Gridlines On Powerpoint For Mac 2011

 



Guides form a moveable grid on your slide that can be altered. Multiple guides can be added or deleted as per the designrequirements of your slide. We have already explained how you can makeguides visible on your PowerPoint slide, and howyou can add multiple guides.Guides have snap options turned on by default. So you cannot turn snapping to guides on or off. Once the guides are made visibleon the slide, all objects that venture close enough to them snap. Along withrulers, guides can help you position your slide objectswith more precision.

Follow these steps to learn how you can work effectively with Static guides:

Microsoft seems to have beaten Apple in the manner Powerpoint visually shows object layers and allows their manipulaiton. Is it possible to insert GRIDLINES (not guidelines) in PowerPoint 2011? If so, how can this be done? Edit: I'm looking for gridlines, as outlined in this post. Mac Powerpoint 2011 “play” presentation w/out full screen? Is it possible to stream a YouTube video in Powerpoint for Mac 2011?

  1. Make sure that your Static guides are visible.If not, you can use the Ctrl+Option+Command+G shortcut keysto turn them on (and toggle them off). Other than the two default horizontal and vertical Static guides, go ahead and add twomore guides as shown in Figure 1. To learn how you can add additional guides, refer to ourAdding More Guides in PowerPoint 2011 forMac tutorial.

  2. Figure 1: PowerPoint Slide with multiple guides
  3. Place a shape (any shape) on your slide.In this example we placed a rectangle and applied it with apicture fill, as shownin Figure 2.

  4. Figure 2: A rectangle with picture fill
  5. On the second slide, we placed another rectangle with the width and height dimensions different from the width and heightdimensions of rectangle on our first slide (see Figure 3). This again has a picture fill and the guide helped usanchor the bottom left position of this rectangle to exactly match the bottom left position of the rectangle in the previousslide (compare Figures 2 and 3).

  6. Figure 3: Rectangle with different width and height on slide 2
  7. We were able to position the bottom left of both picture filled rectangles on successive slides identically because we movedthese shapes close to the guides. As soon as they were fairly close to the guides where we needed to position them, they justsnapped!
  8. Save your presentation often.

As we explored in our earlier Chart Gridlinesin PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial, PowerPoint 2011 only shows Horizontal MajorGridlines on the chart, as shown in Figure 1, below. Yes, you can enable Vertical Gridlines too, and more importantly you can formatthese Gridlines to appear exactly as you want them to show. In this tutorial, we will look at these format options.
Figure 1: Chart showing default status of Gridlines

2011Mac

Both the Horizontal and Vertical Gridlines contain two sets of Gridlines: Major and Minor asexplained in our Chart Gridlines in PowerPoint2011 for Mac tutorial. By default, all Gridlines may be grey in color and possess a predefined weight (thickness). You can change their colorand weight, and also add arrow-heads to their edges. Also, you can add effects such as Shadows, Glows, andSoft Edges. Follow these steps to learn more:

Gridlines On Powerpoint For Mac 2011 Version

  1. Select the chart that you want to format the Gridlines for. If you don't have a chart,insert a chart.
  2. Now, select either the Chart Layout or the Format tab of theRibbon. Both of these tabs contain the Current Selectiongroup that you can see in Figure 2 towards the extreme left. Within this group, you can see the Chart Elementsselection box (highlighted in red within Figure 2). This selection box contains a list ofelements in the selected chart. Within this list, click onthe name of the Gridline that you want to format. In Figure 2 you can see the Vertical (Value) Axis Major Gridlinesoption selected. Now you can see a tick mark prefixed to this option, as shown in Figure 2 to indicate its selected status.
    Figure 2: Vertical (Value) Axis Major Gridlines option selected
    Below this Current Selection list is the Format Selection button, as shown highlighted inred within Figure 3. Click this button.
    Figure 3: Format Selection button
    Alternatively, carefully right-click (or Ctrl+click) a Gridline, from the contextual menu that appears, selectthe Format Gridlines option as shown in Figure 4.
    Figure 4: Format Gridlines option selected
  3. Either way, you summon the Format Gridlines dialog box, as shown in Figure 5.
    Figure 5: Format Gridlines dialog box
    In this dialog box, the options within the sidebar help you to format the Gridlines. Let us explore each of them as marked inFigure 5, above. For more information on each of these options, refer to the tutorials linked. Even though theselinked tutorials are related to Shapes, the same techniques work with Gridlines too:

    A. Line

    Selecting this option will bring up three tabs, Solid, Gradient, andWeight & Arrow as shown highlighted in red within Figure 5, above. With the helpof options within these tabs you can:
    • Change the color of the Gridlines.
    • Apply Gradient fill for Gridlines.
    • Change the thickness of the Gridlines and add arrow heads to them.
    Get more info on how to add and edit lines in ourFormatting Lines (and Shape Outlines) inPowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.

    B. Shadow

    Adds a shadow effect to the Gridlines. When you select this option, initially you will see that alloptions are greyed out except the Shadow check-box, select this check-box as shown highlighted in redwithin Figure 6 to activate all options, so that you can add a shadow to the Gridlines and format it as required.
    Figure 6: Shadow options within the Format Gridlines dialog box
    Learn more about the Shadow options in our Advanced Shadow Effect Options inPowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.

    C. Glow & Soft Edges

    Glow effect adds a nice halo around the selected Gridlines whereas Soft Edges effectadds an eaten-up, feathered edge to the Gridlines. Select any of the options that you can see in Figure 7,as required.
    Figure 7: Glow & Soft Edges options within the Format Gridlines dialog box
    Get more info on how toApply Glow Effects to Shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac andApply Soft-Edges to Shapes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
  4. Select the required options and format the Gridlines as required. In Figure 8, you can see our samplechart with formatted Gridlines, notice that we have also added arrow-heads to Gridlines (compare with the chart in Figure1).
    Figure 8: Chart with formatted Gridlines
  5. Save your presentation often.

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See Also: More Gridline Options for Charts in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows