Display and use gridlines and guides

You can use gridlines to identify the center of your slide or document and position shapes and objects more precisely.

In Excel 2007, gridlines also make it easy to enter and find data in your worksheet. And in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, you can use drawing guides to position shapes and objects on slides.

Overview of gridlines and drawing guides

Gridlines

Gridlines make it easier to align shapes and objects by giving you a visual cue in relation to the objects and the slide, document, or worksheet. In Excel 2007, the primary purpose of gridlines is to distinguish cell boundaries.

You can show or hide gridlines and you can change grid and guide settings by choosing from a range of preset measurements. Gridlines are not visible during a slide show and they do not print in a presentation or document. In Excel 2007, it is possible to print gridlines.

The drawing grid includes an option, called snap to, that aligns objects to the nearest intersection of the grid or to another object as you draw or move objects.

Tip To temporarily override the snap to options, hold down ALT while you drag the shape or object.

Drawing guides

In PowerPoint 2007, you can also use drawing guides to position shapes and objects on slides. Drawing guides can be shown or hidden, and you can add or delete guides as well. When you drag a guide, the distance to the center of the slide is shown next to the pointer. Drawing guides are not visible during a slide show and do not print in a presentation.

Use the grid to help align objects more precisely, particularly in relation to each other.

In PowerPoint 2007 use one or more guides to arrange objects evenly, with or without the grid turned on.

Display gridlines

Word

Click the shape or object in the document.
Under Drawing Tools on the Format tab, in the Arrange group, click Align , and then click View Gridlines.

If you do not see the Drawing Tools or Format tabs, make sure that you selected a shape or an object.

Notes

To display only some gridlines, after clicking Align, click Grid Settings, and then under Show grid, click the number of gridlines that you want to display in the Vertical every or Horizontal every lists.
By default, shapes and other objects snap to the nearest intersection of gridlines only if the grid is visible. You can override this by selecting the check box.

Excel

On the View tab, in the Show/Hide group, select the Gridlines check box.

PowerPoint

On the Home tab, in the Drawing group, click Arrange, point to Align , then click View Gridlines.

Tip You can also use the keyboard shortcut SHIFT+F9 to show or hide gridlines.

Display drawing guides in PowerPoint 2007

On the Home tab, in the Drawing group, click Arrange, point to Align , then click Grid Settings .

Tip You can also right-click an empty area of the slide (not a placeholder) or the margin around the slide, and then click Grid and Guides.
Under Guide settings, select the Display drawing guides on screen check box.

Notes

You can also use the keyboard shortcut ALT+F9 to show or hide the drawing guides.
To add an additional guide, press and hold CTRL while you drag the guide to a new location.
To move a guide, drag it to a new location. The distance from the center of the slide is shown when you drag a guide.
To move a guide in between gridlines, press and hold ALT while you drag the guide.
To show the distance from the current location of the guide instead of from the center of the slide, press and hold SHIFT while you drag the guide.
To delete a guide, drag it off of the slide.
To use a guide to align shapes or objects, drag a guide to where you want to align the shapes or objects, and then drag each shape or object near the guide so that its center or edge automatically aligns with the guide.