A text box moves out of place when content is edited during a presentation.Which design mistake MOST likely caused this?
- (a)Using default layout
- (b)Not using placeholders
- (c)Using placeholders instead of text boxes
- (d)Slide Master modification
Answer
Why
Correct — B. In PowerPoint the slide layout holds the formatting and positioning for a slide's content, through its placeholders: the dotted-line containers for titles, body text, pictures and so on.
Content in a placeholder sits where the layout puts it, and Home > Reset reverts a slide to its layout. A text box drawn by hand is not part of the layout, so the layout neither positions nor restores it.
A drifting box points to not using placeholders → option (b).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Using default layout — Using default layout is not a mistake. A layout arrives with its placeholders already positioned, and that is what keeps content in place.
- (c)Using placeholders instead of text boxes — Using placeholders instead of text boxes names the cure as the cause. Placeholders are what tie content to the layout, so choosing them over free text boxes prevents drift rather than causing it.
- (d)Slide Master modification — Slide Master modification changes every slide based on that master, a deliberate presentation-wide edit. It does not explain a single box shifting while its text is edited.
Concept
PowerPoint builds slides in three levels: master, layouts, slides. Editing the Slide Master changes every slide based on it. Each slide layout contains the formatting, positioning and placeholder boxes for one kind of slide.
A placeholder is a pre-formatted container on a slide for text, graphics or video, and its preset formatting keeps slides consistent. A text box you insert yourself belongs to that slide alone.
This is a best-practice judgement: the stem gives a symptom and asks for the most likely design mistake. The keyed reasoning is that content kept in layout placeholders stays where the layout puts it, while a free text box has no layout behind it.
Key facts
- A slide layout contains the formatting, positioning and placeholder boxes for the content on a slide.
- Placeholders are the dotted-line containers on a layout for titles, body text, tables, charts, pictures and video.
- Home > Reset reverts a slide to its original layout without deleting content.
- Editing the Slide Master changes every slide based on that master.
Study next
Common traps
- Picking Slide Master modification because it sounds like a design change, when it changes every slide uniformly, not one box.
- Misreading option (c) as "text boxes instead of placeholders": as printed, it describes the good practice.
Word's version of the layout-versus-local choice is 19 Jan 2026, 11:00 AM, Computer Knowledge Q.16, where changing one heading changes them all and the keyed fix is Apply Direct Formatting.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.