Reference guide.

Quickly create a perpendicular arrow – Quick tip

This quick tip shows you how to quickly create a perpendicular arrow in PowerPoint.

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Right-click note

In part of this lesson, you may see the term right-click. When we say right-click, we simply want you to click the button on the right side of the mouse.

If you do not have a right mouse button, then you can generally use a regular click (left-side) and press the keyboard shortcut Shift-F10.

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For the purpose of this lesson, we suggest you use PowerPoint 2007 or higher or compatible.

How to quickly create a perpendicular arrow in PowerPoint

Follow the steps below to create a perpendicular arrow in PowerPoint.

Create a rectangle

1. Click Insert from the main menu.
2. Select Shapes from the Illustrations group.
3. Click the Rectangle icon from the Rectangles group, and click on the PowerPoint slide.

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A box is now on your slide like the one below.

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Your box may look different than ours. That is okay.

So, we now want to add a border to the box and remove the fill color.

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Add a border and remove the fill color

4. Click on the box.
5. Go to the Home ribbon.
6. Under the Drawing group, select Shape Outline. Note: The Drawing group is usually on the far right of the Home ribbon.
7. Under the color options, select a color.

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You now have a border around your box.

Now, follow the same procedure to remove the fill. Except, this time for step 6, select Shape Fill, and choose No fill.

After that, your box is just an outline like ours.

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Next, we will open up this box, delete some nodes, and add the arrows.

Open up the box

8. Using your mouse, right-click on your box to display a shortcut menu.
   Note: If you cannot right-click, then you can click on the box and press Shift-F10 (Shift key, function key 10). Basically, you want to display the shortcut menu for your selected box.
9. From the shortcut menu, select Edit Points.

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Your rectangle now has four little black boxes on each corner. We call those nodes.

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10. Right-click on one of the nodes. We chose the one on the upper righthand corner.
11. Select Open Path from the shortcut menu.

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Your box is now open.

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Delete the open points

12. Right-click on one of the open nodes.
13. Select Delete Point from the shortcut menu.

Repeat steps 12 and 13 for the other node.

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Are we there yet? Not quite. However, we now have perpendicular lines.

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Show some arrow heads

14. Click on the perpendicular line shape.
15. In the Home ribbon, select Shape Outline from the Drawing group.
16. Select Arrows from the drop-down menu.
17. From the Arrows menu, choose the double arrows option.

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Success!

Finally, we done it! How do you like that?

On the whole, this shape still functions as any other shape. Meaning, you can change the color, line thickness, rotation, etc.

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Additional resources

• Change a shape to another shape

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Quickly create a perpendicular arrow in PowerPoint
by Excel Effects :: October 20, 2020

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