I’ve always been a big fan of, but I used to find myself opening other graphic design programs (like Adobe Illustrator) when I wanted to edit text like a shape. I quickly stopped doing that when I discovered how to easy it is to convert text to shapes in PowerPoint! This technique is a quick and easy way to transform text into objects that you can manipulate like any other shape in PowerPoint.
![Shape Shape](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125613779/783956712.jpg)
This is useful when using PowerPoint to create custom icons, or anytime you want complete editing control over your text. Tim Slade is a speaker, author, and award-winning eLearning designer.
Text around a Box. Putting text around a box requires four separate text boxes, positioned and grouped around the object. Here’s a chart with four text boxes around it. Use the Insert| Text Box| Draw Text Box option to roughly place the four boxes around the object. Then drag each box to its exact position. I am editing a document in which a client created a bunch of text boxes that appear throughout the text. I need to edit the text in those boxes, and I can't figure out how to access the text! I can't click inside the text box and edit it. It acts like a graphic.
Having spent the last decade working to help others elevate their eLearning and visual communications content, Tim has been recognized and awarded within the eLearning industry multiple times for his creative and innovative design aesthetics. Tim is a regular speaker at international eLearning conferences, is a recognized Articulate Super Hero, co-author of the popular E-Learning Uncovered book series, and author of the The eLearning Designer’s Handbook.