For a long time I thought the only way to align shapes or pictures in PowerPoint and other programs was to turn on the grid and painstakingly move objects to align perfectly to a gridline.  I caused myself a lot of unnecessary work that way.

PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, and Excel all have a built in Align tool.  It lets you align objects (like shapes, pictures, and other graphics) to each other, and to the slide (PowerPoint), grid (Excel), or page (Word and Outlook).

Align Objects to Each Other

  1. Select all the objects you would like to align.  (To select multiple objects:  hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and click on each object you want to select.)
  2. On the Format tab of the ribbon, click the Align button.
  3. From the drop down list, make sure that Align Selected Objects is selected.  You’ll know that it is selected because it will have an orange box with a check mark beside it.
  4. In the menu that drops down, select the direction you want to align the objects to, relative to each other.  Left, center, and right refer to how the objects will align vertically.  Top, middle, and bottom refer to the horizontal alignment.  See the top of this post for examples.
    Tip:  The illustrations on the left of each option show you how the objects will align. 

Align Objects to the Slide or Page

  1. Select all of the objects you would like to align.
  2. On the Format tab of the ribbon, click the Align button.
  3. From the drop down list, make sure that Align to Slide (or Page in Word and Outlook), is selected.  You’ll know that it is selected because it will have an orange box with a check mark beside it.
  4. In the menu that drops down, select the direction you want to align the objects to the slide.  Left, center, and right refer to how the objects will align vertically.  Top, middle, and bottom refer to the horizontal alignment.  See the top of this post for examples.
    Tip:  The illustrations on the left of each option show you how the objects will align. 

Alignment in Excel

In Excel, instead of an Align to Slide or Align to Page option, you have an Align to Grid option.  If you select Align to Grid, your shapes will snap to the gridlines of your rows and columns.