Font Size in Table in PowerPoint

[Katsche.Schwarzenbeck]

Hi all,

In PowerPoint, I have set up a table with font-size 16. Whenever I
close the file and re-open it, the font size in the table goes to 18.
I can change it to 16 and save it as often as I want to (actually,
"want to" was over after the first occurrence, but I think you get my
point) and it always pops back to font 18.

BTW the master itself has font size 20 for the first level, 20 for the
second and 18 for the third, but I do not know why the table would be
based on the third level.

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[Echo S]

You might try creating a new master for that slide and see if that resolves
the problem.

Alternatively, try a Title Only slide layout. (There's a bug with PPT
2002/2003 where the master is reapplied, which overrides any size formatting
you've manually applied to the text. I think you're running into that here.
Using a Title Only slide layout will divorce your table from its
placeholder....)

--
Echo S [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PowerPoint 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/index.html
PPTLive! Oct 28-31, New Orleans http://www.pptlive.com

 

[j.stammer]

I'm having this problem as well. I've searched around and found a few
other "fixes" but nothing works. I'd already "divorced" the table from
the placeholder (placeholders are pure evil). I also tried rebuilding
the table from scratch. Another method was to copy/paste, and yet
another to make a copy via dragging while holding the control key.
None of these methods work. It's not autoformatting either, I've had
that turned off for years.

What I did find, however, is that what I'm trying to accomplish is
getting the font to stay at 11-pt. I've tried changing it to a few
other random choices and that DOES WORK! So for some reason it's just
not wanting to accept the font size that I want it to be.

Unfortunately it is not an option for me to choose another size. This
is a template I'm working on that has very strict requirements (and I
have no input on them).

Please help!
Jodi

 

[Echo S]

Even if the table is divorced from the placeholder, its default text size is
still based on the text placeholder of the master slide.

And, for the record, I wouldn't say that placeholders are pure evil.
They'll actually save you a ton of time usually. And if you're creating
templates, it's imperative that they're set up properly.

--
Echo S [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PowerPoint 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/index.html
PPTLive! Oct 28-31, New Orleans http://www.pptlive.com

 

[j.stammer]

The default text size of the of the master slide is 11-pt.

How do you explain that I can change it to something like 18-pt and
make it stick but for some reason 11-pt. just will not work?

Is every table created based on the text placeholder on the master?
What if I pasted a table from another presentation? Would that break
the connection or is there any other way?

I've never been able to figure out how it works but I know I've worked
on presentations where some of the tables are some bizzare way
connected to the master but others are not.

Please help me understand. I cannot find any documentation on how this
works or how to fix it.

Thanks again,
Jodi

 

[Echo S]

When you use Insert | Table, the default font is the same font face and
color as the top level bullet on the slide master. It doesn't matter which
slide *layout* you use (Title Only, Blank, whatever), the table still uses
those settings from the placeholder on the slide *master* as its default.

The default table font size, however, is one size down from whatever the top
level bullet is. For example, if I set the top level bullet in the slide
master placeholder to 44 pt, my table will default to 40 pt. That is the
next size down in the font size dropdown box. If I set that first level
bullet to 14 pt, my table will default to 12 pt., which is the next size
down in the font size dropdown box.

Since your placeholder is set to 11 pt, PPT uses the next size down for the
default table font size: 10 pt. I don't see an easy way to get 11 pt for the
default table font size, sorry.

If you were to choose the Title and Table layout and use the icon in the
placeholder to add the table, that table still uses these settings from the
placeholder on the master as its default settings.

For what it's worth, I've never seen any documentation on this, either. My
favorite way to see what's going on with placeholders and various objects is
to open a new, blank presentation, change the placeholder text to Algerian
(because it's very obvious!) and an obnoxious color, and then see what
happens when I add tables or objects or whatever. Then I start changing the
size of the bulleted text, etc., to see how that affects things. That will
often help me as I try to figure out what PPT is doing and where it's
pulling its settings from.

Once the table is created, you can manually resize the text, and of course
sometimes when you paste slides in from other presentations, manual
formatting is retained. But sometimes it isn't. Tables can also be created
in Word or Excel and inserted into PPT. Without knowing what exactly your
goal is, I couldn't tell you what is the best way to achieve it.

--
Echo S [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PowerPoint 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/index.html
PPTLive! Oct 28-31, New Orleans http://www.pptlive.com

 

[j.stammer]

That's what I assumed was happening (1 size down from master).

What I don't understand is why the font will not "stick" when I change
it. It shouldn't matter if it starts out based on the master. It's
just not liking 11-pt. in this particular template for some reason. I
can change it to any other size and it works fine. I tried another
template and 11-pt. sticks just fine. It's seems to be just this
template it is not working in. I just don't get it and it's very
frustrating.

My solution was, like you said, inserting from Word or Excel. I
created a table in Word, made the font 11-pt., pasted it into
PowerPoint, edited as necessary, and this time the font size sticks.
This is an inconvenient workaround but might be the only solution.

Jodi

 

[Echo S]

Ahhhhh. I think I get it now!
So you manually changed the table to 11 pt, then you save the file and it
reverts to its original size?

That is a bug.

When this bug happens with regular text, you can copy the placeholder, paste
it on the slide, and then delete the original. Or change the slide layout to
"title only." These divorce the text placeholder from the masters, but it
doesn't seem to work that way for tables. Nuts. You might try making a new
master and making it the first in the list of masters.

Or, try copying the table, then Edit | Paste Special and paste as EMF. This
creates a picture of the table. (And you could ungroup it if you needed to.)
Drag the original table off the slide -- or do this on a copy of the
slide -- so you can easily make changes to the original table if needed.

--
Echo S [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PowerPoint 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/index.html
PPTLive! Oct 28-31, New Orleans http://www.pptlive.com