Layering graphics

Hi Annabel, thanks for your query. You are pushing the image manipulation tools in Powerpoint to their limits! What you're trying to create is really a bespoke image which a package such as Photoshop is better suited to. Alternatively, break down your objects into individual grouped elements - a square with a hole in it is actually four aligned rectangles, etc. - and then overlay them. The trick is to think laterally to create composite images, or to import from something like Photoshop. If there was a selection tool and a cut facility in Powerpoint, no one would ever use Photoshop!

Hope this helps,

Anthony