How to Stop PowerPoint from Automatically Shrinking Text to Fit a Box (AutoFit)

Microsoft PowerPoint is designed to keep your presentations looking neat and contained within their designated text boxes. To achieve this, it utilizes a feature called “AutoFit.” When you type more text than can naturally fit inside a slide’s placeholder box, AutoFit automatically begins shrinking the font size and the line spacing so that all of your text stays inside the predefined borders.

While this prevents text from awkwardly spilling off the edge of the slide, it often results in unreadable, microscopic font sizes. From a presentation design standpoint, if your text doesn’t fit, you usually need to edit your content or create a new slide—not shrink the text until it’s illegible.

If you want to maintain absolute control over your typography and font sizes, you can turn AutoFit off.

How to Disable AutoFit for a Specific Text Box

If you only want to stop the shrinking behavior on a single, problematic slide:

1. Right-click on the border of the text box that is shrinking your text.
2. Select Format Shape from the context menu.
3. A sidebar will open on the right side of the screen. Click the Size & Properties icon (it looks like a square with measurement arrows).
4. Expand the Text Box section.
5. Under the “Autofit” options, change the selection from “Shrink text on overflow” to Do not Autofit.

Your text will instantly revert to its original, intended font size, even if it means spilling over the bottom border of the box.

How to Disable AutoFit Globally

To stop PowerPoint from ever shrinking your text automatically across all your presentations, you need to change a global AutoCorrect setting.

1. Click File in the top-left corner of the ribbon.
2. Select Options at the bottom of the left sidebar.
3. In the PowerPoint Options window, select Proofing on the left.
4. Click the AutoCorrect Options… button.
5. In the new window, click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
6. Under the “Apply as you type” section, uncheck the box labeled AutoFit title text to placeholder.
7. Uncheck the box labeled AutoFit body text to placeholder.
8. Click OK twice to save your settings.