Rulers in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

This page explores how to use the Rulers feature in Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 for Windows to position and align slide objects more effectively. You’ll learn how to display or hide the horizontal and vertical rulers, customize ruler-related settings, and understand how rulers work alongside other layout tools such as gridlines and guides. The tutorial also explains how measurement units affect ruler behavior and includes helpful shortcuts that can make slide design faster and more precise.

Why you Need Rulers?
Show and Hide Rulers

Why you Need Rulers?

When working with several slide objects in PowerPoint, things can start to feel like rearranging furniture in a crowded living room. Move one chair too far, and suddenly the whole room looks awkward! That’s why it helps to have a visual guide showing where everything is placed on the slide. Sure, PowerPoint lets you see the exact position of objects using precise coordinates, but most of the time, there’s no need to measure things like a rocket scientist preparing a spacecraft launch. Usually, an approximate placement is good enough—and that’s where the handy Rulers feature comes in.

Think of Rulers as the measuring tape taped to the edges of your slide. They help you quickly judge whether objects are lined up nicely or drifting off into the presentation wilderness. By default, these Rulers may be hidden, almost like a secret tool waiting to be discovered. Once turned on, they appear along the top and left edges of the active slide, shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Rulers in PowerPoint 2016

Rulers are not just useful for placing slide objects, but they also make other PowerPoint features like the grid and guides more useable.

Show and Hide Rulers

In this tutorial, you will learn how to show and hide Rulers in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows. You will also explore some of the settings that influence the measurement units in the rulers, as explained in the following steps:

1. Launch PowerPoint and create a Blank Presentation, as shown in Figure 2, below. By default, the Rulers are not displayed within the interface.
2. 
   Figure 2: Default PowerPoint interface with no Rulers visible
2. To display the Rulers, access the View tab of the Ribbon and enable the Ruler check-box, highlighted in red within Figure 3, below.
3. 
   Figure 3: Ruler check-box selected

   Shortcuts for Using Rulers

   To turn on the visibility of the rulers, you can use the keyboard shortcut Alt + Shift + F9. Use the same shortcut key to toggle it away. Want more keyboard shortcuts? Get a copy of our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts Ebook.

   

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3. Doing so brings up the rulers placed horizontally and vertically within the Slide Area, as shown in Figure 4, below. If you want to hide them again, deselect the Ruler check-box, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, above.
4. 
   Figure 4: Rulers made visible
4. If you see only the Horizontal Ruler and no Vertical Ruler, as shown in Figure 5, below, you need to make sure that the Vertical Ruler's visibility has not been turned off.
5. 
   Figure 5: PowerPoint interface with only Horizontal Ruler visible
5. To check these preferences, access the File menu and choose Options, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 6, below.
6. 
   Figure 6: Options within File menu
6. Doing so opens the PowerPoint Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 7, below. Make sure you choose the Advanced option within the sidebar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 7. This shows the relevant options on the right side of the dialog box, as shown in Figure 7.
7. 
   Figure 7: PowerPoint Options Dialog box
7. Now, scroll down the Display group within the PowerPoint Options dialog box, and select the Show vertical ruler check-box, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 8, below. Conversely, you can also deselect this check-box to turn off the vertical ruler.
8. 
   Figure 8: Show vertical ruler check-box selected
9. Now you will be able to see both the Vertical and Horizontal rulers, as shown in Figure 4, previously on this page.