PowerPoint Basics:
Smart Tags

Did you want: Working with Presentations: PowerPoint 2007,2010,2013,2016 or español

Another feature of Office XP/2003 programs is Smart Tags. These are handy popup buttons with context-sensitive menus. PowerPoint does not have as many as Word and Excel do.

Using Smart Tags

A Smart Tag appears in PowerPoint only after PowerPoint has done something automatically that you might want to undo. Clicking the down arrow at the right end of the button will open a menu with your choices. The exact options will vary, depending on exactly what PowerPoint just did.

PowerPoint Smart Tags

• AutoCorrect Options
  This button does not pop into view automatically when AutoCorrect makes a change. You must move your mouse pointer over the text that PowerPoint changed.

  For example:

  • In PowerPoint 2002, type a name with two initial capital letters, like "JAn"
  • AutoCorrect changes it to use only 1 initial capital, like "Jan". No button appears yet.
  • Move the mouse pointer over the corrected word.
  • The AutoCorrect Options button appears in its collapsed state, as a small blue box under the word. 
  • Move the mouse pointer over the blue box and the full AutoCorrect Options button appears.
  • Click the arrow to see the menu of options.
     

• Paste Options

  This button appears just below what you pasted when you paste anything into a slide. Hover over the button and an arrow appears. Click on the arrow and a menu of options appears.
   

  The options can vary, depending on what you are pasting (text, image, chart, table data) and whether it is from a different program, like Excel. The example at the right actually combines two Smart Tag menus, Paste Options and AutoLayout Options because an Excel table was pasted.
   

• AutoFit Options

  Most of your slide text is in placeholders. If you type too many characters to fit in the placeholder, PowerPoint will automatically change the size of the text so that all will fit in the placeholder. The AutoFit Options button appears when this happens. This menu gives you the choice of accepting or rejecting the new text size. If you reject the new size, you will have to either delete some text or else make the placeholder larger.

• AutoLayout Options

  This button looks just like the AutoCorrect Options button. Automatic changes in the layout are a type of AutoCorrection.

  If you insert an object like a picture or a chart, PowerPoint will automatically change the slide's layout to make room for the new object. The AutoLayout Options menu gives you the choice of undoing this change or of stopping automatic layout changes altogether.

~~  1 Cor. 10:31 ...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  ~~

Last updated: 30 Apr 2012