Merge Shape Commands in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Merge Shape commands are a set of five commands that work with shapes, text and pictures. Using these commands, you can play with shapes, text, and picture—and merge them, or subtract one object from the other. The results can be fascinating and playing with the Merge Shape commands can be addictive.

Accessing the Merge Shape Commands

1. To access the Merge Shape commands in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows you first need to insert some shapes on your PowerPoint slide. In this example, we inserted a Rectangle and a Circle. Make sure you place the shapes in a way so that they overlap each other, as shown in Figure 1.
2. 
   Figure 1: Two overlapped shapes
2. When the shapes are selected, you will see the Drawing Tools Format tab on the Ribbon (highlighted in red within Figure 2). Make sure that this contextual tab is activated.
3. 
   Figure 2: Drawing Tools Format tab
Note: The Drawing Tools Format tab is a Contextual tab. These tabs are special tabs in the Ribbon that are not visible all the time. They only make an appearance when you are working with a particular slide object which can be edited using special options.
3. Within the Drawing Tools Format tab, locate the Insert Shapes group and click the Merge Shapes button (highlighted in red within Figure 3). This brings up the Merge Shapes drop-down gallery (highlighted in blue within Figure 3).
4. 
   Figure 3: Merge Shapes drop-down gallery

These five Merge Shapes options work in different ways (see Figure 4). We will show you how these commands work in our tutorial pages linked below:

1. Union
2. Combine
3. Fragment
4. Intersect
5. Subtract

Figure 4: Merge Shapes get you various, differing outputs

Additionally, you can now also merge shapes with text and pictures, as explained in the following tutorials:

1. Convert Text to Shapes by Intersecting in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
2. Convert Text to Shapes by Fragmenting in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
3. Merge Shapes with Pictures in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows