How to Use Shapes in Google Slides

A presentation would look boring if it just consisted of text. Shapes and images enhance the appearance of presentations. We explained how to use and edit images in Google Slides. In this article, you’ll learn how to work with shapes in Google Slides.

Shapes can be used to hide images, embed links, create flowcharts, and more. You can fill shapes with color, customize their borders, and more.

Let’s check out various tips for using and editing shapes in Google Slides.

Insert shapes in Google Slides

To add a shape to your Google Slide, click on the Insert option in the top bar and select Shape. Then choose a shape of your choice. Drag the mouse and draw the shape on your slide.

Advice: Press Shift while drawing a shape to maintain the proportions of the shape.

You can also add a shape directly from the menu bar. Click the Shape icon in the menu bar and select the desired shape.

Rotate, resize, and flip shapes

As with pictures, you can change the size of shapes, rotate and flip them. To resize a shape, click once on the shape and drag it using the blue boxes. Use the corner boxes to keep the aspect ratio. To rotate the shape, use the circular icon at the top of the shape and rotate it. You can also right-click the shape and select Rotate. You can choose flipping options from there.

How to add color to shapes

Click once on the shape to select it. Then click on the Fill Color option in the menu bar and choose the desired color. You can choose between solid or gradient colors.

Change the transparency of the shape

To adjust the transparency of shapes, select the shape. Click the fill color icon. In the menu that opens, click Custom.

Using the slides, adjust the transparency and press the OK button.

Advice: Find out how to add Bitmoji to Google Slides.

Customize the shape border

By default, all shapes have a small border. You can modify it by changing its style, color and weight. To do this, click once on the shape. Then use the border style options in the menu bar.

How to remove the border from the shape

If you don’t want a border for your shape, you should set the border color to Transparent. To do this, click once on the shape, then tap the border color icon in the menu bar.

Select Transparent from the menu that opens.

Format images in Google Slides

You can create beautiful and interesting slides by hiding the shaped images in Google Slides. This way your image will look like the shape you used for the masking. To do this, add an image to your slide. Then click on the image to select it. After that, click on the little arrow icon next to the Crop icon in the menu bar and select the desired shape.

Advice: Find out in detail how to fill a shape with an image in Google Slides on mobile and PC.

Rearrange shapes

When you add multiple shapes to your slides, you can organize them by placing various shapes in the foreground while keeping the others in the background. It helps to hide unnecessary parts of the shape and also makes your slide look different.

To arrange shapes, right-click the shape you want and select Order followed by the desired position.

Advice: To duplicate a shape, copy and paste it.

Group forms

If you want to perform an action (rotate, resize, move, etc.) on multiple shapes together, you need to group them. To do this, click on one of the shapes. Then, holding down the Shift key, click other shapes. Right click on any shape and select Group. Know other ways to group and ungroup items in Google Slides.

Add reflection and shadow to shapes

Like pictures, you can add highlights and shadows to shapes. To do this, right click on the shape and select Format options. In the right sidebar that opens, check the box next to Drop Shadow or Reflection and adjust the settings as needed.

Change the shape while keeping the formatting

Sometimes after you edit a shape, you need to use a different shape. Fortunately, you don’t have to start from scratch. You can change the shape while keeping the formatting intact. To do this, right click on the shape and select Edit Shape. Choose the shape you want.

Create custom shapes in Google Slides

Using the formatting options mentioned above, you can mix and match to create custom shapes of your choice. It all depends on your creativity. Tools like organization, transparency effect, resizing, etc. are useful.

However, if you want to put an image in a custom shape, this is not possible directly in Google Slides. You will need to create your shape in Google Drawings and export it as a PNG file to Google Slides.