Move / Copy Shape:

To move a shape in your slide, place the mouse pointer over this shape.
When the mouse pointer changes into a four-headed arrow, click and drag the shape to the desired position in your slide.

To copy a shape in your slide, do the exact same, but keep the Ctrl key on your keyboard pressed till the mouse pointer changes into a white arrow with a plus sign.
Click and drag the copied shape to the desired position in your slide.

Aligning “Shapes”
When we work with different “Shapes” in a slide, it may be important to align them.
In order to align “Shapes”, first select the “Shapes” in your slides.
Click the “Alignment” button in the “Layout” contextual tab in the “Ribbon”.

From the drop-down menu that appears, select the desired alignment.
All these options seem quite clear to me and need no further explanation.

Grouping “Shapes”:
When we have grouped different “Shapes”, we can create more instances of these “Shapes”, all in one go. So this can really save time.
To group “Shapes”, first select the “Shapes” in your slides.
Click on the “Group” button from the “Format” contextual tab in the “Ribbon” and then select “Group” from the drop-down menu.
This changes the borders around the various “Shapes” and places one large border around the grouped shape.
If you change the dimensions of this item, or change the layout, this will apply to all “Shapes” in this group.

If you want to undo the group, click the “Group” button from the “Layout” contextual tab in the “Ribbon” and select “Ungroup” from the drop-down menu.

Reforming Shapes:

Some of the “Shapes” have “Reform” levers.

These are the yellow blocks on the edges of the “Shape”.

When you click and drag these, you can change the shape.

Changing Shapes
It may be that after a while, after choosing and formatting your shape, you come to the conclusion that the layout is good, but the shape doesn’t serve any useful purpose.
Don’t worry, we need not repeat the entire procedure again, we simply select a different shape.
First select the shape that has already been formatted.
Click the “Edit Shape” button in the “Ribbon”.
And select “Change Shape” from the drop-down menu.
This opens a drop-down menu with all available “Shapes” in “PowerPoint”.
Click the shape of your choice.
The shape is changed but, the formatting is retained.
In some shapes, sometimes, it can be that parts of the formatting disappear.

Adding text to a shape:
There are two ways to add text to a shape.
The first way is to select the shape and start typing.
The text will be placed in the middle of the shape .
Please note, if you type a lot of text, it eventually goes beyond the edges of the shape.

A second way is by using the “Text box” option.
First select the shape.
Click the “Insert” tab in the “Ribbon” and click the “Text Box” button.
Click on the shape.
Also, when we use this method, the text is placed the middle of the shape.

I’ve never counted them but I think there are hundreds of ways of formatting your shapes.
You should try it. There are really nice ones in there.

“Edit Shape”

If you don’t find the shape you want, you can edit a shape.

First, select a shape from the list and place it in the slide.
Select the shape in the slide and click the “Edit Shape” button in the “Ribbon”.
Select “Convert to Freeform” from the drop-down menu.
Click on the “Edit Shape” button again in the “Ribbon”.

Now we have a new option, “Edit Points”.
When we click on it, it puts black selection levers around our shape.

By clicking and dragging these levers, we can adjust the corners of the shape.

 

 

When we click and drag the white levers we can create either a straight or a curved line.
These white levers are only visible when you have selected a black lever.

 

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