How to lock the position of an object in Microsoft PowerPoint

Have you ever accidentally moved an item in your slide and then had to spend a lot of time moving it back into place?

In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can lock an object in place when needed, avoiding clutter and unintentional shifting. Learn how to do this below.

(Note: As of January 2022, this object locking feature is currently only available in PowerPoint for Windows).

Lock an object's position in Microsoft PowerPoint

You have 2 easy ways to lock an object on your PowerPoint slide. The first method is useful if you only have a small number of items on the slide, while the second method is suitable if you want to lock many items.

To quickly position an object, simply right-click on the object and select the 'Lock' option from the menu that appears.

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If you have a lot of objects to lock, you can use the Selection Pane. This allows you to view, lock and unlock specific objects from the list.

Open the Selection Pane by navigating to the Home and Drawing tabs on the ribbon. Click the drop-down arrow titled Arrange and select 'Selection Pane' at the bottom of the list.

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When the Selection Pane opens, you'll see all the existing objects in your slide fully listed. To lock a specific item, simply click on the padlock icon to the right of the respective item. It is possible to lock multiple items simultaneously if you want to make sure nothing messes up while working on a particular object.

You'll notice that each item has a corresponding lock option, from images and videos to icons and title boxes.

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Depending on the type of object, you may see a special border appear around the object after it is locked. For example, you can see below the title text box there is a highlight border when you lock and select it.

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Of course it won't be possible to move a locked object, but you can still make the necessary changes to it as usual using the options on the ribbon, shortcut menu, or format sidebar. Below you see the title is locked, but the font color can still be changed.

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