Attributing and Positioning Callouts in PowerPoint 2013
Learn how to attribute and position Callout shapes in PowerPoint 2013.
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2013
OS: Windows 7 and 8
Callouts are shapes that allow you to do
numerous tasks: you can add text indications, create
pointers, and also create comic-book style speech and thought balloons. You can create something that will attract
the attention of your audience by combining the callouts with illustrations or photos of characters (both human and animal). All of the 16 Callout
shapes available in PowerPoint cannot be used for text and thought balloons -- mostly you can use 4 of
these shapes. While Rectangular Callout, Rounded Rectangular Callout, and
Oval Callout shapes are speech balloons, the Cloud Callout is essentially a
thought balloon. You can see all of these in Figure 1, below.
Figure 1: Callouts suitable for speech and thought balloons
While it is important that you choose a Callout shape that’s suitable for your intended use, what’s even more important is how you attribute a callout to various characters and position it. Follow these steps to learn more in PowerPoint 2013:
- Open your presentation and navigate to the slide which includes a picture or drawing for which you want to
add a Callout shape. Alternatively
insert a new, suitable
picture on your slide.
- Access the Insert tab of the
Ribbon and click the
Shapes button (highlighted in red within
Figure 2) to bring up the Shapes drop-down gallery as shown in
Figure 2. Within this drop-down gallery, navigate to the Callouts category
- choose any suitable Callout. We have selected the Cloud Callout shape (shown highlighted
in blue within Figure 2) since we need to visualize some
thoughts of the characters shown in the picture.
Figure 2: Callouts category within the Shapes drop-down gallery
- Insert this selected Callout on the slide in the same way as you would
insert a shape. Your slide may now
look like what you see in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Callout inserted shows a yellow square
- Now, reposition the inserted Callout
as required. Thereafter, look out for the
handle on the Callout shape (highlighted in red within Figure 3,
above). You need to drag this yellow square handle towards the character to which you want to attribute this
Callout, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Callout attributed to a person in the picture
- Now, type some text within the
Callout shape and format
the text as required to make it easily readable, as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Text added within the Callout and formatted
- Similarly, you can add one more Callout to the picture as shown in Figure 6. We used the
same Cloud Callout shape again because we are again depicting some thoughts. You can use another
Callout shape if that suits your requirement better.
Figure 6: Another Callout added to the picture
- Again, attribute this new Callout to the required person by dragging the yellow square to end up with the
results shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: New Callout attributed to another person in the picture
- Add the required text within the new Callout as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8: Text added within the new Callout
- Format this added text to possess the same
font, and size of the text within the first Callout, as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9: Text should look the same within all Callouts added to a picture
Once you have attributed your callout to a character on your slide, the next step is to make your callouts look better. You can learn more in our Formatting Callouts in PowerPoint 2013 tutorial.
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