Locking objects in PowerPoint

Over the past couple of years, I’ve started doing diagrams in PowerPoint rather than Illustrator or InDesign. With a little know-how, PowerPoint diagrams can look just as good as a diagram in Illustrator; better yet, people can edit them themselves. I call it “empowering” them, but also it’s a great way to offload some of the stuff on my to-do list. Working on a bid is hard work, so I believe in sharing the load.

The only time I use Illustrator is when I need to draw something, I need to put type on a path (the dreaded circle diagrams!), or when I find PowerPoint generally annoying to work with. One of the more annoying things about PowerPoint is object layering and selection. PowerPoint now has a selection panel which is akin to the layer panel in Illustrator. I’m making it sound like it’s brand new, but it may have been around for ages, but I just discovered it a few months ago. Yesterday, I discovered the option to LOCK objects in the selection panel. You can also lock/unlock the object by right-clicking on it.

This, for me, is a game changer because one of the things I always found annoying about PowerPoint is inadvertently moving objects because I accidentally selected them. I’m more prone to it when I’m working without a mouse and using my trackpad. Now I can lock objects that need to have a fixed position. There are some things to know though, that are different from locking them in Illustrator:

• You can still select them and copy/paste locked objects. For example, selecting all (Ctrl+A) will select the locked objects.

• Locking objects just fixes their position. Even though objects are locked, you can still change their format and edit text.

Now all of this might be fine for you, depending on what you need to do. Maybe the next iteration will have the option to turn on/off selecting locked objects but I’ll take this.