Add or Delete Points (Vertexes) for Shapes in PowerPoint 2010
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint 2010
Date Created: February 18th 2011
Last Updated: February 18th 2011
Excerpt/Capsule: Learn how to add or delete points (vertexes) for a shape in PowerPoint 2010.
You learned what Edit
Points in PowerPoint are
and how they work.
These Edit Points give you control over how you want a shape to look,
but sometimes you might find it difficult to edit a certain segment in
a shape because there are no points available to manipulate -- or maybe
there are far too many points! PowerPoint provides a simple solution for
this problem -- you can add and delete vertexes from a shape.
Note: In PowerPoint, the terms vertex and point are often used interchangeably.
Add Points (Vertexes)
Follow these steps to add vertexes:
- To add a a vertex to a shape, select
the shape (you can use any shape, for this tutorial I have used a
Rectangle) and switch
to Edit Point mode (just right-click and choose Edit Points). Now
place the cursor on top of the outline of the shape where you want to
add a new vertex (point) - the cursor will change to a rectangle with
a plus sign, as shown in Figure
1.

Figure 1: Place cursor to add point
- Now right click to get the context menu, as you can
see in Figure 2. From the resultant menu choose
Add Point.

Figure 2: Add Point option
- This will add a new point (vertex) to the shape (see Figure
3). You can add as many points you want.

Figure 3: New point added to the shape
Delete Points (Vertexes)
Follow these steps to delete existing vertexes:
- Make sure you are in Edit
Points mode (just right-click and choose Edit Points). Place
the cursor over the point you want to delete -- the cursor will
change to a small rectangle with four directional arrows around it,
as shown in Figure
4.

Figure 4: Place cursor over the point to delete it
- Right click to get the context menu, as you can see in Figure
5. From the resultant menu choose Delete Point.

Figure 5: Delete point
- This will delete the selected point of the shape (see Figure
6).
Deleting a point changes the shape completely, as you can see in
Figure 6 where a rectangle is transformed
to a triangle.

Figure 6: Point deleted from the shape