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Work with shapes on imported slides

Last updated on 4 November 2025

Captivate User Guide
Get to know Captivate
1. What's new in Adobe Captivate
2. Adobe Captivate System Requirements
3. Download Adobe Captivate
4. Frequently Asked Questions
Adobe Captivate releases
1. Adobe Captivate 13
  1. Adobe Captivate (13.0) release notes
2. Adobe Captivate 12
Project setup
1. Slide navigator
2. Project dimensions
3. Set preferences
4. Themes
5. Configure URL access for Adobe Captivate features
Import from PowerPoint
1. Import PowerPoint presentations into Captivate
2. Work with text on imported slides
3. Work with shapes on imported slides
4. Add media to imported slides
5. Add interactions and animations to imported slides
Generative AI in Captivate
1. Generative AI overview
2. Generate text
3. Generate images
4. Generate avatar
5. Generate transcripts
Add and edit text
1. Add text to a project
2. Add Adobe fonts to a project
3. Add quotes
Add and edit images
1. Add images to a project
2. Edit the background image on a slide
3. Add SVGs to a project
Add and edit media
1. Add videos to a project
2. Add and edit audio
3. Add audio for widget interactions
4. Add closed captions
5. Add web objects to a project
Interactive components
1. Add a button
2. Add an input field
3. Add a radio button group
4. Add a dropdown
5. Add a checkbox
6. Variables in Adobe Captivate
Create quizzes
1. Add a Multiple-choice question
2. Add a True or false question
3. Add a Match the column question
4. Add a Short answer question
5. Add a Sequence question
6. Add question pools and random question slides
7. Import questions as CSV
Add widgets
1. Add a Card
2. Add Tabs
3. Add a Certificate
4. Add a Carousel
5. Add a Hotspot
6. Add Drag-and-Drop
7. Add a Timeline
8. Add Click to Reveal
9. Add an Accordion
Interactions and animations
1. Add interactions to a project
2. Create interactive video with overlay
3. Create a slide-level interaction
4. Create an object-level interaction
5. Add animations to a project
6. States in Adobe Captivate
Enhance your e-learning project
1. Add padding to content blocks and components
2. Add a header to a project
3. Add a footer to a project
4. Create a long scroll project
5. Add a conversation slide
6. Add characters to your Adobe Captivate project
7. Assets in Captivate
Simulation projects
1. Simulation overview and setup
2. Demo mode
3. Training mode
4. Assessment mode
5. Full-motion recording
Timeline and TOC
1. Timeline panel in Adobe Captivate
2. Table of Contents in Adobe Captivate
Review and collaborate
1. Share for review
2. Create and manage reviews
3. Add review comments and collaborate
4. FAQs and Troubleshooting guide for sharing projects for review
Preview and publish
1. Preview your project
2. Publish your project
Accessibility
1. Create accessible eLearning content in Adobe Captivate
2. Make a slide accessible
3. Make slide objects accessible
4. Make an interactive component accessible
5. Make a widget accessible
6. Make a quiz accessible
7. TOC and Playbar accessibility
Design options in Adobe Captivate
1. What are design options?
2. Parts of a design option
3. Create custom design options
4. Modify a custom design option
5. Export a custom design option
6. Import a custom design option
Additional resources
1. Top How-tos in Captivate
2. Captivate Classic vs Adobe Captivate
3. Upgrade older Captivate projects to the latest version
4. Create and deploy Captivate packages in Admin Console

Learn to customize shapes from PowerPoint slides in Adobe Captivate. Add text, create interactive buttons, and apply animations to build engaging eLearning content.

Overview

When you import PowerPoint slides into Adobe Captivate, all shapes from the original presentation are automatically converted into editable Captivate shapes. This lets you move beyond static content, where you can customize, animate, and make shapes interactive to create engaging eLearning experiences.

Work with shapes in imported slides

Once converted, shapes in Captivate behave like any other editable object. You can adjust their appearance, add interactivity, and use them to enhance your course design.

Here is what you can do:

Add new shapes to imported slides to highlight key information or create visual focus.
Customize appearance and properties, including color, borders, and effects, to align with your design theme.
Insert text inside shapes for clear and concise labeling.
Create multi-state objects that respond to learner actions.
Apply animations and triggers to make content dynamic and interactive.
Arrange shapes in layers to maintain proper visual hierarchy and control interactions.

Supported shapes:

Type	Shapes
Basic shapes	Rectangles, circles, triangles, stars, and other geometric forms.
Line shapes	Straight lines, curves, and connectors.
Arrows	Directional indicators and flow arrows.
Callouts	Speech bubbles, text callouts, and annotation shapes.
Symbols	Icons, markers, and special characters.

Add new shapes to imported slides

Select a slide in your imported project.
Select Add shapes from the left toolbar.

Add shapes on imported slides
Choose a shape from the available categories, then select anywhere on the slide to insert it.

Shapes can be freely positioned and resized on imported slides to create custom interactive elements

Position and resize shapes

You can move, resize, and adjust shapes on a slide to create the desired layout and visual balance.

To move a shape: Drag it anywhere on the slide.
To resize a shape: Drag the corner handles to increase or decrease its size.
To modify a shape: Some shapes include a yellow control point. Drag this handle to adjust the curvature or change the shape’s geometry.

Shapes with a control point offer more flexibility, enabling you to fine-tune curves or create variations of the same base shape.

Use the control point to modify the shape geometry

Advanced shape positioning

In the Transform section of the Visual Properties panel, you can:

Rotate or flip shapes based on the canvas orientation.
Resize shapes either proportionally or freely.
Position shapes precisely using numeric input for X and Y coordinates.
Lock the aspect ratio to maintain consistent proportions.

Note

Captivate rotates and flips shapes based on the slide's axes, not the shape's center. This affects symmetrical shapes. For example, flipping a trapezoid gives different results depending on its orientation.

Demonstration of how shapes behave differently when transformed along canvas axes versus their own bounding boxes. — Understanding how transformation reference points affect shape behavior helps create precise layouts.

Customize shape appearance

After inserting a shape into your slide, Adobe Captivate provides a wide range of customization options to help you tailor its appearance and behavior. Using the Visual Properties panel, you can transform shapes, apply styling, and add text. These tools enable precise positioning, consistent formatting, and enhanced interactivity, making your eLearning content both functional and visually engaging.

Select a shape on the slide.
Select the Visual properties panel to view its customization options.

Customize a shape from the Visual properties panel
In the Appearance section, format and style the shape by adjusting fill, transparency, borders, and effects:
- Fill options:
  
  Solid colors with adjustable transparency
  
  Linear and radial gradients
  
  Pattern fills with built-in textures
  
  Texture fills for realistic surfaces
  
  Make shapes transparent to blend with the background
- Border and outline options:
  
  Line borders with customizable weight
  
  Supported line styles such as solid, dashed, or dotted
  
  Border colors with transparency control
  
  Corner radius for rounded shapes
- Effects:
  
  Apply shadows to create depth and emphasis

Copy shape style

Quickly apply the style of one shape to others to keep your design consistent. This copies attributes like color, border, and shadow, saving time and giving your project a polished look without manual formatting.

Select the source shape that has the desired formatting.
Right-click and select Copy appearance.
Select the target shape and then right-click and select Apply appearance. All visual properties are applied to the target shape, ensuring consistent styling across multiple shapes.

Maintaining visual consistency across shapes by copying and applying formatting attributes.

layer shapes

Change the stacking order to control which shapes appear on top. This is useful for creating custom backgrounds, improving text readability with overlays, or adding interactive elements such as hotspots and callouts.

Right-click the shape.
Select an option to change the order of layers:
- Bring to front: Moves the shape above all other objects.
- Bring forward: Moves the shape one level up in the stack.
- Send backward: Moves the shape one level down in the stack.
- Send to back: Moves the shape behind all other objects.
Controlling the layering of shapes helps create depth and proper interactive behavior in eLearning content.

Add text inside shapes

Add text inside shapes to enhance interactivity and visual communication in your eLearning projects. This allows you to create custom buttons with text labels that support interactions like navigation or feedback. Shapes with text can also serve as interactive hotspots, instructional overlays, or highlighted tips.

Select the shape to enter text, or right-click the shape and select Edit text from the dropdown menu.
After adding text to a shape, you can customize it further by selecting the Text tab in the Appearance. Use the available presets to format the text, change the font, size, and color, apply effects like shadows or outlines, and adjust alignment and spacing to improve readability. Learn more about how to format text in Captivate.

Text formatting tools help create clear, readable labels for interactive shape elements.

Create multi-state shapes

Make shapes change appearance based on user actions. This is perfect for interactive buttons and feedback elements. Learn more about using states in Captivate.

Common uses:

Navigation buttons (Normal, Hover, Down, Visited)
Progress indicators (Empty, Partial, Complete)
Answer feedback (Correct, Incorrect, Selected)
Interactive hotspots (Hidden, Visible, Detailed view)

For example, create a button with a hover state that changes the fill color and a clicked state that confirms the selection.

Add states to shapes

Select the shape.
Select Add next to States.

Creating multiple states transforms static shapes into dynamic, interactive elements that respond to learner actions.
Select Add New to create a custom state. Be sure to give it a descriptive name.

Descriptive state names improve development workflow and help track interactive behavior in complex projects
Modify the shape’s appearance for that state.
Repeat for other additional states.

Set default shape styles with themes

While you can apply default themes and appearance presets to newly inserted shapes, imported shapes retain their original styles from PowerPoint. This includes fill colors, borders, and effects. To unify the look, use the Copy Appearance feature to apply consistent styling across shapes.

Select Project properties and then select Edit Theme.
To set the default theme for shapes, select the Shapes section in the left menu and apply presets for fill color, borders, and shadows.

Theme presets ensure visual consistency across projects while reducing repetitive formatting tasks.
Customize the text inside shapes by adjusting the font size, font family, alignment, spacing, text color, and shadow effects.
Select Apply. These settings will automatically apply to any new shapes you add to the slide.

Add interactions and animations to shapes

Shapes support all Captivate animations, which makes them useful for building engaging interactive elements. You can use shapes as buttons, navigation controls, or triggers for content. Learn more about how to add animations and interactions to shapes and other imported objects from PowerPoint.

You can add:

State changes on interaction
Audio feedback for user actions
Visual effects and animations

Accessibility considerations

Shapes imported from PowerPoint are fully accessible. They're included in the reading order like other objects, so screen readers can interpret them correctly. For more details, see Accessibility in Captivate.

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