Learn how to resize shapes in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows. You can resize shapes by dragging, or by using keyboard shortcuts.
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint 2010 for Windows
OS: Microsoft Windows XP and higher
Shapes in PowerPoint can be formatted in various ways: you can change their fills, lines, and effects. Also you can resize them, as you will learn in this tutorial. PowerPoint, like most Microsoft Office programs follows the concept of selection, then action. Any shape that is selected shows several handles, as shown in both the shapes in Figure 1. These are:
Figure 1: Shapes have several handles, and green rotation handle
When you drag any of the eight blueish white handles, you can resize the shape:
The options shown 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). Within the Size group (highlighted in red, refer to Figure 7), just change the Height and the Width values to resize the shape. You can press Enter after typing in a value, or use the increase or decrease buttons next to the numbers provided.
Figure 7: Drawing Tools Format tab activated on the Ribbon in PowerPoint
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 in Figure 8).
Figure 8: Click the arrow dialog launcher to summon the Format Shape dialog box
This brings up the Format Shape dialog box (see Figure 9). Within the Size tab you'll find these resize options:
See Also:
Resizing Shapes in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
Resizing Shapes in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac
Resizing Shapes in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows
Resizing Shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac
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