Shape Styles in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows

Although PowerPoint enables you to edit the fill, line, and effect attributes of a shape, this is a time consuming task that may involve trying out different combinations of each attribute. Even then, the final look may not match the Theme of the presentation. That's the reason why Shape Styles is such a special feature since all you need to do is choose any of these prebuilt styles, and you get an instant makeover! These styles are all Theme-specific, so if the presentation Theme is changed, you'll end up with new Shape Styles.

Follow these steps to apply ready made Shape Styles to selected shape(s) in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows:

1. Select the shape that you want to apply the style to. Alternatively, if you just want to follow this tutorial step-by-step, launch PowerPoint 2007 for Windows. Most of the time, PowerPoint will open with a new slide in a presentation. PowerPoint 2007 users can change the slide layout to Blank by selecting Home tab | Layout | Blank.
2. Within the Home or Insert tab of the Ribbon, click the Shapes button to access the Shape gallery that you can see in Figure 1, below. Select the Rectangle (or any other shape), and then either drag and draw, or click once on the blank slide to place an instance of the shape.
3. 
   Figure 1: Shapes gallery
3. Select the shape so that the Ribbon area now shows the Drawing Tools Format tab, as shown in Figure 2, below. Activate this Ribbon tab by clicking on it.
4. 
   Figure 2: Drawing Tools Format tab of the Ribbon
Note: The Drawing Tools Format tab is a Contextual tab. These tabs are special tabs in the Ribbon that are not visible all the time. They only make an appearance when you are working with a particular slide object which can be edited using special options.
4. Within the Drawing Tools Format tab, locate the Shape Styles group. Then, click the downward pointing arrow (highlighted in red within Figure 2, above) to bring up the Shape Styles drop-down gallery that you can see in Figure 3, below.
5. 
   Figure 3: Shape Styles drop-down gallery
5. Now hover the cursor over any of the style previews in the gallery. As you move over different previews, the selected shape shows you a Live Preview of the style applied. Click on the preview thumbnail in the gallery to apply the style to the selected shape.
Tip: Place your shape in an area that is not covered by the Shape Styles drop-down gallery, so you can see the Live Preview.
6. Figure 4, below, shows the style is applied to the shape.
7. 
   Figure 4: Shape Style applied to the shape
7. Remember to save your presentation often.
Related Link: My book Cutting Edge PowerPoint 2007 For Dummies covers many aspects of PowerPoint 2007. A free chapter excerpt PowerPointing with the Best of Them is available on this site.