How to select and format object in the slide with a big number of objects

PowerPoint 2016
When you create your own design on the slide, it often contains a lot of different objects such as pictures, diagrams, charts, text boxes, shapes, etc. Sometimes it is difficult to select one of the objects - it can be behind other objects, or it can be too small, etc.

PowerPoint proposes an excellent feature named Selection pane that can help navigate between different objects and groups.

To open the Selection pane:

   1.   Do one of the following:

  • On the Home tab, in the Drawing group, click Arrange:
    Arrange dropdown list in PowerPoint 365

    From the Arrange dropdown list, click Selection Pane...:

    Selection Pane in PowerPoint 365
  • On the Picture Format tab, the SmartArt Format tab, or the Chart Format tab, in the Arrange group, click the Selection Pane button:
    Selection Pane in Arrange group in PowerPoint 365

   2.   On the Selection pane, you can:

Selection Pane in PowerPoint 365
  • Up/Down buttons in Selection pane PowerPoint 365 - Drag and drop objects up and down in the list to reorder them.

    Using reordering, you really move an object forward or backward regarding other objects on the list.

  • Choose to show or hide objects from the Selection pane.

    To hide an object, click the icon on the Selection pane, indicating that the object is Showing View icon in Selection pane PowerPoint 365. The icon will change to a simple icon indicating that the object is Hidden Hidden icon in Selection pane PowerPoint 365 from view. To show the object once again, simply click the Hidden icon Hidden icon in Selection pane PowerPoint 365, and it will reappear.

  • Group or ungroup objects are listed on the Selection pane.

    You can select several objects by holding Ctrl and clicking on the objects, and then you can group them or ungroup them.

See also this tip in French: Comment sélectionner et formater un objet dans la diapositive avec un grand nombre d'objets.

Please, disable AdBlock and reload the page to continue

Today, 30% of our visitors use Ad-Block to block ads.We understand your pain with ads, but without ads, we won't be able to provide you with free content soon. If you need our content for work or study, please support our efforts and disable AdBlock for our site. As you will see, we have a lot of helpful information to share.