Flip Shapes in PowerPoint 2010
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint 2010
Date Created: November 26th 2010
Last Updated: November 26th 2010
Excerpt/Capsule: Learn how to flip shapes in PowerPoint 2010.
When you insert a shape within a PowerPoint slide, you can resize and rotate it as already shown in previous tutorials on using shapes in PowerPoint. Quite similar to rotate is the flip option that creates a reverse or mirror image of any selected shape. Follow these steps to apply these flip options:
- Select the shape so that the eight blueish white handles appear around
the selection, as shown in Figure
1.

Figure 1: Select the shape
- Now select any of the side handles (side handles are square unlike
the corner handles, which are round) and drag towards the other end
of the shape (see Figure
2).

Figure 2: Drag towards the other end of the shape
- Keep dragging beyond the shape on the other side to flip the selected
shape, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Drag on the other side to flip a shape
- Hold the Ctrl key and drag any of the side handles towards
the other end of the shape (see Figure 4). This
will flip the shape from the center (not proportionately) as shown
in Figure
4 on the right side.


Figure 4: Hold the Ctrl key to flip the shape from the center
- To get more exact control over the flip, select
the shape to activate the Drawing Tools Format tab on the
Ribbon (see Figure 5). Within the Arrange group, click
the Rotate button to access the Rotate gallery (see Figure 5 again).
Choose either Flip Vertical or Flip Horizontal (highlighted
in red, refer to Figure 5).

Figure 5: Flip options under Rotate gallery
- Figure 6 displays the selected shape flipped horizontally.

Figure 6: Shape flipped horizontally
- You can make copies of your selected shapes, and then flip them differently
to create a pattern as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Use flip to create patterns