Select, arrange, and align objects on a slide

Once a slide has a few objects on it, the work becomes tidying: picking several at once, moving them by exact amounts, stacking them in the right order, and lining them up. This article covers all of that. For placing and resizing a single object, see Create and edit a presentation.

Select more than one object

• Shift+click each object to add it to or remove it from the selection.
• Drag a box across an empty part of the slide to select objects. Drag left to right to catch objects fully inside the box, and right to left to also catch objects the box touches. Hold Shift while you drag to add to what you already have selected.
• Press Cmd+A (Mac) or Ctrl+A (Windows) to select every object on the slide.
• Press Esc to deselect everything.

Nudge objects with the keyboard

Select one or more objects, then use the arrow keys:

• An arrow key moves the selection 1 pixel.
• Shift with an arrow key moves it 5 pixels.

Snap to guides

When you drag an object near another object's edge or center, a guide line appears and the object snaps to it. The same happens near the slide's own edges and its horizontal and vertical center lines. Use the guides to line objects up by eye without typing exact values.

Duplicate an object

Select one or more objects, then press Cmd+D (Mac) or Ctrl+D (Windows). You can also right-click an object and choose Duplicate.

Change the stacking order

Every object sits in a stack, and the ones higher up cover the ones below. With an object selected, the properties panel on the right shows an Arrange section with four buttons. The same commands are under Order in the right-click menu:

• Bring to front (Cmd+Shift+]): move to the very top.
• Bring forward (Cmd+]): move up one step.
• Send backward (Cmd+[): move down one step.
• Send to back (Cmd+Shift+[): move to the very bottom.

On Windows, use Ctrl in place of Cmd.

Line objects up with Align

Select two or more objects and the properties panel adds an Align section. The first row lines the objects up along one edge or center:

• Align left, Align horizontal center, Align right.
• Align top, Align vertical center, Align bottom.

The second row spaces and sizes them:

• Distribute horizontally and Distribute vertically put an even gap between objects. These need three or more objects selected.
• Match width and Match height give every selected object the same width or height.

The right-click menu

Right-click an object to open its menu. The commands appear in this order:

• Cut, Copy, Paste.
• Duplicate.
• Order, which opens Bring to front, Bring forward, Send backward, and Send to back.
• Convert to shapes, when the selection is one chart. It replaces the chart with ordinary shapes and text boxes that look the same, and leaves them all selected. You can't turn them back into a chart, but undo (⌘Z, or Ctrl+Z on Windows) right after brings the chart back.
• Download original image, on an image. It saves the image file at its full size and in its own format.
• Download image, on anything but a single image. It saves the selection as an SVG picture with a transparent background, named after the presentation. A chart on its own gets a white background and its title as its name.
• Add comment, if you can comment on the presentation.
• Delete, on its own at the bottom.

Right-click an empty spot on the slide to get Paste and the slide's own commands: New slide above, New slide below, Duplicate slide, and Delete slide.

If you can only view the presentation, right-clicking an object gives you its download and nothing else: Download original image on an image, Download image on anything else.

For the full list of shortcuts, see Slides keyboard shortcuts.