How to Align and Distribute Objects in Google Slides
Neat slides are mostly invisible work: four icons that line up, cards with identical gaps, a row that sits exactly where it should. Here's how far the built-in tools take you, and where a layout panel takes over.
Align Objects With the Arrange Menu (Native)
- Select two or more objects: hold Shift and click each one, or drag a selection box around them.
- Go to Arrange → Align horizontally and pick Left, Center or Right, or Arrange → Align vertically and pick Top, Middle or Bottom.
The reference rule that trips everyone up: with multiple objects selected, Slides aligns them relative to each other (the selection's bounding box). To align objects to the slide, you have to group them first (Ctrl+Alt+G), align the group with Arrange → Center on page, then ungroup. Every time.
Distribute Objects Evenly (Native)
- Select at least three objects.
- Go to Arrange → Distribute → Horizontally (or Vertically).
Slides equalizes the spacing between the objects across the span they already occupy. Useful, but note what you can't do: choose the gap. If the objects were cramped, they stay cramped, just evenly cramped.
Where the Native Tools Stop
- No fixed gaps. There's no way to say "24 pt between each card". Distribute averages whatever space is there.
- No slide-relative alignment for a selection. The group → align → ungroup dance gets old by the third slide.
- No memory. Every alignment is three menu levels deep, and nothing you do is reusable on the next slide.
- No size matching. Making six cards exactly the same size means typing width and height into Format options six times.
One Click Instead: the Auto Layout & Grid Panel
Auto Layout & Grid puts a persistent layout panel next to your slides, with the tools Slides didn't ship:
- Install it from the Marketplace, then open Extensions → Auto Layout & Grid → Open panel. The panel stays open while you work.
- Align: all six axes as single buttons, with a toggle for the reference: align to the selection or to the slide. No grouping required.
- Distribute: equal spacing in one click, or use Organize to stack the selection into a row or column with the exact gap you type, anchored where you want on the slide.
- Spacing tokens: save your spacing scale (16 / 24 / 32 pt or your own) and reuse it everywhere, like a design system for slides.
- Copy & apply size: pick up one object's dimensions and apply width, height or both to the rest.
Each action costs one click, and the first use of each action is free, so you can try the whole panel on a real deck before paying. The one-time unlock is yours for life.
Need a full grid of images or cards rather than a row? That's its own tool in the panel: see how to make an image grid in Google Slides.