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.

Figure 1: Shapes have several handles, and green rotation handle
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 Formattab 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 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).

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.
This is the original page. An AMP (Accelerated Mobile Page) version of this page is also available for those on mobile platforms, at Resizing Shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.