Duplicate Shapes Using Ctrl+D in PowerPoint 2013
Learn how to duplicate shapes using the Ctrl+D command in PowerPoint 2013.
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2013
OS: Windows 7 and 8
You learned how to duplicate shapes by dragging in an earlier tutorial, but while that's a nice way to duplicate five or ten shapes, it's not the best way to create ten, twenty, or more copies. We all know that you can press Ctrl+C to copy any shape in PowerPoint to the clipboard, and a resulting Ctrl+V always pastes a copy from the clipboard to the slide -- what many people don't realize is PowerPoint has this almost supernatural keyboard shortcut called Ctrl+D (yes, the D stands for duplicate), and this Ctrl+D shortcut does more than just duplicate; in fact it creates a pattern of evenly-spaced and symmetrical shapes! Follow these steps to explore for yourself:
- Select
the shape you want to duplicate, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Select the shape
- Press Ctrl+D to create a duplicate of the selected shape. Figure 2 shows the duplicate shape created and placed overlapping the original, circle.
Figure 2: Duplicate instance of a circle created
- At this point of time, avoid using your mouse altogether. Since the duplicate shape will
be selected as soon as it was created, any nudges you make to the shape by pressing the arrow
keys on your keyboard should work. Nudge multiple times in various directions until you are
happy with the spacing between the original shape, and the duplicated one (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Adjust the placement of your duplicate shape
- Now press Ctrl+D repetitively to build the pattern. The next duplicate
shapes will retain the spacing and direction between the first two shapes, as you can see in
Figure 4.
Figure 4: Evenly-spaced duplicates are created
- You can similarly create other patterns -- in fact you can also select two or more
shapes and then cause both those shapes to create a pattern, as shown in Figure 5,
below.
Figure 5: Multiple shapes duplicated
- Save your presentation often.
See Also:
Duplicate Shapes Using Ctrl+D in PowerPoint 2016 for
Windows
Duplicate Shapes Using Command+D in PowerPoint
2011 for Mac
Duplicate Shapes Using Ctrl+D in PowerPoint 2010 for
Windows
PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Sequences:
PowerPoint 2013, 2011, 2010, 2007 and 2003
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