Types of Shapes in PowerPoint for the Web

What does the word “shape” mean to you? Do you imagine a square, a circle, a heart, or even a smiley face? Yes, all those are shapes, as are the hundreds of other recognizable outlines or figures that we call shapes in our daily conversations. Shapes play a significant role within slides you create for your PowerPoint presentation. In more ways that you may want to count, shapes are like the building blocks of almost anything you do on your PowerPoint slides.

PowerPoint provides hundreds of shapes efficiently categorized into 8 types. You can do so much with these shapes such as formatting them with fills, lines, and effects, and even group or layers them one over the other to create more amazing graphics.

In this tutorial, we will explore the various types of shapes available within PowerPoint for the Web:

To look at these different types of shapes, choose the Insert tab (or even the Home tab) of the Ribbon and click the Shapes button to bring up a drop-down gallery, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Shapes drop-down gallery

Use the scrollbar on the right to access more Shape categories, as shown in Figure 2, below.

Figure 2: Shapes in PowerPoint

PowerPoint for the Web sorts these different shape types into eight categories, as explained below:

1. Lines

Straight and curved lines, with or without arrowheads, as shown in Figure 3, below. Also, you'll find options to create freeform paths and scribbles. In addition, lines also work as connectors, which link individual shapes and other slide objects via straight, curved, or elbow branches.

Figure 3: Lines

2. Rectangles

Other than the ubiquitous simple rectangle, PowerPoint provides several types of other rectangles including those with rounded and snipped corners, as shown in Figure 4, below.

Figure 4: Rectangles

3. Basic Shapes

Common shapes such as ovals, triangles, cubes, hearts, etc., as shown in Figure 5, below.

Figure 5: Basic Shapes

4. Block Arrows

A comprehensive assortment of arrow shapes, as shown in Figure 6, below.

Figure 6: Block Arrows

5. Equation Shapes

Common mathematical and equation symbols, as shown in Figure 7, below.

Figure 7: Equation Shapes

6. Flowchart

Several standard flowchart symbols such as Process, Decision, Data, etc. can be found within this category, as shown in Figure 8, below.

Figure 8: Flowchart

7. Stars and Banners

Stars with 4 until 32 points, explosions, scrolls, and banners, as shown in Figure 9, below.

Figure 9: Stars and Banners

8. Callouts

Provides speech and thought bubbles, and line callouts too, as shown in Figure 10, below.

Figure 10: Callouts

Other than the categories mentioned above, the Shapes drop-down gallery also includes a Shapes category right on top that lists any shapes that you use often, as shown in Figure 11, below. All these shapes are also visible in their normal location in the Shapes drop-down gallery.

Figure 11: Recently Used Shapes