How do I use the drawing and shape tools?
The slides editor includes a full set of drawing and shape tools for annotating, illustrating, and designing your slides.
Accessing drawing tools
Open the Draw tab in the right sidebar (or press Shift+D) to see all available tools. When nothing is selected on the canvas, the floating toolbar also shows basic drawing controls for quick access.
Basic tools
| Tool | Shortcut | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Select | V | Click to select objects, drag to move them |
| Pencil | D | Freehand drawing — great for annotations, circling, and underlining |
| Eraser | E | Click on/drag over any shape/object/app/drawing to erase it (does not erase locked objects) |
| Highlight | — | Semi-transparent freehand highlight |
| Laser pointer | — | A temporary pointer that fades away — useful during presentations |
Looking for arrows, notes, tables, or lists? These are in the Insert tab (Shift+I). Arrows connect objects and move with them. Sticky notes can be expanded by clicking the buttons on each edge.
Geometry shapes
Click on a shape in the Draw panel, then click or drag on the slide to place it. Available shapes include:
- Rectangle
- Circle / Ellipse
- Triangle
- Diamond
- Pentagon
- Hexagon
- Octagon
- Star
- Cloud
- Heart
- X box
- Check box
- Arrow shapes
Formatting shapes
When you select a drawn line or shape, the floating toolbar lets you customise:
Colour
Choose from a palette of shape colours including black, blue, green, red, violet, yellow, and orange.
Fill style
For shapes (not drawn lines), choose how the shape is filled:
- Solid fill: Completely filled with colour
- Semi-transparent: Semi-transparent fill
- No fill: Outline only
Line style
Customise the outline of shapes and drawn lines:
- Rough: Hand-drawn, sketchy style
- Dashed: Dashed line
- Solid: Neat, continuous line
Size
Adjust the stroke weight of drawn lines and shape outlines from thin to thick.
Opacity
Use the opacity slider to make shapes semi-transparent, which is useful for overlays and layered designs.
Tips
- The laser pointer is particularly useful during presentations — it draws a temporary line that fades away, so you can point at things without leaving permanent marks
- Hold Shift while drawing a shape to constrain proportions (e.g. perfect circle, perfect square)
- Shapes can be layered with text, images, and apps — use the reorder options (Bring to front, Send to back) to control layering