Text Within Shapes in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Text is probably the most important element on your PowerPoint slides! You may have heard the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, but more often than not, that picture needs a caption to be understood better. And, even when there are no captions, a narrative is required. And that narrative is text too.

Text can be added almost everywhere within PowerPoint slides: from placeholders and text boxes to the Notes Pane. Additionally, you can also add and edit text within any shapes except connectors, including straight lines.

To add text within shapes in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows, follow these steps:

1. Select your inserted shape that has no existing text, and start typing. Anything you type shows up within the shape, as shown in Figure 1. Remember that most shapes in PowerPoint also function as a text box.
2. 
   Figure 1: Text added within a shape
2. To edit the text that is already contained within a shape, right-click the shape to bring the context menu that you can see in Figure 2. Within this menu, select the Edit Text option (highlighted in red within Figure 2).
3. 
   Figure 2: Edit Text option
4. Alternatively double-click the text within the shape.
3. Either option selects the entire text within the shape. If you want to add some more text, place the mouse cursor at the point where you want to insert new text, and click (left-click the mouse) to place the text insertion point within your text. At this point, anything you type, delete, or modify will show in the shape. Figure 3 shows more text added within the same shape we started editing earlier (compare with Figure 1).
4. 
   Figure 3: More text added within the same shape
4. To delete text, select the text or part of the text that you want to delete within the shape and press either the Delete or the Backspace key on your keyboard.