PowerPoint Tips & Tutorials

Create text reflections

One of PowerPoint 2007's new features is reflections. You can create reflected text in earlier versions, too, using WordArt.

Click the WordArt button on the Formatting toolbar. In the WordArt gallery, choose a simple option (nothing wavy), and click OK.

Enter the text you want in the Edit WordArt Text dialog box. If you want to reflect the entire text, it shouldn't wrap to the next line, as the reflection of the first line will interfere with the second line. However, you can reflect just the last line of some longer text. In this case, press Enter where you want the text to go to the next line, as shown here. You can change the font at this point, too. Click OK.

Select the WordArt and choose Format WordArt from the WordArt toolbar that appears. On the Colors and Lines tab, in the Fill section, click the Color drop-down list and choose Fill Effects.

On the Gradient tab, click One Color and choose a color. Drag the slider slightly to the Light side. Choose the Horizontal shading style and choose the variant that shows the lighter color on top. Click OK.

Back in the Format WordArt dialog box, look in the Line section. If the Color drop-down list doesn't say No Line, click the drop-down list and choose No Line.

Click the Shadow Settings button on the Drawing toolbar. If No Shadow isn't selected, choose No Shadow. Many of the WordArt formats include a shadow, but this will ruin the reflection effect.

Select the WordArt, and press Ctrl+D to duplicate it. Move it below the original text. If you want to reflect only the bottom line of text, double-click it and change the text so that it contains only the bottom line.

On the Drawing toolbar, choose Draw>Rotate or Flip>Flip Vertical.

With the new text selected, choose Format WordArt on the WordArt toolbar.

From the Fill Color drop-down list, choose Fill Effects. On the Gradient tab, in the Transparency section, set the From slider to about 60% and the To slider to 100%

In the Variants section, choose the opposite variant from before (because the text is upside down). If you don't get it right, you can go back and change this; it's hard to know which variant to choose.

Click OK twice.

Deselect the WordArt to see the effect. If necessary, adjust the reflection's position so that it looks like it's almost attached to the top text.

In PowerPoint 2007, you just select any text and click the Format tab. In the WordArt Styles section, click Text Effects> Reflection and choose one of the reflection styles. It's that easy!

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