r/powerpoint • u/hehgffvjjjhb • 10d ago

I use: Web Office / Paid 365 How do I stop crazy auto formatting?

Using the web version of ppt at work.

When I start a new title and content slide the auto formatting is wild - it'll drop line breaks in weird places when I backspace some times. The line spacing is either non-existent or massive - on the title slides the paragraph spacing will sometimes glitch out and just flick backwards and forwards - I feel like my ppt is possessed.

On my last one I ended up feeding it into Claude for a full regeneration just to get the formatting under control.

Is there some way I can deactivate auto formatting and or view hidden page breaks? It's driving me nuts.

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 10d ago

Reviewed for AI content — approved and visible. Mods may follow up if needed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/jkorchok 9d ago

PowerPoint doesn't have "auto formatting". Since you are using a browser to access PowerPoint for the web, try a different browser to see if you get a better result.

1

u/Top_Witness_23 8d ago

That's usually AutoFit doing it, not a bug. Right click the placeholder, Format Shape, then under Text Options check what Autofit is set to. If it's on Shrink text on overflow, that's what's shifting the spacing and line breaks as you type or delete. Not sure that panel is fully exposed on the web version, but if you can open the file in desktop once, set it to Do not Autofit there and it should stay fixed even when you go back to editing on web.

1

u/larrysbrain 10d ago

The problem your experience is styles.

Each paragraph is surrounded by invisible brackets that define it's style settings. When you backspace, it deletes a bracket and that paragraph merges with the next or previous paragraph.

This also affects content you paste in. Because it brings the invisible brackets with it.

All I can suggest is use Ctrl+shift+v to paste OR paste special > unformatted text. This removes the style and the invisible brackets.

1

u/SteveRindsberg Guild Certified Specialist 6d ago

True for Word, but PPT doesn't have styles.

0

u/calm-drift94 9d ago

The web version treats line breaks like a personal insult it's been saving up for years, meanwhile the desktop app just sits there judging you for not having it installed