Adding More Guides in PowerPoint 2013 in Windows
Learn how to add more Guides in PowerPoint 2013.
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version:
Microsoft PowerPoint 2013
OS: Windows 7 and 8
Once you have made
Guides visible on your
PowerPoint slides, they show up in the same position on all other slides within the
presentation. You'll find that only two Guides -- one horizontal and one vertical Guide
are visible at first, and these two Guides intersect at the center of the slide
(see Figure 1). Most of the time, this might work for you, but you can
actually add more Guides since these can help in positioning slide objects better across
successive slides.
Figure 1: Guides on the PowerPoint slide
You typically add more Guides in PowerPoint using the drag and spawn process that we explain on this page -- additionally you can also use the new Guide options in PowerPoint 2013 to add new Guides.
Follow these steps to spawn new Guides:
- Launch
PowerPoint 2013, and
make sure that the
Guides are visible. In Figure 2 you can see an empty slide with
default Guides visible.
Figure 2: PowerPoint slide with default Guides
- It's a good idea to make the
Ruler visible
in your presentation, as you can see highlighted in red within Figure 3
-- making the rulers visible gives you a better idea of how you want to position the new
Guides.
Figure 3: Rulers made visible in PowerPoint
- Place you cursor over any of the guides (we placed the cursor
over a Vertical Guide), and click it so that it is selected -- don't let go your mouse
click yet. As long as the Guide shows digits defining its position in the cursor
(highlighted in red within Figure 4), you can be assured that it has
been selected.
Figure 4: Digits shown on the cursor
- With your hold on the cursor still active so that the Guide remains selected,
press the Ctrl key on the keyboard and drag the mouse towards right
or left of the slide to create a new Guide. You'll see a live indicator of the position
of this new Guide as you move through the digits indicator, along with a distinct plus
sign in the cursor, as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: New Guide being added
- Once you have placed the new Guide in the required position,
first release the mouse button and then the Ctrl key to place it as
a new Guide. If you release the Ctrl key first, you will end up moving
the selected Guide to the new position.
As shown in Figure 4 above, new Guide has been created 2.00 inches left of the default vertical Guide. The default vertical Guide is located at 0.00, which places it right in the center -- you can create new Guides towards both the left and right of this default Guide.
Tip: Does your new Guide show its position indicator in inches or centimeters? The unit of measurement shown for Guides is based on whatever unit your ruler shows, and cannot be changed within PowerPoint -- this setting is influenced by whatever you choose in your Windows Control Panel -- here are instructions to access these settings in different versions of Windows:Change the Unit of Measurement in Windows 8
Change the Unit of Measurement in Windows 7
- You can add as many Guides as you want both horizontally and vertically. And if you want
to delete the Guide just select it and drag it out of the
Slide area.
See Also:
Adding More Guides in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
Adding More Guides in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac
Adding More Guides in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac
Adding More Guides in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows
PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Sequences:
PowerPoint 2013, 2011, 2010, 2007 and 2003
Have your ever used keyboard shortcuts and sequences in PowerPoint? Or are you a complete keyboard aficionado? Do you want to learn about some new shortcuts? Or do you want to know if your favorite keyboard shortcuts are documented?
Go and get a copy of our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Sequences E-Book.
PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Sequences E-book
