Learn how to resize shapes in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows. You can resize shapes by dragging, or by using keyboard shortcuts.
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint 2013 for Windows
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 and higher
Once you insert your shapes on a slide, you may realize that it's not the perfect size. Do you want it larger, or a wee bit smaller? However you want your shapes resized, it's easy to make the size change in a jiffy, right inside PowerPoint 2013 for Windows. Like most Microsoft Office programs, PowerPoint follows the concept of selection, then action—so the first thing you need to do for a shape that you want resized is to select it! Any shape that is selected shows several handles, as shown in both the shapes you see in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Shapes have several handles
Look closely at Figure 1, and you'll find that the selected shape has several handles. These are:
When you drag any of the eight white handles, you can resize the shape in various ways, depending upon certain factors, as explained below:
You can also resize the selected shape by pressing the Shift key and then pressing any of the four arrow keys on your keyboard. This option takes the center of the shape as an anchor point to resize from. Use any of following command combinations to resize the shape.
As you resize the shape, you can see the height and the width change dynamically within the Size group of Drawing Tools Format tab of the Ribbon (see Figure 7).
Figure 7: The Drawing Tools Format tab includes the Size group
Also you can check the Lock Aspect Ratio check-box in the Format Shape pane (discussed later on this page, see Figure 9), and then use Shift in combination with any of the arrow keys to proportionately resize the selected shape.
The options explained above allow you to resize based on what you see rather than resizing them to exact numerical values. To resize any shape to an exact size, you first select it. This activates the Drawing Tools Format tab on the Ribbon (see Figure 7, above). Within the Size group (highlighted in red within Figure 7, above), change the Height and the Width values to resize the shape. You must press Enter after typing in a value – you can also use the increase or decrease buttons next to the numbers to increase or decrease the value.
To view even more resize options, click the small arrow dialog launcher located at the bottom right corner of the Size group (highlighted in red within Figure 8).
Figure 8: Click the arrow dialog launcher to summon the Format Shape pane
This brings up the Format Shape pane, as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9: Format Shape pane
Make sure you select the Resize tab (highlighted in blue within Figure 9, above). Within this tab, you'll find the following options related to resizing shapes:
The other options shown in Figure 9 are not relevant to resizing shapes.
See Also:
Resizing Shapes in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
Resizing Shapes in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac
Resizing Shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac
Resizing Shapes in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows
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