Group/Ungroup Objects

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While working with PowerPoint, you might need to carry out a set of actions on a bunch of objects. PowerPoint allows you to group objects within a slide and apply the same action on all the objects simultaneously. This feature in PowerPoint is called grouping.

The following steps will help you group and ungroup objects −

Step 1 − Select a set of shapes or objects together. To select the objects, press the Ctrl key and select each object individually. If the objects are together, you can also click and drag the cursor to select them; however with the click and drag everything that falls within the selected area will be selected.

Step 2 − Go to the Arrange Group under the Format ribbon.

Step 3 − Click on Group under the Group menu item - this will group the objects and shapes into a single object.

Step 4 − Apply the common changes you want to make to these objects.

Step 5 − Even though the objects are grouped, you can still edit them individually if need be.

Step 6 − If you want to edit the shapes or objects individually, go back to the Group menu item and select Ungroup.

Step 7 − After making changes, if you want to regroup the objects as per original grouping, you select one of the objects and use the Regroup option under the Group menu.

Arrange Shapes/Images

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PowerPoint supports multiple content types and invariably different contents coexist in a slide. While it is ideal to have each content standout separately, there are times when you cannot do that or when overlapping of content is desirable. In such cases, it is important that you can determine which content stays on top of which one.

PowerPoint has arrangement features to help achieve this goal. While working with arrangement features, you must think of each content as a separate layer and that these layers are laid over one another. To arrange the content, you must basically play with these layers.

The following steps will help you arrange content in a presentation slide.

Step 1 − Select one of the contents and go the Arrange group under the Format ribbon.

Step 2 − Click on the Selection Pane to open the Selection and Visibilitysidebar.

Step 3 − Select one of the rows in the sidebar to highlight the corresponding content in the slide.

Step 4 − Use the reordering arrows in the sidebar to move the content layer up or down.

Step 5 − Click on the eye next to each content in the sidebar to toggle its visibility on the slide.

Instead of using the Selection Pane option, you can also right-click on the content to move it up or down. When you right-click, besides moving the layers by one step at a time using Bring Forward or Send Backward, you can also move the content directly to the top or bottom using Bring to Frontor Send to Back respectively.

Adding Text to Shapes

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One of the great aspects of PowerPoint is that you can treat the shapes as text boxes too. This becomes useful when you want to type some text within a shape and ensure the text does not overflow the boundaries of the shape. By being able to enter text within the shape, PowerPoint will ensure the text stays contained and you do not have to worry about fixing it.

The following steps will help you add text to the shapes in PowerPoint.

Step 1 − Right-click on the shape to which you want to add the text and select the Edit Text option.

Step 2 − Start typing the text into the shape. Once you are done, click the cursor anywhere outside the shape.

An alternative way of adding text to shape is to select the shape and start typing directly. Once you have the text within the shape you can format the text using the font related features available in PowerPoint.

Format Added Shapes

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PowerPoint offers formatting features for shapes along the same lines as pictures. This consistency in the features makes it easy for people to grasp the functionality and also makes PowerPoint very versatile. The shape formatting features in PowerPoint can be accessed from the Format ribbon once the shape is selected. The formatting features are grouped under the Arrangeand Size section in the Format ribbon.

Shape Arrangement Features

The table given below describes the various shape arrangement features available in PowerPoint.

S.No	Feature & Description
1	Bring Forward Moves the shape layer up. Bring Forward moves the shape up by one layer, Bring to Front makes the shape layer the topmost.
2	Send Backward Moves the shape layer down. Send Backward moves the shape down by one layer, Send to Back makes the shape layer the bottommost.
3	Selection Pane This opens up the Selection Pane sidebar where you get a better idea of the layers and can work with arrangements better.
4	Align Aligns the shape with various references in the slide.
5	Group Allows multiple shapes to be grouped together to create on single object or ungroup them to split them into individual shapes.
6	Rotate Rotates shape by a specific angle.

Shape Sizing Features

The table given below describes various shape sizing features available in PowerPoint.

S.No	Feature & Description
1	Shape Height/ Width Used to change the height and width of the shape. When you edit these parameters from the ribbon, the aspect ratio is always maintained

Editing Added Shapes

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Just like images and pictures, PowerPoint also supports editing of shapes inserted in the presentation. The shape editing features in PowerPoint can be accessed from the Format ribbon once the shape is selected. The editing features are grouped under the Insert Shapes and the Shape Styles section in the Format ribbon.

Insert Shape Features

The table below describes various insert shape features available in PowerPoint.

S.No	Feature & Description
1	Shape List Adds another shape to the slide.
2	Edit Shape Replaces the shape completely, or use the edit points to change the existing shape.
3	Text Box Inserts a text box anywhere in the slide.

Shape Styles Features

The table below describes various shape style features available in PowerPoint.

S.No	Feature & Description
1	Shape Fill Selects the shape fill color and style. You can add a single solid color from the palette, or a picture, gradient or texture.
2	Shape Outline Selects the shape border color, thickness and style.
3	Shape Effects Adds special effects to the shape like reflection, 3D rotation, bevel, shadow, etc.
4	Predefined Styles These are a combination of the style features that can be applied to the shape with a single click.

Adding Shapes to Slide

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PowerPoint supports the addition of shapes in presentations. It also includes Shapes like basic geometric shapes, flowchart components, arrows, callouts, lines and other predefined special shapes. These shapes also double up as text boxes as they support adding text to them directly. Besides, you can also use these shape to crop pictures to shape.

Given below are the steps to add a shape in PowerPoint.

Step 1 − Go to the Illustrations group under the Insert Tab.

Step 2 − Click on the Shapes dropdown to view the available shapes.

Step 3 − Select the shape you want to insert. This will change the cursor to a + sign.

Step 4 − Click and drag on the slide to create the shape. As you drag, the shape will show up on the slide. Continue to drag and adjust the size and the symmetry of the shape.

Inserting a Screenshot

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One of the interesting features about PowerPoint is that you can insert a screenshot of one of your applications into your presentation without having to use any other program. Given below are the steps to insert a screenshot.

Step 1 − Go to the Images group in the Insert Ribbon.

Step 2 − Click on the Screenshot dropdown to look at full screen snaps of all the applications running on your computer’s desktop.

Step 3 − Select one of the screenshots to add it directly on to your presentation.

Step 4 − If you do not want the entire screen and just a portion of it, you can use the Screen Clipping option.

 

The Screen Clipping option will automatically move the focus to the program immediately below PowerPoint. So while using this option, ensure that you have the right screen behind the PowerPoint program.