PowerPoint Tutorials - Resize and Move an Action Button

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The button your created on the previous page is too big at the moment, and in the wrong place. To remedy this, right click your selected button to see a context menu:

Select Format AutoShape from the menu

Select Format AutoShape to see the following dialogue box appear:

Pick a Colour for your Button

Click the dropdown list under Color, and select a colour for your button. We chose a light blue colour, and put a tick in the box for semitransparent.

Click the Preview button to see what it looks like. Don't click OK, though. Click the Size tab instead:

Click the Size tab

Change the Height to 1.5 cm, and the Width to 2.5 cm. Click the Preview button, then click the Position tab at the top:

Click the Position tab

This button will be going in the bottom right of the slide. So set the Horizontal position to 22 cm, and the Vertical to 15 cm. Click OK and your first button should be in place. We'll keep all the Back and Forward buttons in the same position. That way, they won't look as though they are jumping about when moving from slide to slide:

Your button on the slide

No back button is needed on the first slide, of course. So, from the Outline View on the left, click your second slide (or insert one if you haven't got a slide 2).

Select your second slide

Add a Title, and delete the text area, and the slide will look like this:

A Title has been added

You don't have to draw a new forward button again. Click back on slide 1, and click your forward button to select it. From the PowerPoint menu, click Edit > Copy. Now go back to slide 2 and click Edit > Paste. PowerPoint will paste a new Forward button in the same place as the first one.

To add a back button to slide 2, again click Slide Show > Action Buttons from the menu bar. This time, select the Back arrow, just to the left of the Forward arrow. Draw a Back button on slide 2. Click OK when you see the Action Settings dialogue box (but make sure it says Previous Slide under Hyperlink to).

Resize and move your Back button in the same way you did for the Forward button. Set the Colour, and Size to the same values as before. For the Position, set the Vertical to 15 cm again, but set the Horizontal to 1 cm. Your slide 2 should then look like this:

Two buttons on the slide

Test out your presentation so far by pressing the F5 key on your keyboard. When your presentation starts, click your new buttons and see if they work OK.

Insert a new slide, and add the following Title at the top:

Click the globe to load a web page

Copy and paste your two buttons from slide two over to your new slide 3. PowerPoint will place them in the same positions as slide 2, and they will have the same actions attached to them - Next slide and Previous slide. We can now add a Hyperlink to this new slide.