Set default “arrow” in Powerpoint

Question

In powerpoint 2007 I end up using a same kind of arrows a bunch. But every time I create an arrow I have to re-format it or I have to copy the arrow from another slide. Does anyone know how to set the default "arrow" shape.

Before you say, "Right click the >> Set as default line"... This doesn't work. What this does is set the default for a line. So the next time you go to make a line (no arrow heads), you get your nicely formated arrow...

PS. As an answer I'll accept, "No, it's not possible, microsoft is stupid."

Answer 1

"No, it's not possible, microsoft is stupid." See here.

Answer 2

You're right that Office counts lines and arrows as similar objects. What designers do is mostly what you're doing, they copy from another slide. More specifically, they create a "sampler slide" with objects of all types that are formatted the way they want them. They they copy from that slide. If you storyboard your slides first with pencil and paper, then create all your slides first, with their titles, you'll know before you start designing specific slides which slides will have arrows. Then, you can copy arrows from your sampler slide to all the necessary slides. After that, you can just copy from within the slide if you need several on a slide.

Answer 3

To PowerPoint, arrows and lines are th same thing. Some lines have arrowhead attributes at one end or the other, or both, some don't. That's why setting the defaults affects both arrows and lines. One. And the same.

I have a commercial PowerPoint add-in called ShapeStyles that lets you memorize most formatting that you can apply manually, then later apply it to any selected shape or shapes.

If all you need to work with is arrows and maybe a few other shapes, the free demo would be just the thing. You can use it to create up to five styles (if you later need a different style you can delete one of the existing ones, then create a new one). The demo doesn't time out, so if five styles does the job for you, free tool. ;-)

http://www.pptools.com/shapestyles/