Snap to Grid Settings in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Once you make Gridlines visible on your slide in PowerPoint 2016, you may wonder if there's any benefit using the Gridlines other than the obvious benefit of possessing a visual grid that lets you place slide objects? The answer can be both Yes and No. Yes because you may believe that is all that happens on the surface. Moreover, no because unless you explore how the Snap to Grid option works, you will not realize the real benefit. Worse, this incredible option is not active by default!

The Snap to Grid option helps you better position your slide objects. Additionally, you can change the grid settings, such as changing the spacing in between the gridlines.

To access the Snap to Grid option, and to make changes to the way it works, follow these steps:

1. Open a Blank Presentation in PowerPoint 2016 and make the gridlines visible. Figure 1 shows the gridlines made visible on a PowerPoint slide.
2. 
   Figure 1: Gridlines made visible on PowerPoint slide
Tip: Click the Shift+F9 shortcut key to toggle the visibility of gridlines in PowerPoint 2016. Want more keyboard shortcuts? Get a copy of our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts Ebook.
2. Now, right-click anywhere on an empty area of the slide to bring up the contextual menu that you see in Figure 2. Select the Grid and Guides option from this menu (highlighted in red within Figure 2).
3. 
   Figure 2: Grid and Guides option within contextual menu
4. Alternatively, access the View tab of the Ribbon, and click the dialog launcher button within the Show group (highlighted in red within Figure 3).
5. 
   Figure 3: Dialog launcher button within View tab
3. Either of these options summon the Grid and Guides dialog box, as shown in Figure 4.
4. 
   Figure 4: Grid and Guides dialog box
5. This dialog box includes options for working with both the grid and guides, options pertaining to the grid settings and slide object snapping are explained below:

A. Snap objects to grid

Select this check-box to snap objects to the gridlines as soon as they move fairly close to them. You can also turn on this option even without accessing the Grids and Guides dialog box by using the (Ctrl+Shift+F9) shortcut key. Turn off the option by pressing the same keyboard shortcut.

Tip: Learn more about snapping objects to the grid.

B. Spacing

Under the Grid settings section, click within the Spacing selection box to get a drop-down list (see Figure 5), and choose any of the default grid spacing values available. You can also type in the spacing value or use the up and down arrows to set the custom spacing for gridlines (highlighted in red within Figure 5).


Figure 5: Spacing drop-down list

C. Display grid on screen

Select or deselect the Display grid on screen check-box to show / hide the gridlines on the slide. You can also turn on this option even without accessing the Grids and Guides dialog box by using the Shift+F9 shortcut key. Again, this keyboard shortcut is a toggle option.

If you want these settings to be the default settings for all presentations you create, click the Set as Default button highlighted in red within Figure 4, previously on this page.

4. When done, click the OK button to apply the changes. Do remember that any changes you make in this dialog box are relevant to the active presentation.
5. Save your presentation.