Inserting and Manipulating Shapes

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About this lesson

How to add and customize new shapes (circle, square, etc).

Quick reference

Topic

How to add and customize a new shapes (circle, square, etc).

When to use

Adding shapes to a slide will open up a whole new world in terms of conveying a message to an audience using visual tools. This lesson will help you to know what options you have for customizing your new shapes.

Instructions

The use of shapes can, in some ways, make or break the look, feel and even the flow of your presentation.

Inserting a new shape is easy in Keynote.

  • simply click on the Shape button on the toolbar
  • choose the shape type you want to add to the canvas
  • this will place that new shape on your canvas

Regrinding the design of new shapes:

  • the styles of new shapes may differ depending on the Keynote theme you chose to create your new file with
  • if we change our theme at a later time and we haven’t customized our shape properties, the shape’s style will auto-adjust to the new theme
  • we can swipe left and right on the shape picker tool to choose variations of our theme’s styles

To change the properties of a shape, we select the shape then look to the formatting pane to adjust:

  • the overall style
  • fill colors
  • borders
  • shadows
  • reflections
  • opacity

To add text to a shape, we click on the shape and begin typing.

Creating custom shapes in Keynote is easy. We do this by selecting “Draw with Pen” from the Shape button on the toolbar.

  • begin our new custom shape by selecting the starting point
  • add additional anchor points by clicking on other areas of the canvas
  • complete the custom shape by either double-clicking at the point of the last anchor point or single-clicking on the initial anchor point

Notes about custom shapes:

  • by default, new anchor points will create a hard-edged anchor point
  • to convert a hard-edged anchor point to a rounded arch, double-click the anchor point to toggle between the two types

To add additional anchor points to an already-complete custom shape:

  • double-click on the custom shape
  • hold down the Option key and click on the area where you want the new anchor point

To remove an anchor point from a custom shape:

  • double-click on the custom shape
  • select the anchor point you want to delete
  • press the delete key

We can adjust the overall size of any shape (canned or custom) in one of two ways:

  • drag one of the corners of the shape to the desired size
  • select the shape and adjust the size manually on the formatting pane under the Arrange tab
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  • 00:05 The use of shapes can, in some ways, make or break the look, feel, and
  • 00:09 even the flow of a presentation.
  • 00:11 In this lesson we'll be taking a look at what shape options are available for
  • 00:15 us to use in Keynote, how to tweak their properties to meet our needs, and
  • 00:18 how to use them most effectively in our slide deck.
  • 00:21 Let's start with the simple act of inserting a new shape onto our slide.
  • 00:26 To do this, we click on the shape button on our tool bar.
  • 00:29 This will give us various shape options to choose from, including a square,
  • 00:33 circle, lines, and more.
  • 00:36 It's also important to note that the design scheme of these shapes
  • 00:39 will match the specific theme we decided to start with.
  • 00:42 If we chose a different slide theme,
  • 00:44 these shapes would likely have different colors than we see here to choose from.
  • 00:48 We can also swipe left and right for
  • 00:50 additional colors to choose from within this theme.
  • 00:54 Once we have decided on a shape to use,
  • 00:56 we click on that shape to insert it onto the slide.
  • 00:59 From here we can reposition or resize the shape to our liking.
  • 01:03 We also have formatting options to choose from if we wanted to change colors,
  • 01:07 add shadows or reflections, change opacity, or even change font formats for
  • 01:12 text contained within the shape.
  • 01:14 Let's start with visual enhancements.
  • 01:16 First we need to select the shape we want to edit.
  • 01:20 Next we look to the formatting pane for the elements to modify.
  • 01:24 To change the fill type, we expand the fill section.
  • 01:27 To change the border style, we expand the border selection.
  • 01:31 You get the idea.
  • 01:33 You may want to take a few minutes now to explore some of these options.
  • 01:37 Next let's look at modifying texts within a shape.
  • 01:40 To do this, we first need to add text to our shape.
  • 01:43 Doing this couldn't be any easier.
  • 01:45 Just double-click on the shape and start typing.
  • 01:49 Once you have entered your text,
  • 01:50 we can go back to the formatting pane to adjust our text.
  • 01:53 We can change the font style, size, alignment, and more.
  • 01:59 As you can see, working with shapes in Keynote is really pretty straightforward,
  • 02:03 that is, if you want to use a predefined shape like a square or a circle.
  • 02:08 But what if you want to create a custom shape?
  • 02:10 Well, let's take a look at that.
  • 02:12 There's a powerful tool called Draw with Pen at the bottom
  • 02:15 of our shape selector window.
  • 02:17 When we select this shape type, we are shown a pen to begin drawing with.
  • 02:21 To begin, we simply choose a starting location on our slide and click.
  • 02:25 With our starting point set, we choose our next location and click.
  • 02:31 We may do this several times before our custom shape is complete.
  • 02:35 We can also draw arcs with this tool.
  • 02:37 We do this by clicking and dragging our next point.
  • 02:41 This will create an arc using the previous point and
  • 02:43 the center point as anchor points for the arc.
  • 02:47 To finish the arc, we simply click one more time.
  • 02:51 To complete the shape we can either double-click on a new point,
  • 02:54 which will create a non-complete drawing path, or
  • 02:57 click on the initial starting point to complete the path.
  • 03:00 Either method will disable the drawing pen from adding more points to the path.
  • 03:05 Want to add more points to an already complete custom shape?
  • 03:08 No problem, this is easy to do.
  • 03:11 We'll need to edit the shape by double-clicking on it first.
  • 03:15 Now that we are in edit mode, we will see small red circles or
  • 03:18 squares at each anchor point.
  • 03:21 Squares indicate a hard edge, while circles indicate an arc.
  • 03:25 To add a new anchor point, we simply hold down the Option key
  • 03:29 then select the location for the new anchor point.
  • 03:32 By default, the new anchor point will be a hard edge, but we can change this or
  • 03:36 any of the anchor points to a soft edge by double-clicking the anchor point.
  • 03:41 If it's already an arc anchor point,
  • 03:43 we can turn it into a hard edge anchor point in the same way.
  • 03:46 We can also remove anchor points by selecting the point
  • 03:49 then hitting the Delete key.
  • 03:52 When we're done editing our custom shape, deselect the shape by clicking outside
  • 03:56 the shape, and our changes have now been committed.
  • 03:59 As with standard shapes, we can also adjust the fill type, colors, line styles,
  • 04:04 and more of custom shapes by using the formatting pane to the right.
  • 04:08 We can also adjust the overall size of any type of the shape in one of two ways.
  • 04:13 Method one is to drag a corner inward or outward,
  • 04:16 depending on whether you wanted to make the shape smaller or larger.
  • 04:20 If you wanted a more precise way of resizing a shape, we can use the Arrange
  • 04:24 tab on the formatting pane to specify the precise size.
  • 04:29 Now that you know how to add and manipulate standard and
  • 04:31 custom shapes, it's time for you to start practicing on your own.
  • 04:35 Spend a few minutes right now to work on creating your own shapes with varying
  • 04:39 sizes, colors, and other attributes.

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