By default, the rulers in PowerPoint display measurement in inches. The same is true of the other Microsoft Office applications. If you prefer to view and work with metric units, this setting can be changed from within Microsoft Word and Excel (via Options > Advanced > Display) but not from within PowerPoint.
If you want to use a metric ruler in PowerPoint, you must go into your Windows settings and make the change there. To do this in Windows 7, follow the directions below:
- In the bottom left corner of your screen, click the Start Orb. The Start menu appears.
- To continue, on the right side of the Start menu, click on Control Panel.
- Verify that the Control Panel view (top right corner) is set to Category.
- To access the language settings, click on Clock, Language, and Region.
- In the Region and Language section, click on Change the date, time, or number format. A Region and Language dialog box appears.
- At the bottom of the dialog box, click on the Additional settings button. The Customize Format dialog box opens:
- Click on the drop-down arrow at the end of the Measurement system field.
- Click on Metric.
- To apply the new setting, at the bottom of the Customize Format dialog box, click on the Apply button and then click on the OK button.
- Close all open windows.
The top and side rulers in Word are used to set your margins, and also any Indents you might require for your paragraphs. They should display by default. If they don’t, here are instructions on how to make them display. If you can’t see the rulers, click on the View Ruler button at the top of your right-hand scroll bar. To change the units of measurement in Microsoft Word for Windows: Click File tab on the ribbon and select Options. Go to the Advanced tab and scroll down to the Display section. Select an option from the Show measurements in units of menu. Click OK to save your selection. This will change the unit of measurement used for various measures in.
Microsoft Word 2010 Ruler
Now when you turn on the ruler in PowerPoint, the units will be displayed as centimeters instead of inches. (This will also change the way the ruler displays in Word and Excel, but it does not affect the ruler in WordPad.)