How to Draw and Manipulate Arrows in Microsoft Powerpoint

Whether you need to point to an image or chart for emphasis, show movement, or demonstrate a process flow, PowerPoint offers a wide range of arrow shapes. Here's how to use them.

Drawing a Basic Arrow Shape

First, let's review the steps on how to draw a basic arrow. On the "Insert" tab, click the "Shapes" button. In "Lines" group on the drop-down menu, click the "Line Arrow" option.

A crosshair symbol will display. Press and hold your mouse button, then drag to draw the arrow. Release the mouse button to finish drawing the arrow.

Here's the result:

Resizing, Rotating, and Changing the Color of Arrows

Need to customize your plain looking arrow? No problem. If you don't change a thing, your arrow will default to the normal settings, which is black for the color and 3/4 pt for the width. But maybe you need a thick, short, dark red arrow, or a long, thin green arrow. You can make changes it in a snap.

Resizing an Arrow

You can change the length of your arrow by clicking and dragging the handle on either end of the arrow. If you don't want the arrow to rotate while you resize it, hold the Shift key down while clicking and dragging.

Changing the Color of an Arrow

To change an arrow's color, first, click to select the arrow. On the "Format" tab, click the "Shape Outline" button and then click the color of your choice.

Changing the Thickness of an Arrow

To change the thickness of the arrow, click the same “Shape Outline” button, point to the “Weight” menu, and then click on the thickness you want.

Rotating an Arrow

You can rotate an arrow by clicking and dragging the handle on either end of an arrow. That's the most useful option if you need to have the arrow point at a specific object in your presentation.

There are some more rotation options available, though. Select the arrow and then switch over to the "Format" tab. Click the "Rotate" button and choose a rotation option. Hovering over each option lets you preview how your arrow will look.

For even more rotation options, click the “More Rotation Options” command. In the “Size” options in the Format Shape pane, you can specify an exact rotation in degrees.