How to Save Shapes and Objects as Images in PowerPoint

You can save shapes and objects as images in PowerPoint. In fact, you can save multiple shapes and objects as one image.

This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than 200 other writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel.

The images below are from PowerPoint for Microsoft 365. These steps also apply to PowerPoint 2021, PowerPoint 2019, PowerPoint 2016, and PowerPoint 2013. We will cover this topic for PowerPoint for Mac in a separate tutorial.

How to Save Shapes and Objects as Images

The following steps assume you have already created your shape or object. We will look at how to create and customize shapes and objects in PowerPoint in separate tutorials.

Select the shape or object.

- Shapes are anything inserted with the Shape menu in the Insert tab.
- Objects include SmartArt, icons, tables, or charts.

Selected shape in PowerPoint 365 — Figure 1. Selected shape

(Optional) Press the Shift key as you select additional shapes or objects that you want to include in the image.

Selected shape and icon in PowerPoint 365 — Figure 2. Selected shape and icon

Right-click your selection(s), and then select Save as Picture from the shortcut menu.

Save as Picture option in the shortcut menu in PowerPoint 365 — Figure 3. Save as Picture option

Select the location where you want to save your image in the Save As Picture dialog box.

Locations in the Save As Picture dialog box in PowerPoint 365 — Figure 4. Save As Pictures locations

(Optional) Enter a new file name into the File name text box.

File name text box in the Save As Picture dialog box in PowerPoint — Figure 5. “File name” text box

Select a file format in the Save as type drop-down menu:

- Portable Network Graphics (.png)
- JPEG File Interchange Format (.jpg)
- Graphics Interchange Format (.gif)
- Tag Image File Format (.tif)
- Windows Bitmap (.bmp)
- Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg) (Only available in Word for Microsoft 365 and Word 2021.)
- Enhanced Metafile (.emf)
- Windows Metafile (.wmf)

The two most common file formats are JPEG and PNG. There are compression differences between these formats, but for most users, the most important difference is the fact that PNGs have a transparent background, while JPEGs have a white background.