Drawing Lines in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Beyond being just a program to create slides, PowerPoint is also a great illustration program with tools and options that rival top end graphic programs.

Yes, you have learned how you can use readymade shapes in PowerPoint to place rectangles, circles, and hundreds of other shapes. However, PowerPoint also has the ability to create shapes from scratch by drawing them. These drawing tools are essentially the Line shapes that can be found within the Shapes gallery. This introductory tutorial shows you how to draw a simple line on the slide; subsequently, you will learn more advanced concepts.

To draw a simple point to point line in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows, follow these steps:

1. Launch PowerPoint 2016. Most of the time, PowerPoint will open with a new slide in a presentation. You can change the slide layout to Blank by selecting the Home tab | Layout | Blank option.
2. Within the Home or Insert tab of the Ribbon, click the Shapes button to view the Shapes drop-down gallery that you can see in Figure 1. Select the Line shape (highlighted in red within Figure 1).
3. 
   Figure 1: Line shape within Shapes drop-down gallery
3. As soon as the Line shape is selected, the cursor changes to a cross hair (see Figure 2).
4. 
   Figure 2: Cross hair cursor
4. Place the cursor to establish the starting point of your line. Then hold down the primary mouse button, but don't release it yet. Drag the cursor to the point where you want the line to end. Then release the mouse button to establish the ending point of your line.
5. You'll end up drawing your first line on the slide, as shown in Figure 3. The line has handles at both ends. Any of these handles can be clicked upon and dragged to resize the line. To move the line, click on the line, away from the handles and drag to a new place.
6. 
   Figure 3: Line drawn on the slide
   Tip: Do you want your lines to be exactly horizontal, vertical, or diagonal? You can press the Shift key after you hold down the primary mouse button to draw your line in 45 degree increments.
6. Click anywhere on the slide to deselect the line.
7. Save your presentation.