When creating more complex PowerPoint slides you may need to overlap objects or entirely cover object with others. This can make objects very hard to select as they are underneath each other.
There is an easier way than just clicking with increasing frustration!
Home | Drawing | Arrange | Position Objects | Selection Pane…
Now you have the Selection pane docked to the right of your slide. This allows you to easily see a list of objects on the page and you can select the active object by selecting it in this list. Simple end to frustrated clicking.
Cameron Dwyer 
Thanks! Never knew this pane existed and it was just what I was looking for.
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Brilliant! I’ve wasted time searching online to do this until I found your site. Thanks!
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Thank you! Struggled for a whole day with multiple hidden objects…then found your solution!!!
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I’m glad it helped you out – thanks for leaving the comment 😊
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Cameron — I have a parallelogram shape that I want to sit on top of a background photo. And then put content into the shape. I build it in the Master View but when I add the image to the slide in the presentation, the parallelogram is not showing up even if I send the image to the back.
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Thank you!! it makes my work easier, since each time I used to move the figure/text that is above all, in order to select/edit what was in the back. I did not know about this panel,! THANKS!
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OMG! THIS WAS SO USEFUL. I *always* always always wondered how to ‘find’ or re-retrieve objects, textboxes, images, etc in PowerPoint that I mistakenly pushed all the ‘way back’ or ‘all the way up to the front’ (e.g. towards the viewer’s face). KUDOS for your GREAT WEBSITE!! This is a sweet feature too – similar to LAYERs in The GIMP (free open-source photoshop-like) software. –Peter of ITWiz1 then dodtcom.
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Thanks for leaving the comment Peter – glad you found it useful. I had to Google and find this article myself this week! I always go looking under the view menu. It really does feel out of place where they have stuck it.
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