Change PowerPoint's Measurement System from Inches to Cms or Vice Versa by Changing Your Control Panel Settings
by Avantix Learning Team | Updated April 6, 2021
Applies to: Microsoft® PowerPoint® 2013, 2016, 2019 and 365 (Windows)
When you're working on your slide decks in PowerPoint, the Ruler and various dialog boxes or task panes (such as picture or object size) display in inches or centimetres (cm). If you want to change your measurement system from inches to centimetres or vice versa, you'll need to change your control panel settings for your device. Unfortunately, unlike Microsoft Word, you can't change the measurement system directly in PowerPoint.
Below is the Control Panel in Windows 10:
Recommended article: How to Quickly Remove All Animations in PowerPoint Presentations
Do you want to learn more about PowerPoint? Check out our virtual classroom or live classroom PowerPoint courses >
Changing PowerPoint's Measurement System in Windows 10
To change PowerPoint's measurement system in Windows 10:
- Close PowerPoint.
- Click Start on the bottom left, type Control Panel in the search box and press Enter. The Control Panel displays in Windows 10.
- In the Control Panel, click Clock, Language and Region. A dialog box appears.
- Click Region. A dialog box appears.
- Click Additional settings. The Customize Format dialog box appears.
- Under Measurement system, select Metric if you want your measurements in centimetres or U.S. if you want your measurements in inches.
- Click OK twice.
- Start PowerPoint. The Ruler, dialog boxes and task panes will now display measurements in the system you chose.
Below is the Customize Format dialog box in the Control Panel:
Subscribe to get more articles like this one
Did you find this article helpful? If you would like to receive new articles, join our email list.
More resources
How to Turn Off Automatic Text Resizing in PowerPoint
10 Ways to Compress PowerPoint Presentations to Reduce File Size
How to Quickly Remove All Speaker Notes in a PowerPoint Presentation
How to Crop an Image into a Circle in PowerPoint (Crop to Shape Method)
How to Change the Background of PowerPoint Slides to a Color, Gradient or Picture
Related courses
Microsoft PowerPoint: Intermediate / Advanced
Microsoft PowerPoint: Design for Non-Designers
Microsoft PowerPoint: Animations Bootcamp
Our instructor-led courses are delivered in virtual classroom format or at our downtown Toronto location at 18 King Street East, Suite 1400, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (some in-person classroom courses may also be delivered at an alternate downtown Toronto location). Contact us at info@avantixlearning.ca if you'd like to arrange custom instructor-led virtual classroom or onsite training on a date that's convenient for you.
Copyright 2025 Avantix® Learning
You may also like
How to Make Text Appear on Click in PowerPoint
You can make text appear on click in PowerPoint using entrance animations. The most common entrance animations are appear, fade, wipe and fly in. During a slide show, presenters can make text appear by line, bullet point, paragraph, word or character. In this article, we will focus on using animations to make text appear on click so you will need to run a slide show and then click anywhere on the slide to make the text appear. You can also press the right arrow or spacebar to make text appear during a slide show. Animations are typically added to placeholders or text boxes in Normal View but can be applied in Slide Master View.
How to Flip an Image in PowerPoint (2 Easy Ways)
You can easily flip an image in PowerPoint using the Ribbon or by dragging a sizing handle. Images can be flipped horizontally or vertically on a slide.
How to Recolor a Picture in PowerPoint
You can recolor a picture in PowerPoint in several ways. The recolor options in the Ribbon and in the Format Picture task pane allow you to recolor a picture but, depending on your version of PowerPoint, the colors available may only work with the current color theme and may also blend colors from the original picture which is problematic. An alternative is to create a shape, fill it with a color, change its transparency and overlay the shape on top of the picture. You would typically make the image grayscale first if you use this strategy.
Microsoft, the Microsoft logo, Microsoft Office and related Microsoft applications and logos are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in Canada, US and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of the registered owners.
Avantix Learning |18 King Street East, Suite 1400, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5C 1C4 | Contact us at info@avantixlearning.ca
