How to Wrap Text in PowerPoint

When it comes to PowerPoint presentations, visuals are everything. Having your text and images laid out properly is crucial to getting your point across quickly and effectively.

Yet, aligning and wrapping your text around objects in PowerPoint isn’t as easy as it sounds.

But don’t worry! We have a few tips to help you wrap text in PowerPoint perfectly. 

How to wrap text around a shape in PowerPoint

The easiest way to wrap text around a shape is to do it manually. This can be a great approach for educational material, as students respond well to visual learning material, which means pairing objects and images with explanatory text. 

Apply the following steps to irregular shapes to frame text around the shape line by line, mimicking a text wrap in PowerPoint.

Manually wrap text as follows:

1. Right-click on the shape (object) in PowerPoint. 

2. Select Send to Back. 

3. Go to Insert > Text Box and add a text box next to the object.

4. Type text anywhere in the text box. As you go, use the space bar or the back key on the keyboard as many times as you need to move the text so it is flush to the shape.

5. Repeat step 4 for each line of text you need.

How to wrap text around a table in PowerPoint

In some cases, you may need slides that summarize numbers and data in tables. Looking to add a footnote, citation, or commentary about your table? Or maybe you want to surround the table with a short paragraph of summary text? 

To quickly wrap your text around a table:

• Use a wide text box to wrap text above and under the table.
• Use a narrow box to place text on the left and right side of the table.

To wrap text around table shapes, drag the text box and align your text by pressing the space bar or back key on the keyboard.

Change the size of the text box by dragging it left or right, up, or down. Text boxes can wrap text inside the box by default in newer versions of PowerPoint, so you don’t have to worry about aligning text in text boxes.

How to wrap text in a PowerPoint text box

In newer versions of PowerPoint, the Wrap text in shape option is enabled by default. You can customize how text is wrapped in PowerPoint by adjusting the settings for text boxes:

1. Insert a text box from the Insert menu.

2. Right click on the box and select Format Shape.

3. Click on the Size and Properties icon in the side panel. Under the Text Box section, you can customize a number of formatting options. 

How to wrap text around an image in PowerPoint

When you insert an image in PowerPoint presentation, it might overlap your text. To fix this and wrap text around an image in PowerPoint, press Shift - ENTER to add a line break in the text box.

This prevents text from overlapping the image. Use this tip when you need to properly lay out images and photos with descriptions, whether it be for your research presentation in class or polishing off a digital photo album of your last vacation. If text still overlaps, press the Enter key for each new line you need.

How to wrap text in a chart in PowerPoint

If you’re pitching a business idea to a professional audience with your slides, your presentation will undoubtedly include a chart or two to visually summarize statistics, trends, or projected sales.

However, PowerPoint automatically wraps text on the chart. If your chart has longer text, let’s say more than 2 words, you may want to consider the orientation of the text to make it more legible.

You can change the formatting and orientation of the text by right-clicking on the label area and selecting Format Axis. In the side panel, you can optimize the text direction by going into the Text Options > Textbox sections.

Another solution is to manually create your own text boxes for each label and format the text using the tips in the above sections.

Optimize Mac presentations for Windows PowerPoint

If you want to optimize your presentation, but keep the same format, keep the following in mind:

• Use fonts that are standard on both operating systems.
• Avoid importing wrapped text from Word - it won’t work. If you need to import Word document content, don’t embed the content. Instead, use hyperlinks to link to the document.
• If you are wrapping text around images, use standard images – PNG and JPG.
• Avoid spacing text tightly because differences in font rendering may add an extra line to your text box.

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