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Manipulating Shapes by Dragging Diamonds in PowerPoint 2010

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: PowerPoint 2010

Date Created: January 3rd 2011
Last Updated: January 3rd 2011


Excerpt/Capsule: Learn about the special diamond handles, and how they allow you to manipulate shapes in PowerPoint 2010.


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PowerPoint provides different types of shapes, which can be formatted by resizing, rotating, etc. When you select most shapes, you get eight resizing handles and a single rotation handle. In addition, some shapes also have one or more yellow diamonds -- these enable you to change some facets of the selected shape, or in some cases you can change the entire shape. Figure 1 shows a Hexagon with one yellow diamond and a U-turn arrow with five yellow diamonds.
Hexagon with one yellow diamond and U-turn Arrow with five yellow diamonds
Figure 1: The Hexagon has one yellow diamond and the U-turn arrow has five of them

Note: Some shapes such as the line, the oval, and the rectangle may have no diamonds.

By dragging the yellow diamond you can do perform simple changes in the structure of the shape, such as increase/decrease the roundness of a rounded rectangle. Some shapes show more changes -- the following section includes examples of how dragging the yellow diamond can change a shape into two completely different forms.

Dragging the diamond of a Hexagon shape from right to left gives you almost a rectangle, and if the diamond is dragged from left to right it changes the shape into a diamond, as shown in Figure 2.

A Hexagone is almost changed to rectangle and diamond
Figure 2: A Hexagon can be changed to both a rectangle and a diamond

Dragging the diamond of the 7 pointed Star towards the center makes the star more acute and pointed, and dragging the diamond outwards makes the star look almost like an oval (see Figure 3).

A 7 pointed star is changed into various shape
Figure 3: A 7 pointed star gets more pronounced and blurred

By dragging the five yellow diamonds on a U-turn arrow, you can adjust almost every characteristic of the arrow, as shown in Figure 4. Most of the arrow shapes comprise more than one diamond, which alter the arrowhead, lines, curves, etc.

An Arrow’s line, curve and arrowhead are altered
Figure 4: A U-turn Arrow with a modified curve and arrowhead

As you can see in Figure 5 below, a Smiley Face shape can be changed to a straight face or a sad face by merely dragging the yellow diamond on its lip.

An Arrow’s line, curve and arrowhead are altered
Figure 5: Smiley Face shape is changed to a straight face and sad face by dragging the yellow diamond






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