Formatting Toolbar in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Like the Standard Toolbar, the Formatting Toolbar continues to exist in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac even though this new version has the Ribbon. You can see the Formatting Toolbar right below the Standard Toolbar, as shown highlighted in red in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Formatting Toolbar in PowerPoint 2011

If you can't find the Formatting Toolbar within the PowerPoint 2011 interface, select the View | Toolbars | Formatting menu option as shown in Figure 2 to make it visible. Conversely, deselecting the same menu option will hide the Formatting Toolbar.

Figure 2: Formatting Toolbar option in View menu

Now let us explore the options within the Formatting Toolbar as shown in Figure 3. The options within the Formatting Toolbar will be grayed out if you have not selected any text placeholder, text box, or a shape.

Figure 3: Icons within Formatting Toolbar

The icons within the Formatting Toolbar are explained below, as marked in Figure 3, above:

A. Font

Displays the font name of the selected text content. Clicking the downward arrow allows you to select any other font from the Fonts gallery.

B. Size

Displays the point size of the text selected. Click the downward arrow to choose another size, also you can type any point size you want.

C. Bold, Italics, Underline, Text Shadow, and Strikethrough

This group of five icons is used to apply different font styles to the selected text. You can choose from Bold, Italics, Underline, Shadow, and Strikethrough (from left to right). If you want to remove any of these applied styles, click on the same style icon again to toggle.

D. Left, Center, and Right Text Alignments

These 3 icons are used to align selected text to Left, Center, and Right.

E. Bullets

Used to apply bulleted list styles.

F. Numbering

Used to apply numbered list styles.

G. Increase and Decrease Paragraph Spacing

These two icons are used to increase or decrease the paragraph spacing.

H. Increase and Decrease Font size

These two icons are used to increase or decrease the font size.

I. Decrease Indent and Increase Indent

Decrease or increase the indentation of the selected text paragraphs or sentences.

J. Font Color

Apply color to the selected text, click the downward arrow and choose your options from the resultant color menu.