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About this lesson
How to add and customize a new text box.
Exercise files
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Inserting and Manipulating Text Boxes.key434.6 KB Inserting and Manipulating Text Boxes.key
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Quick reference
Topic
How to add and customize a new text box.
When to use
Adding a text box will help convey your message in Keynote. This lesson will walk you through how to add a new text box, customize it for your design preference and create a new custom style that you can use over and over again.
Instructions
Inserting a new text box is easy in Keynote.
- Simply click on the text box button on the toolbar
- This will place a new text box on the canvas
Note: the style of new text boxes will depend on the theme we choose when we originally created the Keynote file. If we change the overall theme, and we have not made changes to that text box, the text box will adjust to match the style of the new theme.
We can add text to a new text box by clicking on the text box and start typing.
To make changes to the text box’s style:
- select the text box
- explore the options available on the formatting pane to the right of the canvas
- from here, we can adjust fill styles and colors, border styles, add shadows and more
To create a new custom style template:
- select a text box
- adjust its properties to our liking using the formatting pane
- click the [+] in the Styles section of the formatting pane
This will add our new custom style to the styles picker. To use this new custom style, we can add a new text box, then choose our new style from the style picker on the formatting pane.
Note: these custom styles are part of the file, not system-wide.
Additional advanced options are available on the formatting pane under the Text tab. From here, we can adjust:
- font style
- font size
- alignment
- bullets
- character spacing
- baseline
- ligatures
- character fill
- more…
- 00:04 In this lesson, we will learn how to add a simple text box to a slide and
- 00:08 make changes to that text box to give it the perfect look to fit our slide design.
- 00:13 Let's get started because we have a lot to cover in this lesson.
- 00:16 First, let's add a new text box to our slide.
- 00:19 To do this, we simply click on the text box button on the tool bar.
- 00:23 This will add a new text box to our canvas.
- 00:26 By default, the style is defined by the theme's design.
- 00:30 If we were using a different theme, the style for a new text box would look
- 00:34 different than it does in this theme, which is called Showroom.
- 00:37 Now that we have our text box, let's add some text by clicking on the box.
- 00:42 When we're done, we could deselect the text box by clicking on the canvas area
- 00:46 outside of the text box.
- 00:48 You'll notice that the formatting pane to the right will automatically adjust and
- 00:51 adapt based on what, if anything, we have selected on the canvas.
- 00:56 When we select our text box, for example, we are given options to adjust font,
- 01:01 size, color, line spacing, etc.
- 01:03 Since we're already here, let's explore some of these options.
- 01:08 At the very top, you will notice a section called Styles.
- 01:11 Most themes come with a list of predefined styles you can choose from.
- 01:15 It may be worth exploring some of these styles on your new text box
- 01:18 to see if you like any of them.
- 01:20 If you can't find a style that suits your needs, we can adjust properties of our
- 01:23 text box using other settings found below and on other tabs.
- 01:28 Below the styles section, we can find properties for
- 01:30 fill type, border style, shadows and opacity settings.
- 01:36 There are several different types of fill styles including a solid color, gradient,
- 01:40 and even an image fill option.
- 01:43 Choose the type of fill you want to use, and
- 01:45 additional properties will be provided for you below.
- 01:48 This is what it looks like when we add a gradient fill, for example.
- 01:52 Adding borders is just as simple as choosing a fill type.
- 01:56 Click the drop-down menu to reveal two options, Line and Picture Frame.
- 02:01 If we choose Line we will be given a list of styles to choose from.
- 02:05 We can also choose the color of the line, as well as the line weight or thickness.
- 02:11 Adding a shadow to a text box is not only useful, but can be fun.
- 02:15 There are three types of shadows to choose from.
- 02:18 Drop, Contact and Curved.
- 02:21 Each of these can add their own unique look and feel to your text box.
- 02:25 Once we have chosen the style that we want to use, we can adjust the blur, offset and
- 02:30 opacity of the shadow, as well as the angle or
- 02:32 perspective, depending on the shadow type.
- 02:35 If you want to add a baseline reflection to your text box,
- 02:38 we can just click the reflection check box here.
- 02:41 The last visual option we can adjust on the text box is the level of opacity.
- 02:46 This is great if you want to soften a text box just a little bit or even a lot.
- 02:52 Before we switch gears, let's go back to the Style section at the top.
- 02:56 Now that we have designed our very own style, we may want to use this same style
- 03:00 on other text boxes that we add to this presentation.
- 03:03 Rather than recreating the wheel over and
- 03:05 over again, we can choose to create our very own style.
- 03:09 We do this by clicking the Add button here.
- 03:12 As you can see, we can add multiple custom styles.
- 03:15 Now if we add another text box and want it to match the same look and
- 03:20 feel, all we have to do is choose our newly created style.
- 03:25 These styles are saved as part of the file, not system-wide.
- 03:29 That's something you'll wanna keep in mind for future projects.
- 03:32 Now that we have explored the visual effects that we can apply to text boxes,
- 03:36 let's take a look at text formatting options.
- 03:39 Since most of us are familiar with how to change font styles, sizes and
- 03:43 colors, we won't go through those details here, but
- 03:46 this is where you can set those properties.
- 03:48 One option I did want to draw your attention to, however,
- 03:51 is this button here.
- 03:52 This is where we can set advanced options for our text.
- 03:56 Two of my favorite advanced options are the Character Spacing and Character Fill.
- 04:01 Adjusting the Character Spacing will allow us to add spacing between each character
- 04:06 in a very granular way, in increments of a single percentage point if we want.
- 04:11 Adding a Character Fill can make your text stand out
- 04:14 in ways that you may not have imagined you could.
- 04:17 These, in conjunction with the other text options available here,
- 04:20 will give you the level of control that you need to really make the text on your
- 04:23 Keynote slides pop.
- 04:25 As you can see, your design options are limitless with Keynote.
- 04:29 It's now up to you determine the best way that you can use these
- 04:32 features to create your very own presentation style.
- 04:35 I recommend taking time today to explore some of these options on your own and
- 04:39 test their functionality.
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