Gridlines in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

PowerPoint's Gridlines help you position your slide objects more precisely. Along with Rulers and Guides, Gridlines let you position and snap slide objects in place so that you can easily line a set of slide objects uniformly. In this tutorial, we will learn more about how you can work effectively with gridlines.

Gridlines are intersecting parallel and vertical dotted lines displayed on the slide, forming almost a dotted graph-like mesh, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Gridlines on a slide

These gridlines do not print, nor do they show in Slide Show view. In fact, by default, these gridlines are not even visible on your slides in PowerPoint. However, when visible, they make your work easier when working with complicated slide arrangements.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to show or hide these Gridlines in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows:

1. Launch PowerPoint and open a Blank Presentation, as shown in Figure 2, below. Note that there are no gridlines visible by default.
2. 
   Figure 2: Default PowerPoint interface with no Gridlines visible
2. To enable gridlines, select the View tab of the Ribbon, and make sure you select the Gridlines check-box, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, below.
3. 
   Figure 3: Gridlines check-box selected
4. Conversely, if you want to hide gridlines again, deselect the Gridlines check-box, as shown in Figure 3, above.

   Keyboard Shortcut for Gridlines

   To turn on the visibility of the gridlines, you can use the keyboard shortcut Shift + F9. Use the same shortcut key to toggle it away.

   

   PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

   Do you want more keyboard shortcuts?

   Explore our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Sequences Ebook that is updated for all PowerPoint versions.

3. Now, you can see the gridlines displayed on the slide, as shown in Figure 4, below.
4. 
   Figure 4: Gridlines made visible on PowerPoint slide

   More Gridlines Options

   Once your gridlines are visible on the Slide Area, you can make them work for you! First, tweak the Snap to Grid settings as per your requirements, and then explore our Working with Snap to Grid tutorial.