17

Is there a way to force Power Point to paste copied objects exactly on top of the original object?

The auto-displacement a little down and to the right is very frustrating.

6
  • It usually displaces it two clicks to the right and two clicks down. Is it so hard to press ↑↑←←?
    – nhinkle
    Dec 15, 2010 at 4:33
  • 1
    why should I have to? I don't want it there
    – Drew
    Dec 15, 2010 at 5:20
  • 3
    I don't appreciate your editing my post. Are there any other applications that offset copy-pasting? And I think I'm allowed to be "aggressive" so long as it doesn't impede the message. We aren't robots.
    – Drew
    Dec 15, 2010 at 5:22
  • 3
    It was edited because this site is not a discussion forum or chat place. The idea is that in the future, people will see a question that matches their own, and find an answer that solves their problem. You want to chat, rant or be aggressive, go find a forum.
    – Cylindric
    May 7, 2014 at 13:40
  • 2
    nhinkle, really? For me it's more like ↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←← Apr 3, 2015 at 22:35

8 Answers 8

-4

I do not know of any way to change this, but there are alternatives to powerpoint. Open office does not do that.

1
  • Open office does not have the grow / shrink animation.
    – Tim
    Dec 28, 2015 at 22:15
8

If you only need one copy, you can Copy the object with Ctrl + C, hit an arrow key once then paste with Ctrl + V.

Now it is offset by just 1 arrow hit, not 22.

If you want more than one, hit the arrow key each time after pasting.

1
  • 2
    A breakdown of how this works: (temporarily move original by 1), ctrl-c (make duplicate; the original's current, shifted position will be the duplicate's initial position), (move original back to its initial position), ctrl-v (place duplicate in shifted position; i.e. currently they are not aligned), (align).
    – Tomas
    Feb 22, 2022 at 23:53
6

Here is the way I use :

  1. ctrl+x to cut the object
  2. ctrl+v to paste the object (it will be at the same place)
  3. move the pasted object where you want.
  4. ctrl+v to put back the original (it will be also at the same place).
1
  • This is clever work-around and works with multi shapes also. Feb 24, 2022 at 4:18
5

Here's a workaround that currently works for me in PowerPoint 2016:

  1. Copy and paste the original object to create a (displaced) duplicate.

  2. Select both the original and the duplicate and copy them to the clipboard.

  3. Delete the duplicate.

  4. Paste.

  5. Delete the new copy of the duplicate.

The copied version of the original is in exactly the same location, presumably because PowerPoint notices that the pasted objects do not exactly match the slide contents.

It's still very annoying having to take (by my count) eight steps for which should be two key presses, but it's better than nothing.

1
  • This one's my favourite hack!
    – alicederyn
    Jan 2 at 10:27
3

I still haven't find a real solution to this annoying "feature". The best workaround I've found is:

  • Duplicate the object pressing Ctrl+Shift and move it a little bit to duplicate, then re-align it on top of the previous object.
2

Here's another workaround:

  • Duplicate the slide with the object on it
  • Copy the object from the duplicated slide
  • Switch back to the original slide and paste the object
  • Delete the duplicated slide
1

I work with align options. Select all the objects then align them to right first. Since all objects are still selected, I go to align option again and click on align top.

0

I came across this issue when I try to make a little animation in ppt. My quick fix is to group the object with a dummy invisible object (no line, no fill) before copying and pasting. The idea is to make the size of the grouped object different from the original object. Not the perfect solution but I found it is more convenient than manually shifting.

1
  • 1
    I don’t quite understand what you’re saying.  Can you elaborate on how this works and how it answers the question?  Please do not respond in comments; edit your answer to make it clearer and more complete. Dec 1, 2016 at 20:51

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