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Distributing shapes is a simple concept -- it means that the space between consecutive shapes (or any other slide objects) should be the same so that they all appear evenly spaced out. Look at Figure 1, and you'll see that the shapes towards the left are not distributed whereas the shapes towards the right are.

Figure 1: The benefits of distribution

If you create many PowerPoint slides, it is very important to keep all your shapes cleanly positioned and spaced. You already explored aligning shapes in a previous tutorial -- in this tutorial we'll look at how you can distribute shapes evenly in PowerPoint 2010. The Distribute option is a great way to position shapes equidistant from each other, either on a horizontal or vertical plane -- follow these steps to learn more:

Distribute Shapes Horizontally

1. Select all the shapes placed besides each other, as shown in Figure 2.
   
   
   Figure 2: Selected shapes, ready to be distributed horizontally
   
   As you can see in the Figure 2 above, the shapes are not equally spaced between each other -- the distance between the third and the fourth shapes is considerably more than the distance between any other consecutive shapes.
   
   
2. Access the Home tab of the Ribbon, and within the Drawing group, click the Arrange button to bring up the gallery that you see in Figure 3. Click the Align option to bring up the Align sub-gallery (see Figure 3 again). Select the Distribute Horizontally option.
   
   
   Figure 3: Distribute Horizontally
   
   
   
   Note: The Align gallery can also be accessed from Arrange group under Drawing Tools Format tab of the Ribbon.
   
   
3. This will distribute the selected shapes equally on a horizontal plane (see Figure 4).
   
   
   Figure 4: Shapes distributed equally, horizontally

Distribute Shapes Vertically

1. Select all the shapes placed below each other, as shown in Figure 5.
   
   
   Figure 5: Selected shapes, ready to be distributed vertically
   
   As you can see in the Figure 5 above, the shapes are not equally spaced between each other -- the distance between the first and second shapes is considerably more than the distance between the second and third shapes.
   
   
2. Access the Home tab of the Ribbon, and within the Drawing group, click the Arrange button to bring up the gallery that you see in Figure 6. Click the Align option to bring up the Align sub-gallery (see Figure 6 again). Select the Distribute Vertically option.
   
   
   Figure 6: Distribute Vertically
   
   
3. This will distribute the selected shapes equally on a vertical plane (see Figure 7).
   
   
   Figure 7: Shapes distributed equally, vertically
   

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