You can fine tune the fills of your AutoShapes (Shapes, in 2007) by applying a variety of surface materials and lighting treatments. The differences are subtle but can impart a more professional result and create a realistic 3D look. PowerPoint 2007 has added many additional material and lighting settings. I’ve covered PowerPoint 2007 separately below.
For PowerPoint 2002/2003:
In PowerPoint 2002 & 2003, you have a few options for changing the surface characteristics of an AutoShape by choosing one of 4 surfaces. You can also change the direction of the light and its brightness. These settings are all on the 3D Settings toolbar.
To start experimenting with these settings, follow these steps:
1. Insert an AutoShape on a slide. Even better, insert several identical AutoShapes so that you can try out variations and compare them.
2. Select one of the AutoShapes.
3. Click the 3-D Style button on the Drawing toolbar.
4. The 3-D Style menu pops up. For this exercise, choose the upper-left button, called 3-D Style 1. You need to choose a 3D style to use these features.
5. Click 3-D Settings at the bottom to open the 3-D Settings toolbar.
6. Click the Surface button to open the Surface menu.
7. Choose the surface that you want:
* Wire Frame: Doesn’t fill in the AutoShape, just showing the outlines
* Matte: The default. Doesn’t show highlights
* Plastic: Has slightly more highlights than Matte
* Metal: Has the most highlights, but appears darkest
8. Click the Lighting button on the 3-D Setttings toolbar.
9. Choose a direction.
10. Click the Lighting button again and choose Bright, Normal, or Dim.
11. Apply the 3D, surface, and lighting effects to other AutoShapes.
For PowerPoint 2007:PowerPoint 2007 has added to the number of options that you have for surface and lighting effects. Follow these steps:
1. Insert a Shape on a slide. Even better, insert several identical AutoShapes so that you can try out variations and compare them.
2. Select a Shape.
3. Choose Drawing Tools Format tab>Shape Styles group >Dialog box launcher button (Format Shape dialog box)>3-D Rotation.
4. Click the Presets drop-down list. Choose the Perspective Above rotation, or another rotation that you like. This is equivalent to choosing a 3-D Style in PowerPoint 2003.
5. Click the 3-D Format category.
6. In the Depth section, enter a depth for the object, to make it 3D. In this example, I set the depth to 11 points.
7. In the Surface section, click the Material drop-down list, and choose a material. You can see that there are many more options than in PowerPoint 2003. Of special interest are the Special Effect and Translucent materials.
8. Click the Lighting drop-down list and choose a lighting option. Note that lighting affects the entire slide, not just the selected object.
Tip: For a description of the various materials and lights, click the ? at the top of the Format Shape dialog box.
9. Try out other settings on other shapes, and then click Close.
Ellen Finkelstein, is the best-selling author of How to Do Everything with PowerPoint 2007 (and previous editions for PowerPoint 2002 and PowerPoint 2003) Her award-winning Web site features loads of free tips on PowerPoint, the monthly PowerPoint Tips Newsletter, and the PowerPoint Tips Blog - http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com
—- For more free PowerPoint tips, go to http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/powerpoint_tip.html
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