Move Text Box vs. Select Text (PPT 2007-10)

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I’m getting the same behavior in both PowerPoint 2007 and 2010 running on Win7, but don’t recall it happening in any earlier versions of PowerPoint, so I assume it was a change made with 2007. When I’m working in a text box (containing, for example, a bulleted list), the old behavior of the mouse cursor was that it was always text select, and if you wanted to move the text box you had to specifically select the border of the text box. Now, it seems to be that it is text select over text within the box and move text box everywhere else. This is really annoying, because I keep having to move the text box back to where it was from inadvertently moving it, and it’s really tricky to position the cursor at the end of a line of text using the mouse.

Is there some setting in PowerPoint (or even Win7) to change this behavior back to the old way?

I didn’t find any discussion on this in earlier posts, although it’s certainly possible I missed it somehow.

Thanks,

Brent

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Brent,

I can not get the behavior you are describing in my copy of PP2010. I still have to select the border of the text box to drag it. However, drag & drop editing is on by default {can be changed in Options->Advanced} is this what you are talking about where selected text can be dragged around within the text box? :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Thanks RG. Your response prompted me to try again with a new, blank PPTX file, and I think I figured out what the problem was.

For some reason, the template I’m using (which is my default corporate template, and apparently seriously flawed), has a solid white background (fill) for the text boxes. When I changed it from Solid Fill to No Fill, the behavior was back to what I expected. Apparently, if there’s a solid fill in a text box, PowerPoint treats the non-text portions of the text box as a solid object (kinda like a picture) except when the cursor is directly over text. Another bizarre and annoying Microsoft “feature”…

Thanks for taking the time to test it out and help me get pointed in the right direction.

Brent

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Interesting you blame Microsoft for what is basically a badly designed template. it also sounds like your “Textboxes” are actually shapes because textboxes act slightly differently.

Anyway that’s not the point of the post. If you are having difficult selecting the text here’s a couple of tricks which might help.

Double click on a word to select the word
Triple click on a line to select the whole paragraph

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