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PowerPoint 2003 Text Formatting and Fonts - Toggle Automatic Spaces Added After Pasting Text

SUMMARY: Toggle whether Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 should automatically handle adding or removing spacing when cutting or pasting text.

Depending on your Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 configuration, when you copy and paste text in a presentation, PowerPoint performs what is called "smart cut and paste". This means, for example, when pasting text in PowerPoint, it will adjust the spacing of words so that the pasted text does not run up against the previous or next word.

For example, if you have a presentation with a text box containing:

"Computer Presentation"

And you have the word "Tips" in the clipboard, if you place your cursor directly on the letter "P" in "Presentation" and select "Edit" - "Paste", you would think the following would be displayed:

"Computer TipsPresentation"

However, with "smart cut and paste", instead the following is shown:

"Computer Tips Presentation"

PowerPoint automatically adjusted the word spacing. If this does not occur for your copy of PowerPoint and you wish it so, or if you would rather have finer control over cutting and pasting text and do not wish the spacing to be adjusted, do the following:

1. Select "Tools" - "Options".

2. When the "Options" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "Edit" tab.

3. Check or uncheck "Use smart cut and paste" as desired.

4. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.