Name of the objects and Object types

[Hari Prasadh]

Hi Steve,

Thnx a TON for point by point explanation. Im that much RICHER.

You can, by the way, enter text within a rectangle. Click it, start
typing.

I still suffer from the hangover of double-clicking a cell in Excel in order
to enter text in to a cell. If I do a single-click in a cell then the
present cell's contents would be lost. Hence, in Excel I always prefer
double-click in order to enter data. So when working with objects in
powerpoint I was doing the same double-click. In a text-box if I do a
double-click it would let me enter text (though the complete text within
text-box would get highlighted- which is undesirable if one wants to append
text), but when I did the same with rectangle then the Format Auto-shape
dialog pops up. I didnt realise that if I do a single-click within rectangle
one could write to my hearts content. So, to add to the differences between
a rectangle and text-box -- If it sticks around for more abuse, it's a
rectangle. -- one cannot enter text within a rectangle with double-click,
while in a text-box one can.
I would like to dwell a little bit on knowing the object type for any
GENERAL object. Like if a third person has made a powerpoint presentation
using a autoshape of -- stars and banners -- and within it Explosion1 and if
there is another autoshape of -- stars and banners -- and within it
Explosion 2, then how would a person like me know non-programmatically what
objects they are. (I have got the code for programmatic determination).

Let me give you an analogy with Excel. Suppose if a third person applies a
color pattern (background color) to a cell and if I want to know what color
it is then one can do it programmatically. Again non-programmatically if one
wants to determine it, one can activate the cell and then go to the tool-bar
and click on the Fill Color dropdown menu and then HOVER over the ACTIVE
color in the drop-down menu. One would get a "Tool-tip" telling us the name
of the color.

So I thought PPT might be having a "similar way" (aka Tool-Tip) to indicate
the name of the object. I drew 2 or 3 shapes in random (let's say
Explosion1) and then clicked one of them and then went to the
auto-shapes-stars and banners.. but within that explosion one is not Active.
If it had been active then it would have been one way by which a person
could know the name of any object. But again one would have to go to each of
the sub-menu to find out whether one of the entries is active.

Please note Im not actually using the multitude of shapes available in PPT
but just from the viewpoint of easily recognizing objects created by other
person (and yes Knowledge for the joy of learning). Hence , my original
query ... Is it possible one to easily second-guess the type of a object
whether by clicking a menu-option or something similar. Is that facility
inbuilt in PPT (Other than the possibility of developing an add-in which
would imitate the ability)

Thanks a lot,
Hari
India

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[Steve Rindsberg]

So, to add to the differences between

a rectangle and text-box -- If it sticks around for more abuse, it's a
rectangle. -- one cannot enter text within a rectangle with double-click,
while in a text-box one can.

Or to put it a bit differently, most shapes have, as part of the shape, a
textframe that can contain text. When you hover the cursor over the text in a
text frame, it turns into an insertion point, so you can click to edit the text
or doubleclick to select it all. When you hover over a non-text area, you can
doubleclick to get the formatting dialog box.

Text Boxes are, in effect, rectangles whose text frame area covers the whole
rectangle. The whole area gives you the insertion cursor (except for the very
edge, where you can still doubleclick to get the formatting dialog).

I would like to dwell a little bit on knowing the object type for any
GENERAL object. Like if a third person has made a powerpoint presentation
using a autoshape of -- stars and banners -- and within it Explosion1 and if
there is another autoshape of -- stars and banners -- and within it
Explosion 2, then how would a person like me know non-programmatically what
objects they are. (I have got the code for programmatic determination).

Good question. It looks like you can do this: Select the autoshape then
choose Change Autoshape from the Drawing toolbar. When you click Stars and
Banners, you'll see that the current subtype is highlighted.