In this lesson
Make three owner cards with matching dimensions, even gaps and a clear reading order.
Example
Three accountable owners
The practice pilot has three owners: Maya — Attendance, Luis — Equipment, and Priya — Welcome session. Give each owner an equally sized card on a widescreen slide. Start with cards 3.2-inch-wide by 2.0-inch-high and leave room around the row. Use the same size for all owners so the layout gives them equal weight.
How it works
Align Selected Objects compares the selected objects with one another; Align to Slide compares them with the slide boundary. Choosing the wrong reference can pull every card to an unwanted edge.
Stacking order describes which object overlaps another. Grouping makes several objects behave as one movable unit, while reading order describes how content is announced. Visual position alone does not establish an accessible reading sequence.
Steps
Create a Title Only slide called Three owners make the pilot manageable. On desktop turn on View › Guides and use the guide lines to establish a consistent outer margin.
Insert a rectangle and set its width to 3.2 inches and height to 2.0 inches in Shape Format › Size. Duplicate it twice; do not draw the other cards freehand.
Add each owner name and responsibility inside its card or in an associated text box. Give all three cards the same font sizes and use Maya, Luis and Priya exactly as supplied.
Select the three outer card shapes, choose Shape Format › Align › Align Selected Objects, then Align Top. Place the first and last card where you want the row to begin and end.
With all three outer cards still selected, choose Align › Distribute Horizontally. Inspect the spaces between card edges; equal centre positions can be misleading if widths differ.
Rename the cards in the Selection Pane. If labels are separate text boxes, group each label with its card. If the text is inside the shape, it already moves with that shape and needs no grouping. Check the reading order separately.
Try it yourself
- Add a fourth owner, Noah — Feedback, on a copied slide. Reduce all four outer card widths to 2.4 inches, keep the height at 2.0 inches, then align and distribute the complete row again.
- Temporarily move the Luis card, undo the move and verify that its name and responsibility travelled with the grouped card. Do not leave the temporary misalignment in the final slide.
Show expected result
- Four equal 2.4-by-2.0-inch cards share one top edge and equal gaps, in Maya, Luis, Priya, Noah order.
- Moving a grouped card does not leave its label behind; reading order is title then the four owners.
If something goes wrong
- Every card jumps to the slide edge when Align Left is clicked.
- Undo the move. Choose Align Selected Objects before lining up the cards. Use Align to Slide only when you want to position the row against the slide boundary.
- Group is unavailable or a label stays behind.
- Select the shape and its separate text box together. Check their names in the Selection Pane. A placeholder or an incompatible object can stop Group from working; use ordinary shapes for these cards.
Quick check
Try these questions after the exercise. Check the result in your app before marking the lesson complete.
Choose an answer for all 3 questions to check your understanding.
Optional: try it with Copilot
If you have Copilot, try this after the exercise. Keep the original file and compare its suggestions with your own result.
Suggest one short responsibility line for Maya, Luis, Priya and Noah using only attendance, equipment, welcome session and feedback. Do not change their assigned responsibilities.
More from Microsoft
These Microsoft guides cover the tools used in this lesson.
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