Add, change, or delete shapes

You can add one shape to your Microsoft Office system document or combine multiple shapes to make a drawing or a more complex shape. Available shapes include lines, basic geometric shapes, arrows, equation shapes, flowchart shapes, stars, banners, and callouts.

After you add one or more shapes, you can add text, bullets, numbering, and Quick Styles to them.What do you want to do?

Add a shape to your document

Add multiple shapes to your document

Add text to a shape

Add a bulleted or numbered list to a shape

Add a Quick Style to a shape

Delete a shape from your document

Add a shape to your document

For these Office release programs: Excel and PowerPoint

1. Do one of the following:
   • For Office Excel, on the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Shapes.

     

   • For Office PowerPoint, on the Home tab, in the Drawing group, click Shapes.

     

2. Click the shape that you want, click anywhere in the document, and then drag to place the shape.

   To create a perfect square or circle (or constrain the dimensions of other shapes), press and hold SHIFT while you drag.

Tip You can add individual shapes to a chart or add shapes on top of a SmartArt graphic to customize the chart or SmartArt graphic.

For these Office release programs: Outlook and Word

1. Insert a drawing canvas. On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Shapes, and then click New Drawing Canvas.

   

2. Under Drawing Tools, on the Format tab, in the Insert Shapes group, click the More button .
3. Click the shape that you want, click anywhere in the document, and then drag to place the shape.

   To create a perfect square or circle (or constrain the dimensions of other shapes), press and hold SHIFT while you drag.

Tip You can add individual shapes to a chart or add shapes on top of a SmartArt graphic to customize the chart or SmartArt graphic.

For Office Publisher

1. On the Objects toolbar, do one of the following:
   • To add a predefined AutoShape, such as a star or diamond, click AutoShapes , point to a category, and then click the shape you want.
   • To add a circle or a square, click Oval or Rectangle .
2. Drag until the shape is the size that you want.

   To create a perfect square or circle (or constrain the dimensions of other shapes), press and hold SHIFT while you drag.

   Note To add a shape with a predefined size, click the place that you want to insert the shape.

Add multiple shapes to your document

For these Office release programs: Excel and PowerPoint

Instead of adding individual shapes to create a drawing, you may want to create a SmartArt graphic. In a SmartArt graphic, the arrangement of the shapes and the amount of text within those shapes is updated automatically as you add or remove shapes and edit your text. You can always add a shape to a SmartArt graphic or replace a shape if none of the layouts are exactly right for you.

1. Do one of the following:
   • For Office Excel, on the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Shapes.

     

   • For Office PowerPoint, on the Home tab, in the Drawing group, click Shapes.

     

2. Right-click the shape that you want to add, and then click Lock Drawing Mode.
3. Click anywhere in the document, and then drag to place the shape. Repeat this for each shape that you want to add.

   To create a perfect square or circle (or constrain the dimensions of other shapes), press and hold SHIFT while you drag.

4. After you add all of the shapes that you want, press ESC.

For these Office release programs: Outlook and Word

Instead of adding individual shapes to create a drawing, you may want to create a SmartArt graphic. In a SmartArt graphic, the arrangement of the shapes and the amount of text within those shapes is updated automatically as you add or remove shapes and edit your text. You can always add a shape to a SmartArt graphic or replace a shape if none of the layouts are exactly right for you.

1. Insert a drawing canvas. On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Shapes, and then click New Drawing Canvas.

   

2. Under Drawing Tools, on the Format tab, in the Insert Shapes group, click the More button .
3. Right-click the shape that you want to add, and then click Lock Drawing Mode.
4. Click anywhere in the document, and then drag to place the shape. Repeat this for each shape that you want to add.

   To create a perfect square or circle (or constrain the dimensions of other shapes), press and hold SHIFT while you drag.

5. After you add all of the shapes that you want, press ESC.

For Office Publisher

1. On the Objects toolbar, click AutoShape .
2. Point to a category, point to the dotted line, and then drag to make the menu float.
3. Click the shape that you want to insert, and then drag until the shape is the size that you want. Repeat this step for each shape that you want to add.
4. After you add all of the shapes that you want, press ESC.

Add text to a shape

• Do one of the following:
  • For Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Office Word, right-click the shape that you want to add text to, click Add Text, and then type your text.
  • For Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, and Microsoft Office Publisher, click the shape that you want to add text to, and then type your text.

Notes:

• To resize the shape, click it, and then drag its sizing handles .
• The text that you add becomes part of the shape - if you rotate or flip the shape, the text rotates or flips also.

Add a bulleted or numbered list to a shape

For these Office release programs: Excel and PowerPoint

1. Select the text in the shape that you want to add bullets or numbering to.
2. On the Mini toolbar, click the arrow next to Bullets and Numbering, and then click Bullets and Numbering.
3. Do one of the following:
   • To add bullets, click the Bulleted tab, and then choose the options that you want.
   • To add numbering, click the Numbered tab, and then choose the options that you want.

For these Office release programs: Outlook and Word

1. Select the text in the shape that you want to add bullets or numbering to.
2. Do one of the following:
   • For Office Word, on the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click one of the following:

     

   • For Office Outlook, on the Message tab, in the Basic Text group, click one of the following:

     

3. • To add bullets, click the arrow next to Bullets, and then choose the options that you want.
   • To add numbering, click the arrow next to Numbering, and then choose the options that you want.

For Office Publisher

1. Select the text in the shape that you want to add bullets or numbering to.
2. On the Formatting toolbar, click one of the following:
   • To add bullets, click Bullets .
   • To add numbering, click Numbering .

Add a Quick Style to a shape

Important Quick Styles are available only in these Office release programs: Excel, Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint.

Quick Styles are combinations of different formatting options that are displayed in a thumbnail in the Quick Style gallery in the Shape Styles group. When you place your pointer over a Quick Style thumbnail, you can see how the Shape Style (or Quick Style) affects your shape.

1. Click the shape that you want to apply a new or different Quick Style to.
2. Under Drawing Tools, on the Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, click the Quick Style that you want.

   To see more Quick Styles, click the More button .

Tip You can also add a fill or effect to your shape.

Delete a shape from your document

• Click the shape that you want to delete, and then press DELETE.

See also:

• Add or delete a shape fill or shape effect