Duplicate and Add Multiple Shapes

Quick reference

• 00:03 When you're working with shapes in a presentation it's very handy to know how
• 00:07 to duplicate them without just copy and paste.
• 00:10 So let's start with our blank slide, Insert,
• 00:13 the Shapes button gives us the drop down menu with various groups of shapes.
• 00:17 I select a rectangle, click, drag, and release and there is our shape.
• 00:23 Now, duplicating that is as easy as dragging with a mouse.
• 00:26 And notice, as soon as I hit the Ctrl key, it's duplicated.
• 00:30 And I can release the mouse, and there is the shape there.
• 00:33 Do again, hold the Ctrl key, click and drag.
• 00:37 And there are our three shapes.
• 00:39 Now, I'm going to align those.
• 00:41 So I draw a marquee over the top of them.
• 00:44 Align selected objects.
• 00:47 Align middle.
• 00:48 And there are three shapes all aligned.
• 00:51 And that's really cool, but if I go Ctrl+Z,
• 00:53 if I want to produce those shapes in alignment, it's very easy.
• 00:58 So I'll delete that one.
• 01:01 Delete that one.
• 01:02 Drag with the Ctrl key duplicates it, but
• 01:05 as soon as I hit the Shift key watch what happens.
• 01:09 It pops up in perfect alignment horizontally, and
• 01:12 it will align horizontally or if I go this way vertically down, or
• 01:16 vertically up, or horizontally left.
• 01:19 So release and there is the shape.
• 01:22 Again, click with the mouse, Ctrl+Shift, drag, release.
• 01:25 And there is my shape in perfect alignment, either with the top or
• 01:29 the center and so on, very cool.
• 01:31 Now let's do something else, let's click a little oval.
• 01:34 And I'll use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+D to duplicate that shape.
• 01:39 Now I'm going to move it just there and Ctrl+D again.
• 01:43 Notice that PowerPoint actually remembers the last location of movement
• 01:47 straight after Ctrl+D and has replicated that shape.
• 01:50 So it's very fast to be able to use Ctrl+D, Ctrl+D, Ctrl+D,
• 01:55 Ctrl+D, and produce a whole bunch of shapes in that particular orientation or
• 02:01 alignment, and that's very cool.
• 02:02 Finally, let's look briefly at something else that's very useful as well.
• 02:07 I'll go for a funny little shape like a right arrow.
• 02:10 And it's not really a funny shape, I shouldn't say that.
• 02:13 But if we actually right click on the shape we get this option to lock
• 02:17 the drawing mode.
• 02:18 So if I click that, notice that my cursor has changed into a little x or a cross.
• 02:25 I click and drag.
• 02:26 There's my arrow.
• 02:27 But the cursor has remained the same, so I click and drag, click and
• 02:31 drag, click and drag.
• 02:33 And as soon as I hit the Esc key on the keyboard, my mouse turns back into
• 02:37 a normal pointer, and that's just another way of duplicating many shapes.
• 02:42 And you can right click on these, Lock Drawing Mode, hit Esc, very simple.
• 02:49 So remember that you can duplicates with Ctrl+D.
• 02:52 Or indeed you can hold the Ctrl key and release.
• 02:55 Or if you want them in perfect alignment you can hold the Ctrl key and
• 02:59 the Shift key And they will snap in the perfect alignment.
• 03:02 And you can also lock the drawing mode so that your shapes can stick to your mouse
• 03:06 effectively and you control multiple shapes.
• 03:09 So it's so easy to replicate shapes and duplicate them and get them in alignment.
• 03:14 And well worth investment of your time understanding because it will save you so
• 03:18 much time.
• 03:19 I love it

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