"Divider Slide" - Shapes, Fills and Format Shapes - Part 1

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About this lesson

We will create a divider slide to separate different topics in a presentation. We will also learn how to download, save and use high-quality large images as the slide background and use the merge and union facility to merge a picture across multiple shapes.

Exercise files

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

4.06-creating-a-divider-slide-part1 - Exercise.docx
829.8 KB 4.06-creating-a-divider-slide-part1- Exercise Solution.docx
2.1 MB divider-slide-image.jpg
3.7 MB

Quick reference

Slide 3: Divider Slide - Shapes, Fills and Format Shapes - Part 1

Divider slides are used to separate different parts of the presentation. Like bookends, they give the reader an idea of where they are in the presentation and what the next point of discussion is. They help the presenter transition from one subject to the next. We could use the 'Section Header' slide layout or design out own divider slide from scratch. 

In the first part of this lesson, we are going to create a divider slide from scratch using shapes, pictures and merge and union. 

When to use

Use divider slides in longer presentations to break up the different topics. 

Instructions

Save time by duplicating an existing slide

If there is already a slide in the presentation that includes the background you would like to use, it's much more efficient to duplciate the slide and remove any unwanted shapes and text. This means we won't need to go through the process of adding a background picture and transparency again. 

  1. Select the title slide. 
  2. CTRL+D to duplicate the slide.
  3. Delete the shapes and text from the slide. 

Insert multiple shapes

Next, we are going to insert 3 parallelograms into the new slide. 

  1. From the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, select Shapes. 
  2. Choose the Parallelogram shape.
  3. From the Shape Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, click Shape Outline. 
  4. Select No Outline. 
  5. Press CTRL+D twice to duplicate the shape. 
  6. Move the shapes into position so there is equal spacing between all three. 

Merge and Union

The effect we are trying to achieve is one picture that extends across all three shapes. It almost gives a feel of peeking through the shapes at the picture in the background. If we were to just select the shapes individually and fill them with a picture, it wouldn't work as desired. The picture would appear in each shape, not merged across all shapes. To acheive this effect, we need to utilize merge and union. 

  1. Select all 3 shapes. 
  2. From the Shape Format tab, in the Insert Shapes group, click Merge Shapes. 
  3. Select Union. 
  4. Right-click on the shape and select Format Picture. 
  5. From Shape Options, in the Fill group, select Picture or Texture Fill. 
  6. Click Insert.
  7. Browse to the folder where the picture is stored. 
  8. Select the picture and click Insert. 
  9. Click on the picture. 
  10. From the Picture Format tab, in the Size group, select the lower-half of the Crop button. 
  11. Select Fill.
  12. Move the picture to position it. 
  13. Click Crop. 

The picture will be merged across the 3 shapes. 

Hints & tips

  • It's not always quicker to duplicate and reuse existing slides but many times it is. Decide if this is the method to use on a case by case basis. 
  • To delete multiple shapes or placeholders on a slide, remember you can use the Selection Pane. 
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  • 00:04 Divider slides are a great way of being able to manage and
  • 00:07 organize your presentation.
  • 00:10 They also really help your audience because it gives them a visual marker as
  • 00:14 to whereabouts they are within your presentation.
  • 00:17 And I'll normally have quite a few divider slides separating different topics in my
  • 00:22 presentation.
  • 00:23 And you can see on the screen a very simple divider slide that I've created.
  • 00:28 This is utilizing some techniques that we've already seen, but
  • 00:31 also moving our knowledge along by introducing some new features.
  • 00:36 So without further ado, let's recreate this example.
  • 00:39 Now when I'm working in PowerPoint, I am pretty lazy.
  • 00:43 And if I can take a shortcut and do less work, then I will always take that option.
  • 00:48 And this is one of those situations where I can cut corners a little bit.
  • 00:52 Instead of creating a brand new slide from scratch, I know that the divider slide
  • 00:58 that I want to create, basically has the same background as my title slide.
  • 01:04 So instead of inserting this picture and putting a transparency over the top.
  • 01:08 All I'm going to do here is duplicate this slide and
  • 01:11 delete off of it any information that I don't need.
  • 01:14 So let's select the first slide in the slides pane Ctrl D to duplicate.
  • 01:20 I'm going to drag this slide down so that it's underneath the About Us slide.
  • 01:24 And then delete out the logo, and these text boxes.
  • 01:28 Now I could go through attempted to select every single shape in this logo,
  • 01:32 because I haven't grouped them.
  • 01:34 A quicker way of doing this would be to jump up to shape format and
  • 01:37 open up that selection pane that we were looking at before.
  • 01:41 I can now see all of my objects.
  • 01:43 So I'm going to select triangle, I want to delete that.
  • 01:46 Let's hold down Ctrl and select the rest of that logo.
  • 01:51 And I also want to select both text boxes,
  • 01:54 press Delete on the keyboard and those are gone.
  • 01:57 So now I can start adding in the elements that I want to appear on my divider slide.
  • 02:01 And for this, we're going to go back to our old favorite the shapes dropdown, and
  • 02:06 I'm going to insert three parallelograms.
  • 02:09 So let's click the parallelogram tool underneath basic shapes,
  • 02:14 and then click to drag to add this in.
  • 02:17 And I'm going to make this about that wide and let's move him over a bit.
  • 02:24 Now I can see that this shape by default has an outline.
  • 02:27 So again, up to outline, and just remove that.
  • 02:31 Now I want two more of these so Ctrl D, Ctrl D to duplicate twice.
  • 02:36 I'm going to move these into position and
  • 02:39 I basically want equal spacing between all three.
  • 02:43 Now the effect that I'm trying to achieve here is I want to insert an image that
  • 02:47 runs across all three of my shapes.
  • 02:50 This is a little bit more difficult than it sounds.
  • 02:53 If I was to use some of the techniques we've seen so far for
  • 02:56 inserting pictures into shapes, it's not going to work.
  • 03:00 If I select one shape and insert a picture,
  • 03:03 it's only going to appear in one shape.
  • 03:05 If I select all three and insert a picture,
  • 03:08 I'm going to get the same picture in each shape.
  • 03:11 It's not going to be one picture that runs across all three.
  • 03:14 So we need to go about this in a slightly different way.
  • 03:17 So with all of the shapes selected,
  • 03:20 I want to apply a piece of functionality called merge and union.
  • 03:24 And you'll find this on the shape format contextual tab in the insert shapes group,
  • 03:29 just click the merge shapes dropdown and you want this first option here.
  • 03:34 So now when I right-click and go to format shape,
  • 03:37 I'm going to select picture and I'm going to click on insert,
  • 03:41 because I want a different picture that I have saved off to my downloads folder.
  • 03:47 And I want to use this picture just here which again is just another image from
  • 03:51 Pexels.
  • 03:53 I can tell that this is very slightly squashed.
  • 03:56 So we're going to go back to our good old favorite crop and fill.
  • 04:02 And I can now move this around, so
  • 04:04 let's make sure that we've got everybody's faces in view, just here.
  • 04:08 Once I'm happy with that positioning, click on crop,
  • 04:12 and I now have that one image running across all three of those shapes.
  • 04:17 So that gives a really nice effect, so it's a good technique to know.
  • 04:21 That's the end of part 1.
  • 04:22 This lesson continues in part 2.

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