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About this lesson

Align and distribute shapes (and other content) so that they are correctly positioned to quickly balance the content on your slides and prevent the same objects on different slides jumping to different locations during a slideshow.

Lesson versions

Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:

2010, 2013, 2016, 2019/365.

Exercise files

Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ PowerPoint presentations from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

Align and Distribute Shapes
36 KB Align and Distribute Shapes - Completed
37.1 KB

Quick reference

Topic

Aligning and distributing shapes.

When to use

To align or distribute shapes evenly on a slide.

Instructions

  • Select a shape on the slide, click the Format tab, and then click the Align drop-down button.
  • To align selected shapes with each other, click Align Selected Objects.
  • To align selected shapes relative to the slide, click Align to Slide.
  • Click the Align menu item based on the alignment result you desire.
  • To Distribute shapes:
    • Drag a marquee (used to select parts of an image) with the pointer and release to select shapes to distribute.
    • To distribute selected shapes with each other, click Align Selected Objects.
    • To distribute selected shapes relative to the slide, click Align to Slide.
    • Select either Distribute Horizontally or Distribute Vertically.

Also note:

Shapes will distribute vertically or horizontally depending on how they are distributed on the slide before you commence. Align Selected Objects will be unavailable if you do not select more than one object on the slide.

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  • 00:03 It's very important that the elements that you add to a slide be balanced and
  • 00:07 aligned correctly.
  • 00:08 So that they don't look like chaos that have walked in off the patty
  • 00:12 that would cross all over your slide.
  • 00:13 Now I've got four objects on the slide that I've numbered so
  • 00:16 that we can see where they go when we move them.
  • 00:18 The Format tab is available now that I've selected them.
  • 00:22 And we're going to Align Selected Objects, so
  • 00:25 the objects themselves will become the reference point.
  • 00:28 Align Left and they all move to the furthermost left object,
  • 00:32 which is number 1.
  • 00:34 So we go Ctrl + Z to undo.
  • 00:36 Align Right, I predict that'll all move to number 4.
  • 00:41 Align Top, they will move to number 1.
  • 00:44 And Align Bottom and I imagine that will move level with number 4.
  • 00:50 Very good.
  • 00:52 And then Align Center.
  • 00:54 PowerPoint has done a calculation between the outermost objects and
  • 00:57 worked out roughly where the center is.
  • 00:59 And that's the same with Align Middle.
  • 01:02 Very good.
  • 01:02 But we can also move them with the slide as a reference point, so
  • 01:07 that when we go Align Left, they all move to the far left of the slide.
  • 01:12 If we go Align Right, same thing.
  • 01:16 Align Top, same.
  • 01:19 And Align Bottom, same.
  • 01:23 If we go Align Center, they all move to the perfect center of the slide.
  • 01:27 And if we go Align Middle, they all align to the middle of the slide.
  • 01:32 Okay, very simple.
  • 01:34 Now let's look at Distribute.
  • 01:36 So if we go Align Selected Objects, Distribute horizontally.
  • 01:41 They've moved relative to the outer boundary.
  • 01:44 But because they're spatially different vertically, it's a bit hard to tell.
  • 01:48 So Ctrl + Z, let's Align to Slide, Align Middle,
  • 01:58 Align Selected Objects, Distribute Horizontally.
  • 02:03 And we can see that they're all fairly well spaced.
  • 02:06 And it's just that number 3 is behind the other objects.
  • 02:09 Ctrl + Z, let's click the Format tab Distribute Vertically and
  • 02:13 there's no change and the reason is because they are already aligned.
  • 02:18 There's no movement vertically for them to move.
  • 02:21 Okay, so let's go relative to slide, so we go Distribute Horizontally.
  • 02:27 Notice that they are indeed evenly spaced,
  • 02:30 the same gap between number 1 and the edge of the slide.
  • 02:34 Between each shape and between number 4 and the edge of the slide.
  • 02:39 Now if I go Distribute Vertically, do you know what will happen?
  • 02:42 I would predict that number 1 will pop to the top of the slide.
  • 02:45 Number 4 will pop to the bottom and they'll be distributed evenly,
  • 02:49 let's see what happens.
  • 02:51 Well, isn't that interesting?
  • 02:52 They've moved all around the amount of distance is the same, but if we have
  • 02:55 a look at them, maybe what we need to do is actually move this one up a little bit.
  • 02:59 That one, that one and that one, so
  • 03:02 that they are actually already vaguely in that order.
  • 03:05 So let's go Distribute Vertically, that's very good.
  • 03:08 Let's go Distribute Horizontally, very good.
  • 03:12 Now they are indeed evenly spaced on the slide, so the order from which a shape
  • 03:16 will start can determine what happens when they are aligned or distributed.
  • 03:20 So let's select all of those finally with our mouse.
  • 03:22 I'm going to right-click and go group and we can group them into one object.
  • 03:27 We can shrink them down slightly and rotate them around and
  • 03:31 then we have some shapes on their slide.
  • 03:33 They are aligned and
  • 03:34 distributed very evenly and it's a very process to go through.
  • 03:38 So that the objects on your slide are aligned and distributed very easily and
  • 03:42 not like chaos.

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