- In most cases, a textbox that can’t be altered is grouped with another object and you’ll need to select them both to ungroup or remove.
- Some textboxes come “prebuilt” into the slide and can’t be removed with basic controls.
- An empty textbox shouldn’t appear on the final presentation or significantly impact the rest of your slide.
You might be working on a presentation and getting stuck with slides that have text all over the place. This might happen if PowerPoint can’t remove textbox elements, causing the others to shift around them. Here’s what you can do if you encounter a PowerPoint embedded textbox.
Option 1: Make Sure the Textbox Isn’t Grouped
If you group two or more elements, selecting one and trying to remove it won’t achieve anything. Instead, you need to manually ungroup the textbox before it can be manipulated.
Step 1. Select all the items you have in a group. Typically, they will be layered on top of one another.
Step 2. Right-click or go to the “Arrange” option in the Home tab.
Step 3. Click on “Ungroup.”
Step 4. Try to delete the textbox again.
Option 2: Delete a Textbox Hidden Behind Other Objects
If PowerPoint can’t remove textbox objects, it’s possible the textbox is in the background of another larger object such as an image, so you can’t actually select to remove it. You can use the selection pane to overview all objects you can manipulate in a slide.
Step 1. Click anywhere on the slide, then go to the “Home” tab and click on “Select” (it’s located near the right end of the toolbar). In the dropdown menu, go to “Selection pane.”
Step 2. A pane will open on the right, listing all the objects on the slide. Click on the eye icon next to any object that might be interfering to temporarily hide it.
Step 3. Click on your textbox and hit “Delete.”
Step 4. Make sure to click the eye icons again to make the rest of the objects visible again.
Option 3: PowerPoint Remove Textbox from Template
Some slide designs or templates come with a “hardcoded” textbox that won’t be deleted by normal means. You can try using a workaround to remove a PowerPoint embedded textbox.
Step 1. To make sure your textbox is a part of the background, right-click on the slide and select “Format Background.” If the option doesn’t appear on the right-click menu, it’s available in the “Design” tab.
Step 2. When you click on “Hide background graphics,” built-in boxes and graphics should disappear.
Step 3. To remove the boxes, go to the “View” tab and select “Slide Master.”
Step 4. Find the textbox either on the master slide or one of the slide templates from the panel on the left, then remove it (you can select it and hit “Delete.”)
Note that once you make a change to the “master” slide, the changes will apply to all slides using that specific layout. However, changing other slides means that the built-in textbox will only be removed from that exact slide type when you use it for your work. You may need to check different Slide Layouts within the Master View if you use multiple designs.
