Drawing Curved Lines in PowerPoint 2010
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint 2010
Date Created: February 14th 2011
Last Updated: February 14th 2011
Excerpt/Capsule: Learn how to draw a curved line in PowerPoint 2010.
You learned how simple it is to draw a straight, point to point line in PowerPoint in a previous tutorial. Now we'll move on to show you how you can draw a curved line in PowerPoint 2010.
Follow these step to draw a curved line in PowerPoint 2010:
- Launch PowerPoint 2010. Most of the time, PowerPoint will open with
a new slide in a presentation -- PowerPoint 2010 users can change
the slide layout to Blank by selecting Home tab | Layout | Blank.
- Within the Home or Insert tab of the Ribbon, click the Shapes button
to view the Shapes gallery that you can see in Figure 1.
Within the Lines section select Curve.

Figure 1: Curve selected
- As soon as the curve shape is selected the cursor changes to a cross
hair (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Cross hair cursor
- Click anywhere on the slide to establish the starting
point of your curve. Thereafter, move the cursor bottom-right of
the first point in an approximately 45-degree angle, as shown in Figure
3.

Figure 3: Drawing a line
- Click again. Now when you move the cursor leftward, you'll see the
curve bend (see Figure
4).

Figure 4: Drawing a curve
- Click again after you move a little leftwards (like a triangular
position) to establish a third point. Now move the cursor upwards
to the first point, as shown in Figure
5.

Figure 5: Drawing a shape with a curve
- Now click over the first point to close the shape. The shape gets
filled by a solid color to denote that it has indeed been closed.
You'll also see the shape is surrounded by eight selection handles,
as shown in
Figure 6.

Figure 6: A closed shape drawn with curve
Tip: If you want just a curved line rather than a closed shape, don't click on the starting point of the curved line.
- Click anywhere on the slide to deselect the curve.