The majority of your slides probably use text, so you have plenty of opportunities to use it to add visual interest to your presentation. WordArt is an option, and you can kick it up a notch with AutoShapes and unique coloring techniques, as shown in Figure A.

To create our effect, we simply selected the AutoShape and WordArt and applied a color fill to both simultaneously. To do so:

1. Insert an AutoShape as you normally would, and then insert a WordArt object on top of the AutoShape.
2. Click on the AutoShape, press and hold the [Shift] key, and then click on the WordArt to select them both.
3. Select Fill Effects from the Fill Color dropdown list.
4. Use the Fill Effects dialog box to format the AutoShape and the WordArt and click OK. For our example, we use a Picture fill of dollar bills.
5. Use the Line Color and Line Style tools to change the lines until you have the look you want. We changed the line color to white and the line style to 2.25 pt.

Adapt for PowerPoint 2007
You can’t format WordArt and a 2007 shape simultaneously in PowerPoint 2007 because they use two different sets of tools. You have to choose the same fill effect from both the Drawing Tools ribbon’s Format tab (WordArt) and the Picture Tools ribbon’s Format tab (shape).

Filed under: Microsoft Office Tutor