Types of Shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac
Learn about different types of shapes available in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint 2011
OS: Mac OS X
July 12th 2011
July 12th 2011
Learning more about what shapes are, and how they work can help you create better presentations because shapes are the building blocks of almost anything you do on your PowerPoint slides. So what is a shape? Any form, such as a rectangle, a circle, a line, or even a callout is a shape. PowerPoint 2011 for Mac provides hundreds of readymade shapes, and it is these readymade shapes that we will discuss in this tutorial. PowerPoint's shapes are conveniently categorized into nine types. All these shapes can be used in various ways -- you can also format shapes with fills, lines, and effects, and even group or layer them to create more complex shapes.
To look at these different type of shapes, select the Home
tab of the Ribbon,
locate the Insert group, and within this group, click the Shape
button to bring up the Shape gallery, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Shape gallery in PowerPoint 2011
You'll see that PowerPoint 2011 has categorized the different shape types into nine categories. Click on any of these categories to access a sub-menu including shapes of that category. These nine categories are explained below:
- Lines and Connectors: These are straight and curved lines, with or
without arrowheads (see Figure 2). Also, you'll find options
to create freeform paths and scribbles. In addition, lines also work
as connectors, which link individual shapes and other slide objects
via straight, curved, or elbow branches.
Figure 2: Lines and Connectors
Tip: The first 9 line types also work as "connectors" -- these can be especially useful if you need to create flowcharts -- for more info, explore our Using Flowchart and Connector Shapes Together in Mac tutorial.
- Rectangles: Other than the ubiquitous squares and
rectangles, PowerPoint provides several types of other rectangles
including those with rounded and snipped corners (see Figure
Figure 3: Rectangles
- Basic Shapes: These include common shapes such as
ovals, triangles, cubes, hearts, etc. (see Figure 4).
Figure 4: Basic Shapes
- Block Arrows: This category provides a comprehensive
assortment of arrow shapes (see Figure 5).
Figure 5: Block Arrows
- Equation Shapes: This category contains common mathematical
and equation symbols (see Figure 6).
Figure 6: Equation Shapes
- Flowchart: Several standard flowchart symbols such
as Process, Decision, Data, etc can be found within this category
(see Figure 7).
Figure 7: Flowchart
Tip: Learn more about the various flowchart shapes in our Flowchart Symbols: What They Represent? tutorial.
- Stars and Banners: This category includes a variation
of stars with 4 until 32 points, explosions, scrolls, and banners
(see Figure 8).
Figure 8: Stars and Banners
- Callouts: Provides speech and thought bubbles, and
line callouts too (see Figure 9).
Figure 9: Callouts
- Action Buttons: A special category of
buttons that enables you to add push style buttons that allow you to
add navigation between slides and other interactivity (see Figure 10).
Figure 10: Action Buttons
If you want all types of the shapes within one gallery, select the Shape Browser option, which is the last option in the Shape gallery. This opens the Shapes tab of the Media Browser.
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