Five States of Text Activity

To modify text you have to:

1.) Get its attention!
2.) "Command" it (via menus or keyboard shortcuts).

Some refer to this as the "Hey you, Do this!" protocol.

To get its attention you must "select" it. There are several ways to do so. First let's look at the first state of PowerPoint text as shown below.

State 1 depicts "de-selected" text. Neither the text in the box or the text box is active. In this state you cannot copy or paste data or move the text box.

In state 2 the cursor has been clicked within the text box. The text box is "active" but neither the text within the text box or the text box itself is "selected." In this state you could add additional text to the text box.

In state 3 the cursor has been click-dragged across a portion of the text within the text box. This text (highlighted in blue) can be copied, cut or modified (font, size, color, alignment, etc.).

In state 4 all of the text within the text box is selected. This can be accomplished by click-dragging across all the text or by clicking within the text box and then selecting Edit > Select All from the menus. This text can be copied, cut or modified.

In state 5 the pointer (arrow) has been clicked upon the border of the text box. Not the dotted pattern is different from the diagonally striped pattern in the text boxes in states 2-4. In this state the text can be modified (font, size, color, alignment, etc.) but also the text box can be modified (box fill color, border, position, width & height).