Powerpoint guides vanished

Question

Powerpoint used to have guides, horizontal and vertical, that could be grabbed and moved across the page. The guides could be used to align objects over multiple pages - very handy.

In the last version of Powerpoint these moveable guides have disappered. Now replaced with the coloured fixed guides. I've repaired 360, no change. Worse - no one seems to remember these "draggable" guides. Did I imagine the whole thing? I'm sure I used them for years.

Answer 1

You can have guides on three levels:

• on the slide
• on the layout
• on the master

Those on the slide can be moved by every user, those on layout or master can be moved only in Slide Master View.

If you only see coloured fixed guides, the creator of the template has added them to layout and/or master. If you need movable guides on slide level, right-click anywhere in an empty space on your slide and chose Grid and Guides, then you can add horizontal and/or vertical guides, which you can drag.

Answer 2

Magnus,
You did not imagine this. I have exactly the same problem as you describe.

I can create the guides ... but as soon as I drag them they fade away. It is very frustrating.

I would be interested to hear if reinstalling Office resolves the problem - as I am reluctant to do it until / unless I hear that this has worked for someone.

Many thanks

Answer 3

Hi, @Magnus Eriksson
Welcome to the Q&A Forum. My Office is Office365 for enterprise, the version number is 15028.20204(the latest version), this is my test screenshot:

I can move the horizontal and vertical guides normally. Can you provide your Office version number and test screenshots?
One way to try is to uninstall and reinstall Office and log back into your Office account.

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Answer 4

The movable guides in PowerPoint have not disappeared. They can still be added and moved on individual slides. However, the default behavior has changed. In previous versions of PowerPoint, the movable guides were automatically added to new slides. In newer versions of PowerPoint, you need to manually add the movable guides to each slide.

To add a movable guide to a slide:

Right-click on the slide background.

Select Grid and Guides.

Select Add Vertical Guide or Add Horizontal Guide.

Once you have added a movable guide, you can drag it to the desired position on the slide.

If you are only seeing colored fixed guides, the creator of the template has added them to the layout and/or master. To add movable guides to a slide with colored fixed guides, follow the steps above.

Here are some additional tips for using movable guides in PowerPoint:

To move a movable guide, hover your mouse over the guide and drag it to the desired position.

To duplicate a movable guide, hold down the Ctrl key and drag the guide to a new location.

To delete a movable guide, right-click on the guide and select Delete.

If you are still having trouble with movable guides, try the following:

Restart PowerPoint.

Repair your Office installation.

Uninstall and reinstall Office.

If you are still having trouble after trying all of the above, contact Microsoft support for assistance.

Regards,

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