Basics Tutorial

Hello all. This tutorial will run through the basic drawing cycle for objects in PowerPoint 2003. If you don't have PowerPoint 2003, you can take a look on the side bar (at right). It gives information on where you may be able to get it. The object that I will draw will be a box.

Now, if you are creating a large piece, you may want to sketch out your idea on paper first, but since I am only making a box, I will skip this step.

Let's set up your PowerPoint slide (or canvas). Clear your canvas so it is blank. You may also want to exit out the PowerPoint "Getting Started" bar to make your canvas bigger. Then, right click on the canvas and choose "Grids and Guides." Have the window look like this:

Now go to the bottom left corner of PowerPoint and find "AutoShapes." Mouse over "Lines" and drag the lines menu out into the canvas.

Its time to draw! The most common tools that you will use are "Line", "Curve", and "Freeform." For my box drawing, I will use Freeform for the structure and Curve for fake lines (we will talk about these later).

When using the Freeform tool, do not push down on the mouse. For straight lines, just click where you want there to be points. This basic larger shape that will hold smaller details is what I call the mother shape.

You may notice that I did not make perfect corners. This is because I am going to curve them so they aren't sharp. Right click on your object and choose "Edit Points" to edit its structure and change point properties. By right clicking on a point, I can change how it affects line segments near it. I will use "Corner Points" to make the segment curved.

I think its time to edit the mother shape so we can move onto its details. Double click the object to bring up a formatting window. In this window, you can edit the shape's fill color, line color (and weight), and many other properties. I will make my box tan and give it a line weight of one and a half.

Now I will add fake lines with the Curve tool. I call them fake lines because I am not using the Line tool! The Curve tool works similarly to the Freeform tool, but instead of straight lines and sharp points, it is curvy. When making fake lines, try to make the object width about the same as your line weight on the mother shape. Also, make the fake line the same color as the mother shape's lines.

For extra detail, I added a real line on the top (where the cardboard box's flaps meet. And I drew an arrow with the Freeform tool. Here is how the box looks so far:

This box is only missing one thing: shading. First, add basic shading: covering the sides of the box. Create the shading objects with the freeform tool. Just trace the mother shape (stay within its lines) to make a shading object. When formatting the shading object, make the color black and change the transparency so it is see-through. This box's shading is 80% transparent. (0% means you cannot see through it at all, 100% means you can see through it all the way and the shape is invisible).For lines...there are none for shading objects!

I added extra shading with the Freeform tool and now the box is finished. Just select all of the detail objects and the mother object and group them together (right click on the cluster of objects and select "Grouping"/"Group").

Here is the finished box along with some other boxes that I found laying around my PowerPoint files.

Have fun creating your own masterpieces! 

—Alex