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Excel - Advanced Tricks with Shapes in Excel - Episode 405

1,191 views · Published 5 October 2009 · 2:03 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2009 · Education

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial: Changing Shapes in Excel. 

Welcome back to the MrExcel netcast! In our last video, we discussed the basics of AutoShapes. Today, I want to show you some more advanced tricks that you can do with AutoShapes in Excel.

Did you know that there are over 100 different shapes available in the Other Shapes drop-down menu? That's right, seven different categories with a variety of shapes to choose from. And if you need to use a lot of shapes from the Basic Shapes category, you can easily click and drag the palette to float above your worksheet for easy access.

Let's take a look at the Lightning Bolt shape. By default, it always goes from upper left to lower right. But with the Draw drop-down menu, you can easily change the direction by flipping it horizontally or vertically. You can also rotate the shape in any direction by using the green handle.

Now, some shapes have a special feature, like the Block Arrows. When you draw an arrow, you'll notice a yellow inflection point handle. This allows you to adjust the shape of the arrow, making the arrowhead larger or smaller. With this feature, you can create thousands of different shapes from just a hundred options in the AutoShapes drop-down menu.

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Table of Contents:
(00:00) More AutoShape tricks
(00:22) Seven categories and over a hundred shapes
(00:35) Drawing a Lightning Bolt
(00:45) Changing the direction of the shape
(00:55) Rotating the shape
(01:05) Special feature of Block Arrows
(01:15) Using the inflection point handle
(01:25) Creating different arrowhead sizes
(01:35) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

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This video answers these common search terms:
AutoShapes tricks
Block Arrows feature
Changing direction of lightning bolt shape
Creating shapes from Basic Shapes
Creating thousands of different shapes
Customizing the shape of an arrow
Dragging palette to float above worksheet
Flipping and rotating shapes
Morphing shapes with Rotate or Flip
Other Shapes categories
Using the yellow inflection point handle

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Although Excel offers 100  built-in AutoShapes, you can use the various handles on the shape itself, or the tools on the drawing toolbar to morph those shapes into thousands of different shapes. Episode 405 shows you how.

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