Simplify Slide Layout in PowerPoint

3 Ways to Simplify Slide Layout in PowerPoint

Customizing your PowerPoint workspace is a great way to simplify your slide layout and make it easier for you to set up your presentations. There are three key tools that can improve your ability to organize your presentations and help them appear overall cleaner and clearer than they would on their own. Check out the horizontal and vertical ruler, the grid, and the guidelines. You may not use all of these elements all the time–or need all of them for any given presentation–but they will help you align objects in your slides and ensure that they look the way you intended in your finished presentation.

 

1. Ruler

Start from the View tab, then click the options. If you prefer a keyboard shortcut, Shift + Alt + F9 will also pull up the ruler option.

You have both horizontal and vertical rulers. The measurements correspond with the dimensions of the on-screen slide. 0 is used for the center point. The ruler is a very easy way to accurately position-specific items, including tables and images, that you may want to include as part of your presentation. You can change the settings on your ruler to reflect the specific measurements you want to use for your presentation.

2. Gridlines

Gridlines is also available under the view tab. Or, use Shift + F9. Gridlines appear fairly subtle but look much like graph paper on your slide. They have markers and dots that you can use to align specific objects in your presentation, which can make it easier to line up specific elements and keep your presentation looking as clean as possible.

There’s a feature called snap objects to the grid, which is turned on even if the grid is not displayed. When you move items on your slides, they will jump a little bit, moving them to specific lines on the grid. This helps keep objects neatly lined up, which can make your PowerPoint presentation appear clearer on the screen.

You can also change the spacing on your grid to ensure that it fits your specific needs. Go to the view tab, then go to the style launcher. At “Snap objects to grid,” you can change the settings on the grid to ensure that they fit your needs for a given project.

3. Guides

To make the guides clear, enable them from the View tab. You will have a vertical and horizontal line displayed on the center points of the ruler. The guides help divide your presentation slide into four obvious parts, which can help you specifically center elements of your presentation or include equal information in each quadrant. You can use the guides to easily line up many of the objects you have in your presentation, whether you want to break your presentation down into specific parts or you want to ensure that it fits specific, predetermined elements.

If you click on a guide, then hold control, you can copy and move the guide at a specific place. With this strategy, you can place objects on specific places within your slide, allowing you to more easily determine where you need to place objects in your presentation based on your specific layout needs. Those guides will also be displayed on future slides, so you can continue to use the same layout on future slides.

Using rulers, gridlines, and guides can help clean up your presentations and make them neater so that you can create the effect you really want: a clear, professional presentation that will keep the attention on your content. Looking for more tips and tricks? Contact us today to start learning how to make the most of your software.