Ever notice how one crooked text box can ruin an otherwise solid presentation? Your message is clear, your delivery confident, but your audience’s eyes start twitching because the slides look lopsided and haphazard.
If your text and objects aren’t lined up to look deliberately placed, they will take away from your presentation and undermine your credibility. Aligning your slide objects creates a professional look that keeps your audience focused on your message, not distracted by your disorganized slides.
Typically, in Microsoft PowerPoint, to access the alignment commands, you have to select Arrange > Align and then select the type of alignment you want. Depending on the number of objects and slides, this can be a tedious and time-consuming process.
But did you know that you could make this process faster and easier by adding the alignment commands directly to the Home tab?
Let’s learn how to customize the ribbon so you can align objects with fewer clicks.
Create a new group and add commands to it
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Open your Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
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Right-click anywhere on the ribbon and select Customize the Ribbon.
The PowerPoint Options dialog box will open with Customize Ribbon selected. We are going to create a new group on the Home tab for our alignment commands.
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In the Customize the Ribbon list on the right, ensure Main Tabs is selected in the drop-down list, then select Home and click New Group.
A group named New Group (Custom) will appear at the bottom of the list under Home.
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With New Group (Custom) already selected, click Rename. In the Display name: field, enter Align. Click OK. The group will appear in the list as Align (Custom).
Now you are ready to add commands to your group.
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With Align (Custom) already selected, expand the Choose commands from: drop-down list and select All Commands.
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Scroll down the list until you see Align [Align Objects]. Select it and click Add >>. You’ll see the command appear under your new group.
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Click OK.
Now you have a new group on your Home tab that allows you to align objects more efficiently.
If you don’t want the Align group at the far-right end of the ribbon, you can move it.
Change a group’s placement on the ribbon
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Right-click and select Customize the Ribbon.
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Select the Align (Custom) group and drag it where you want it to appear in the list. I placed mine after the Drawing group.
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Click OK.
If you’re someone who finds slide object alignment challenging, I recommend making the alignment tools more accessible on your Home tab. It will save you time and you’ll create more polished and professional presentations.
