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How to Merge Shapes in PowerPoint?

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We can create our own shapes, they can be simple or complex based on our creativity and power of Imagination. It totally depends on you what you want to create and how you are using PowerPoint’s Merge Tool to create that. See the below example of Merging shapes which have been created using 5 equal circles. This will be the shape that we will be going to create,

Example of merging-of-Shapes-and-Coloring-them

 

In the above image, you can see the process of merging shapes:

  1. Select the shapes you are going to merge – it can be multiple different types of shapes. Choose the type of merging – There are 5 different types of merging available in PowerPoint which we will talk about in detail in this post
  2. Then remove the components of the Shapes that are not required 
  3. Color the components of the newly formed shape. 
  4. You can also apply gradient coloring which can also be used to create a 3d look to your shapes. 

Let’s learn some basics before starting with the actual creation of this shape.

Basics of Selection of Shapes

The selection of Shapes is as much as important as merging and coloring them.

  1. Think about the shapes you want in your mind. 
  2. Think about the basic shapes which can be used with each other to create that shape

Example 1: A circle and a square can be used to create different types of shapes.

Merging-of-Circle-and-Square

 

Basics of Merging

There are 5 different types of merging. We will be taking 2 shapes and demonstrating the use of each type of merging. Let’s take 2 squares of the same color. Put one square on the other. 

2-same-squares-taken

 

Step 1: Select both of the squares and go to Shape format. Here you have different shape formatting options that you can use to make complex designs. From adding different types of shapes to adding different types of colors, outlines, and shape effects – there are unlimited possibilities. In the Post, we are just going to use the  Merge Shapes option. 

Shape-Formatting-options

 

Step 2: Go to the Merge Shapes option to find different types of merging. Select Fragments. 

Note:

One more thing to take care of is that you can only merge 2 or more shapes. This option will be disabled if you try to merge only one image or you are trying to merge a line with a shape or you are trying to merge text with a shape. You can have different alternatives to merge a shape with text which we will discuss in another post. 

After the shapes will be converted into Fragments, just remove the middle part of the squares. 

Removing-middle-part-of-the-shape

 

Step 3: The final shape will look like the below image:

Final-shape

 

Step 4: In this shape, you can add your own color and can put some text or letter in between the empty space in the shape like the below image:

Adding-colors-and-text-to-the-image

 

Step 6: After this much of an introduction, let’s start creating the shape which we were talking about earlier.

Shape-to-be-created

 

Step 7: As we can see in the image above, first we have to decide the primary shapes that we have to take to create the new shape. Many of you have already guessed it correctly, we are going to take 5 equal size circles. Put 4 circles in North, South, West, and East directions and put the last remaining circle in the center of all of them. See the below image:

Four-circles-on-the-left-and-five-circles-on-the-right

 

Step 8: After this, select all the circles, go to ->shape format -> merge shapes -> fragments. This will divide all the shapes into fragments, that’s what we want.

Shape-formed

 

Step 9: So after fragmentation, the shape will look like the above shape. I have marked the fragments with Yellow and Orange because we have to remove these fragments. Select each fragment and delete it or select multiple fragments to delete it. You can select multiple fragments by holding the Shift key and clicking on the fragment you want to select. After selection just delete the fragments. You will be remaining with a flower type of fragment just as shown in the below example:

Flower-like-fragment

 

Step 10: Now select the fragments from the 4 corners and just give some space between them. See the below example:

giving-space-between-corner-fragments

 

Step 11: Now take any fragment from the middle one, duplicate it, Rotate it, place it like shown in the image below and do it 4 times. For duplicating a shape -> select the shape -> ctrl+d,

duplication-of-shapes

 

Step 12: After this, create 4 circles and place them at the corners of the yellow shapes as shown in the below figure:

adding-circles-to-the-shape

 

Step 13: Now we are done with creating the shape. Now it’s time for us to add some colors to our shape. Add orange to the outer circles, Green to the outer fragment shapes. See the below image:

Adding-colors-to-the-shapes

 

Step 14: Now the main part is left in which we have to use gradients to color the middle part. But before that, combine all the middle elements. Select all the middle elements -> go to shape format -> merge -> union. By selecting a union we can combine the 4 fragments. You can also work without combining them but we are going to work with gradients so it’s better to combine them. Select the shape after combining, open the formatting bar (right-click on the slide -> format background), click on gradient fill and choose the colors you want to put in the shape. Also, select the gradient type to Radial. See the below example: 

adding-gradient-to-the-shape

 

You can see the right side of the image above to see the properties of the gradient. Now you can group all the elements together and save this as a picture. This can also act as a logo or vector graphics. You can paste it anywhere you want. 



Last Updated : 25 Jan, 2023
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