charts
• and more

But it’s that first key ingredient – text – that makes all the difference. Text is truly the firm foundation of any winning presentation. 

It’s easy to fall into a rut, using bland and basic font styles. And sometimes, these are okay! But with a few quick adjustments, you can transform text into something special. It becomes part of your design aesthetic that audiences recognize and appreciate.

We’ll use the beautiful Karbon PowerPoint Presentation Template to learn how to work with text styles in PPT. As you learn how to add text on PPT, you’ll see that this template has many pre-built ideas. Download it from Envato Elements today! 

1. Replace Text Placeholders

On most slide layouts, you’ll start off with text placeholders, which are PowerPoint text boxes that you can add your own text to. 

These might appear as empty text boxes with cues like “Click to add title.” Or on pre-made PowerPoint presentations, as starter text that you can replace with your own content.

In either case, click in these boxes and add your own text to the slide. Learning how to add text on PPT can be as simple as replacing placeholders.

Starter text like this is a hallmark of premium templates. It’s a powerful time saver. Instead of inserting text boxes from scratch, they’re already in place for you. All you’ve got to do is swap out the default text for your own words. It helps you build stunning slides in moments.

2. Add a Text Box in PowerPoint

We’ve learned the basics of how to add text in PowerPoint with replacements. But, if you want to add more text outside of the built-in placeholders, you can add an entirely new text box to your PowerPoint slide.

To add a new text box to PowerPoint on your slide, choose the Insert > Text Box option. This is how to add a text box in PPT from scratch.

Now, click and drag on the slide to draw in your text box. I like to make my text box slightly larger than the text I expect to fill it.

Once your box is on the slide, type in it to add text to the slide. Add text to slide in PowerPoint that leaves you room to grow as you adjust the slide.

We’ve covered the basics of adding text to a slide. Now, it’s time to start modifying how that text appears.

How to Change Font Appearance

You’re off to a great start in learning how to add text in PowerPoint! You’ve added text to your slides, using placeholders or new text boxes. But your creative process is only just beginning. Now, you can start changing how text appears on each slide.

Here, PowerPoint gives you many options. Knowing how to add text to PPT is just the beginning. Go to the next level by styling PowerPoint text in new and creative ways. 

To style text in PowerPoint, begin by selecting the contents of a text box. Navigate to the Home tab, found on PowerPoint’s ribbon. On the left, you’ll see the Font group. Think of this as the control center for font and text design in PowerPoint. An array of options is present here, giving you tremendous creative power.

This toolbar holds most of the keys of how to add text to PPT. Features found in the Font group include:

1. Bold. Use this option to make your font heavier and thicker.
2. Italic. An italic effect gives your text a bit of “lean” and is great for captions or annotations.
3. Underline. An underline is a popular tool for text headings and adds a horizontal line below your text.
4. Text Shadow. When your text needs contrast to stand out from the slide, add a shadow to make it more readable.
5. Strikethrough. A strikethrough is a horizontal line through the center of your text, making it appear crossed out.
6. Character Spacing. This is also sometimes called kerning, and it describes how much space is between each character in your text.
7. Change Case. This tool is a major timesaver for converting text between “cases”, such as uppercase, lowercase, and sentence case. If you have all uppercase text for example, you can change it to appear more natural.
8. Text Highlight Color. Choose a color to highlight selected text. 
9. Font Color. Choose from any color swatch to change the color of your text.
10. Font. Choose from different typefaces like Arial, Times New Roman, or a custom font.
11. Font Size. A higher number would show your text larger, while a smaller number decreases the text size.
12. Increase Font Size. Make your text size larger. 
13. Decrease Font Size. Make your text size smaller.
14. Clear All Formatting. Remove all of the text options you’ve applied to reset it. 

 When you think of how to format text in PowerPoint, don’t consider these features in isolation. Instead, think of how to combine them. 

Try bold, highlighted text! Or boost font size and strike through a selected phrase. The combinations are nearly infinite here. Designs are left to your imagination and sense of style. 

Now, let’s look at PowerPoint’s options for built-in text effects.

Use Built-In PowerPoint Text Effects

PowerPoint features a robust set of text effects that are pre-built. In other words, you don’t have to style them yourself. Instead, you can apply them to selected text on your slides with a single click. 

To explore these options, select some text on a slide. Then, click on the Shape Format tab, which appears on PowerPoint’s ribbon. 

The first option that I usually use is the WordArt Styles menu option, which has a selection of one click options that you can choose from. You’ll see a handful of designs previewed in the gallery. To see the full list, click on the More drop-down. Click on any of the PowerPoint text effects to apply the chosen style to your selected text. 

Besides the pre-built styles, you can completely customize the text effects. As you navigate learning how to add text to PPT, these options are major upgrades.

To the right of the WordArt presets, find the Text Effects dropdown. Inside, you can choose from effects like Shadow, Reflection, Glow, Bevel, and more to really modify your text.

Think of these options as the one click preset styles for your text. If you want to completely customize your text though, keep reading:

Create Custom Text Effects in PowerPoint

What if you’ve got your own idea for how to style your text in PowerPoint? Let’s look at how to use one of my favorite options, the Format Text Effects option. This hidden menu has every feature imaginable to create text effects in PowerPoint.

With your text selected, right click on it and choose Format Text Effects. On the right side, you’ll see a new window with many advanced options for text effects:

There are three key options for how to work with your text from this Text Options menu. Let’s take a look at how to use them:

1. Text Fill & Outline

The first option on the format menu are settings for Fill and Line. In the screenshot above, you can see that I’ve used a spotted pattern fill to my text, but you could also use a gradient or picture to fill your text as well.

The Line allows you to add borders to your image. Again, you can add either a solid or gradient outline for text, so there are plenty of options.

2. Text Effects

The text effects PowerPoint menu has many of the same options that are built-in above. But it also allows you to completely customize how they are applied.

In the screenshot below, you can see the reflection text effect I’ve applied. This is just one of the effects you can choose from, and you can totally customize the way the effect is applied. Try out each of the options to customize your text completely.

3. Textbox

These options change the way that the container for PowerPoint text behaves, and it’s the third box in the list. You can choose from options like how the text is aligned vertically and adjust the margins in this window.

How to Add Text Animation

Once you add text effects PPT, it’s time to bring them to life. Try animations! Animation in PowerPoint is an entirely new dimension for modifying text. You can use a text animation to send text on or off the slide. It’s a powerful way to control the flow of your presentation. 

With a block of text selected, click on the Animations tab on PowerPoint’s ribbon. You can choose from one of the animation styles like Fade in the screenshot below to add the animation to the text box.

You can change the animation by selecting another in the PowerPoint Animation box or press Preview to see your animation in action. After you learn how to add a text box in PPT, try out animation as a next step.

Download Our eBook on Making Great Presentations (Free PDF)

We have the perfect complement to this tutorial, which will walk you through the complete presentation process. Learn how to write your presentation, design it like a pro, and prepare it to present powerfully. 

Download our eBook: The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations. It’s available for FREE with a subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter. 

Keep Learning More PowerPoint Presentation Skills

In this tutorial, you learned the skill of how to add text boxes in PPT slides. Plus, you learned how to style PowerPoint text effects to make the most of the slide.

Want to learn even more about PowerPoint? Dive in to these fully featured tutorials for more handy tips and advice:

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  How to Quickly Make Simple PowerPoint Presentations

  

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  How to Work With Images in PowerPoint (Complete PPT Picture Guide)

  

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  31 Oct 2022

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  How to Make Great PPT Slide Layouts in Microsoft PowerPoint 2021

  

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  23 Feb 2021

Now You Know How Add Text in PowerPoint

Mastering text is an essential skill for PowerPoint proficiency. In this tutorial, I shared a variety of tips and tricks for working with text. From inserting basic text to creating text effects in PowerPoint, these are the skills you need to master your presentation text.

Now that you know how to add text to PPT, put your skills into practice now!

Editorial Note: This post was originally published in 2017. It’s been comprehensively revised to make current, accurate, and up to date by our staff—with special help from Andrew Childress.