Smooth Sailing Postscript
If you haven't read the first "Smooth Sailing" post, you'll probably want to go back and read it now. A quick summary: the article reviews the effect PowerPoint's Snap to Grid feature has on your editing experience, and goes over the somewhat hidden controls for the default behaviors here.
What I Forgot!
There was one additional entry point for bringing up the Grids and Guides dialog that didn't get mentioned in the previous post. It's perplexingly both the easiest to use, and potentially the hardest to discover on your own.
The Handy Right-Click Menu
PowerPoint 2003 | Right clicking on a slide in PowerPoint 2003, brings up a set of contextual commands for slides and the presentation. You'll note that the Grids and Guides command is right there, as you see in the illustration on the left. Again, in PowerPoint 2007 the is available in the right-click menu. Although much of this menu is changed, the Grids and Guides command is still there as you can see in the illustration on the right. | 
PowerPoint 2007 |
Be Careful Where You Click
 | If you don't see the Grids and Guides command in the menu, check to see that you've clicked on an empty part of the slide, not a placeholder, shape, picture, chart, etc. These objects have their own right-click menu, and won't list the Grids and Guides command. If the slide is covered with objects, you can also click in the area just outside the slide to bring the menu up. |  |
Ric Bretschneider July 15, 2008
