Insert Shape

To insert a shape, we select the “Insert” tab in the “Ribbon” and click the “Shapes” button.
This opens a drop-down menu that is divided into different categories.

“Lines”, “Basic Shapes”, “Block Arrows”, “Flowchart”, “Callouts”, “Rectangles”, “Equation Shapes”, “Stars and Banners”, “Action buttons” and “Recently used Shapes” buttons.

At the top of the menu, we find the recently used shapes.
And at the bottom, the “New Drawing Canvas.”

To add a shape, click it in the drop-down menu.
This closes the menu.

Your mouse pointer is changed to a cross.
Click and drag the mouse button on the place in your slide where you want to insert the shape.
Release the mouse button when you get the right size for your shape.

When you release the mouse, you see that blocks appear on the edges and circles at the corners.
Click and drag to resize your shape.

The green circle that appears on the shape can be used to rotate, if you want.

In the “Ribbon”, the “Drawing Tools” appear together with the “Format” contextual tab .

You should try all these different formatting options but only if you know what you want to achieve.

 

Select a Shape

To select a shape on a slide, click it with your mouse.
To select multiple shapes on a slide, hold the “Ctrl” key on your keyboard while you click the different shapes with the mouse.

If you have selected multiple shapes of which we need at least one to be ‘de-selected’, hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard pressed and click on the selected shape (s) again to ‘de-select ‘.

A second way is to select the “Shapes” button in the “Home” tab in the “Ribbon”, click the “Select” option and choose “Select objects” in the drop-down menu.
Your mouse pointer changes to a white arrow.
Click and drag over the objects you wish to select.

The Selection Panel

The selection panel is a new option since “PowerPoint” 2007.
The selection panel allows us to view objects, select and order them.

To open the selection pane, click the “Select” button, under the “Home” tab in the “Ribbon” and choose the last option which is “Selection Pane”, from the drop-down menu.
This will open the “Selection Pane” on the right side of the application window.
In this panel, we find all our objects from the slide again.

The objects in this list appear in the order they are placed in the slide.
The first object we added is at the bottom of the list and the last added object is found at the top.
To select an object in this list, click the object in this list.
To select several objects in this list, hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard pressed while you click all other objects in the list.

You can temporarily hide an object in the slide by clicking the eye icon next to the name of the object .
You can hide all the objects in a slide by pressing the ” Hide All ” button and see all objects again by pressing the “Show All” button.

To change the order of an object, select the object in the list and click the arrow “Bring Forward” or “Send Backward” at the bottom of the pane.

To change the name of an object in the panel, double click the name of the object.

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