Create shadow border on PowerPoint shape – How-to

How-to create shadow border on a PowerPoint shape

This quick how-to lesson shows you how to create shadow border on PowerPoint (or PPT) shape.

For the purpose of this tutorial, we are using PowerPoint for Windows, with a personal computer keyboard.

The steps

Firstly, start PPT and make sure a document is open.

1. From the menu bar, click Insert.
2. Under the Insert ribbon, select Shapes from the Illustrations group.
3. Pick a shape from the shapes drop-down box and click in a blank space on your PPT page.

As a result, your shape is added to your PPT page. On our side, we chose the rectangular shape and made the fill color a light blue.

4. Right-click on your shape. Or, click on your shape and press keyboard shortcut Shift + F10. This will display the shortcut menu.
5. Under the shortcut menu, select Format Shape…

The Format Shape dialog box opens.

6. In the Format Shape dialog box, click Shape Options.
7. Select Effects icon, under Shape Options.
8. Click Shadow drop-down and click the Shadow icon. A drop-down box appears.
9. Finally, select the Offest: Left option for your shadow.

As a result, your shape now has a shadow on it.

Click on your shape and look on the specs for the Shadow. So, to make this a shadow border, we have to change some of the specs.

With your shape selected, make the following changes to the shadow specs.

10. Change the Transparency to 0%.
11. For Size, keep it at 100%.
12. Make the Blur 0 pt.
13. Update the Distance to 3 pt.

Of course, you can experiment with the specs.

Since we have a light blue fill color for our shape, it would look great to have a dark blue shadow border.

Select on your shape and return to the Shadow drop-down specs.

14. Click on the Shadow Color icon. The color group opens.
15. Select a color from the color group.

That is it! Your shadow box is good-to-go.

Success!

So, were you success in completing this task? If not, then take another shot at it.

Note: This is still a regular PPT shape. When you resize it, the border remains intact, same size.

Additionally, you can play around with the shadow border. For example, put it on top, bottom, or combine horizontal and vertical shadow borders.

Examples of shadow borders

Below are examples of shadow borders. Overall, they look great!

If you copy the shape and try to change the shadow border, then you will have to change the specs again. Including the shadow type.

Related

• Break apart a SVG image in PowerPoint – How-to
• Bring a SVG file into PowerPoint – How-to video
• Quickly rotate an object in PowerPoint – How-to

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