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Resizing Shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Learn how to resize shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: PowerPoint 2011
OS: Mac OS X

Date Created: July 14th 2011
Last Updated: July 14th 2011

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.

Shape with four corner handles, four side handles, and a green rotation handles
Figure 1: Shapes with four corner handles, four side handles, and a green rotation handle -- and some of them have yellow diamonds too

These are:

Four blueish white handles on the corners -- these are round.
Four blueish white handles on the sides -- these are square.
One green rotation handle over the top-middle handle. To learn more see our Rotate Shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.
One or more yellow diamond handle -- these diamond handles do not appear on all shapes. If you look at Figure 1 below, you will notice that the shape on the left has no yellow diamond but the one on the right does. To learn more see our Manipulating Shapes by Dragging Diamonds in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.

When you drag any of the eight bluish white handles, you can resize the shape:

When you drag any of the handles inwards, you reduce the size of the shape.
When you drag any of the handles outwards, you increase the size of the shape.
To maintain the width:height proportion of the shape, hold the Shift key while you drag one of the four corner handles (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Shift drag to maintain the width:height proportion while resizing a shape.
To resize from the center of the shape rather than from a corner or side, hold the Alt (Option) key while you drag one of the four corner or side handles (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: Holding down the Option (Alt) key while dragging resizes from the center of a shape rather than from a corner or side.
To resize from the center and still maintain proportions, hold both the Shift and Alt (Option) keys while you drag one of the four corner handles (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Combine both Alt (Option) and Shift dragging options to get the best of both worlds.
To resize only one side, drag the corresponding side handle (see Figure 5).

Figure 5: Resize shape from only one side
To resize opposite sides equally, hold the Alt (Option) key while you drag a side handle (see Figure 6).

Figure 6: Resize shape equally from two sides at a time
You can also resize the 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.
- Shift+Top Arrow increases the height of the shape
- Shift+Down Arrow decrease the height of the shape
- Shift+Left Arrow decrease the width of the shape
- Shift+Right Arrow increases the width of the shape
As you resize the shape, you can see the height and the width change dynamically within the Size group of Format tab of the Ribbon. Also you can select the Lock Aspect Ratio check box (highlighted in red in Figure 7 and Figure 9) and then use the Shift key in combination with any of the arrow keys to proportionately resize the selected 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 Format tab on the Ribbon. In this tab, within the Size group (refer to Figure 7), just change the Height and the Width values to resize the shape. You can press Return key after typing in a value, or use the increase or decrease buttons provided next to the the numbers.

Figure 7: The Height and Width values within Size group

To view even more resize options, right-click the selected shape and from the resultant menu, chose the Format Shape option as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Format Shape option selected

This brings up the Format Shape dialog box (see Figure 9).

Format Shape dialog box in PowerPoint
Figure 9: Format Shape dialog box

Here, within the Size panel, you'll find these resize options:

Size and Rotate | Height: Type in or use the increase / decrease buttons to change the height of a shape.
Size and Rotate | Width: Type in or use the increase / decrease buttons to change the width of a shape.
Scale | Height: Change the height based on percentage values
Scale | Width: Change the width based on percentage values
Scale | Lock aspect ratio: Check this box (highlighted in red in Figure 9) so that any change in height reflects a proportionate change in the width, and vice versa.

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