PowerPoint Tips Blog

Helping you with presenting, PowerPoint, and speaking

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Tips
  • E-Store
  • Training
  • About
  • Affiliates
  • Advertise
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Design / Shapes & text boxes / 3 ways to make objects equidistant in PowerPoint

3 ways to make objects equidistant in PowerPoint

April 15, 2013 by Ellen Finkelstein 15 Comments

READ LATER - DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS PDF >> CLICK HERE <<

Any time you have 3 or more similar objects on a slide, you may want to make them equidistant.

powerpoint-tips-make-objects-equidistant-1

PowerPoint offers 3 separate ways to create equidistant objects.

1. Duplicate, place, duplicate

This method is so easy, yet many people don’t know about it. I used it for the above slide. Here are the steps:

  1. Create an object.
  2. Select the object and press Ctrl + D. PowerPoint duplicates the original object and offsets the 2nd object slightly in both the X and Y directions.
  3. Move the 2nd object into place by dragging it or using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Make sure you get it exactly the way you want it. Don’t do any other action on the slide.
  4. Press Ctrl + D again as many times as you want. PowerPoint remembers the distance and direction between the first 2 objects and creates a perfect line of objects for you!

2. Distribute horizontally or vertically

If you already have the objects created but they are not equidistant, you can use this method. Follow these steps:

  1. Select all of the objects. To select multiple objects, click and drag a selection box around them or click one, then press Ctrl or Shift as you click the rest.
  2. On the Format tab, click Align in the Arrange group and then choose Distribute Horizontally or Distribute Vertically, depending on your needs.

powerpoint-tips-make-objects-equidistant-23. Use Equidistance markers in PowerPoint 2013

A new feature in PowerPoint 2013 is equidistance markers. PowerPoint 2010 has alignment markers, but not equidistance markers. Here’s how equidistance markers work:

  1. Create 3 objects.
  2. Set the distance of the 1st two  objects by moving the 2nd object to the desired location.
  3. To make the 3rd  object equidistant to the 1st two, drag it until you see the equidistance markers.

powerpoint-tips-make-objects-equidistant-3

Now you have no more excuses for sloppy slides with objects that aren’t exactly equidistant!

 

“101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know” is for everyone who never took a course or read a book about PowerPoint! These tips will fill in the gaps, speed up your work, make presentations easier, and help you get better results. Now updated through PowerPoint 2016 and Office 365. Learn more at http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/101-tips/

Share5
Tweet
Share8
+12
Shares 15
READ LATER - DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS PDF >> CLICK HERE <<

Related posts:

  1. Space objects equidistant from each other
  2. Reorder objects in the Selection pane in PowerPoint 2013
  3. Cycle through overlapping objects to select them
  4. Nudging Objects Slightly

Filed Under: Shapes & text boxes, Slide layout Tagged With: alignment, equisistant

15
Leave a Reply

avatar
This comment form is under antispam protection
13 Comment threads
2 Thread replies
0 Followers
 
Most reacted comment
Hottest comment thread
6 Comment authors
ThiagoDharmeswaranEllen FinkelsteinRobert LandleyDan Allen Recent comment authors
avatar
This comment form is under antispam protection
  Subscribe  
newest oldest most voted
Notify of
Jorge
Guest
Jorge

I´m sorry, this tip does not work in my Spanish PP.
Help didn´t help me, either…
Is there some equivalente Ctrl-something that could work?

Vote Up0Vote Down 
9 years ago
Ellen Finkelstein
Guest
Ellen Finkelstein

Hmmm, do you mean that Ctrl+D doesn’t duplicate objects?
See if this works:
Hold down Ctrl and drag to the desired location. Then press F4. it worked for me.

Vote Up0Vote Down 
9 years ago
Jorge
Guest
Jorge

Thanks a lot…. It worked fine.
I shall be looking for new tips.

Vote Up0Vote Down 
9 years ago
Dan Allen
Guest
Dan Allen

Office for Mac 2016 distributes evenly across a whole slide, but not within a portion of a slide. The way used work was great; Powerpoint would distribute evenly between the outer two selected objects. The procedure was to position the leftmost and rightmost for horizontal distribution objects where you wanted them (or top and bottom objects if you were distributing vertically), then select all the objects you want to distribute, run the distribute option and it always came out perfect. Now, it ignores the positions of the objects on the ends and distributes across the whole slide. I have seen… Read more »

Vote Up0Vote Down 
6 years ago
Robert Landley
Guest
Robert Landley

I have an HP computer running Windows 10 and Office 2016, not a MAC, and I have the same problem as Dan Allen. When I use “Distribute Vertically” my objects (often times they are lines) are distributed evenly top to bottom on the page, not between the highest and lowest object. I often do not know how many lines I will have before I’m finished, so the Ctrl+D option is not appropriate for my work. If you know how many objects you will have, and know the spacing that will make them evenly distributed, then maybe Ctrl+D would be appropriate,… Read more »

Vote Up0Vote Down 
6 years ago
Ellen Finkelstein
Guest
Ellen Finkelstein

Robert, when you click the Align drop-down, is Align to Slide checked? If it is, that’s why you’re getting that behavior. Instead, click Align Selected Objects and see if you get what you want. See the image here…If Align to Slide is checked, the objects are distributed over the height or length of the slide

Vote Up0Vote Down 
6 years ago
Dharmeswaran
Guest
Dharmeswaran

It’s really amazing. (It’s about Ctrl + D with equal distance)

I am using Windows 7 and Office 2017.

as in- 3. Use Equidistant markers in PowerPoint 2013.

I am not getting neither equidistant marker nor alignment marker. What should I Do?

Vote Up0Vote Down 
5 years ago
Thiago
Guest
Thiago

Thank you so much! For me the second option was better.

Vote Up0Vote Down 
4 years ago
trackback
How do I align images evenly in PowerPoint?

[…] Reference 2 […]

Vote Up0Vote Down 
7 months ago
trackback
Can you have vertical and horizontal slides in PowerPoint?

[…] Reference 3 […]

Vote Up0Vote Down 
7 months ago
trackback
How do you distribute a shape vertically and horizontally?

[…] Reference 3 […]

Vote Up0Vote Down 
7 months ago
trackback
How do you center horizontally in PowerPoint?

[…] Reference 3 […]

Vote Up0Vote Down 
7 months ago
trackback
How do you align spaces between objects in PowerPoint?

[…] Reference 2 […]

Vote Up0Vote Down 
6 months ago
trackback
How do you evenly space an object?

[…] Reference 2 […]

Vote Up0Vote Down 
6 months ago
trackback
How do you distribute shapes horizontally on the right side in PowerPoint?

[…] Reference 3 […]

Vote Up0Vote Down 
5 months ago
wpdiscuz   wpDiscuz

Free Video Training!

13 Techniques that Will Make Designing Your Slides EASY!

And get the PowerPoint Tips Newsletter with tips and resources for presenters. Plus 5 bonus tips!

BirdSend Email Marketing Tool
4-up-ads PresenterMedia PoweredTemplate High-Persuasion Secrets Power Pointers Quarter Hour


Recent Posts

Recent Posts

  • How do you format your slide titles?
  • Using PowerPoint’s cartoon people
  • Which version of PowerPoint should you buy?
  • Add a customizable, live web feed with Cameo
  • Get a designer look with abstract images to create backgrounds for slides and shapes

Connect with me!

Connect with me! Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Ellen Finkelstein, Inc. · Fairfield, IA · Tel: 515-989-1832

Privacy, Refund, and Other Legal Stuff

wpDiscuz