How to Add a Branded Quote Style With Hanging Quotation Marks

You want to display a quote in your PowerPoint slide that looks professional and matches your brand colors and fonts. Standard quotation marks placed inline with text often look cluttered and lack visual impact. A hanging quotation mark style places the opening quote mark outside the text block, creating a clean and modern design. This article explains how to build a reusable branded quote style using PowerPoint shapes, text boxes, and formatting tools.

What a Hanging Quotation Mark Design Does and What You Need

A hanging quotation mark is a large quote character placed to the left of a text block, often aligned with the top of the text. The quote mark appears outside the normal text margin, drawing the reader’s eye to the start of the quote. This design is common in magazines, brochures, and branded presentations.

The feature relies on PowerPoint shapes and text boxes rather than built-in typography. There is no default “hanging quote” style in PowerPoint. You create it manually by inserting a quote symbol as a shape, sizing it, and positioning it relative to a text box. The design can then be saved as a reusable template or copied to other slides.

Before starting, have your brand colors ready as hex or RGB values. Know the font family and font size you will use for the quote text. A sans-serif font such as Calibri or Arial works well for modern quotes. Also decide the quote attribution style, such as the author name in smaller italic text below the quote.

Steps to Create a Branded Quote Style With Hanging Quotation Marks

1. Insert a text box for the quote
   Go to Insert > Text Box. Draw a text box on the slide. Type your quote text. Set the font, size, and color to match your brand. For example, use 24 pt Calibri in dark gray. Keep the text box narrow enough so the quote spans multiple lines, leaving room for the hanging mark on the left.
2. Insert a left double quote shape
   Go to Insert > Shapes. In the Basic Shapes section, select Left Double Quote. Click and drag on the slide to create the shape. The shape appears as a large quotation mark that you can resize and recolor.
3. Format the quote shape with your brand color
   Select the quote shape. Go to Shape Format > Shape Fill and pick your brand color. Then go to Shape Outline and select No Outline. This removes the border and leaves only the colored quote mark.
4. Resize the quote shape to match the text height
   Drag the corner handles of the quote shape to make it roughly the same height as the first line of the quote text. A good rule is to make the quote mark 1.5 to 2 times the font size of the quote. For 24 pt text, set the shape height to about 1.2 inches.
5. Position the quote shape to the left of the text box
   Drag the quote shape so its right edge aligns with the left edge of the text box. The top of the quote shape should align with the top of the first line of text. Hold Alt while dragging to fine-tune the position without snapping to the grid.
6. Add attribution text below the quote
   Insert another text box below the quote. Type the author name or source. Use a smaller font size, such as 12 pt, and italic formatting. Set the color to a lighter shade of your brand color or medium gray.
7. Group all elements together
   Hold Ctrl and click the quote shape, the quote text box, and the attribution text box. Right-click and select Group > Group. This locks the relative positions so you can move the whole quote style as one unit.
8. Save the slide as a template for reuse
   Right-click the slide thumbnail in the left pane and select Duplicate Slide. Delete the sample text and keep the grouped quote style. Use this duplicate as a master for future quotes. Alternatively, save the presentation as a PowerPoint template (.potx) to use the style across multiple files.

Alternative Method: Use a Text Box With a Large Quote Character

If you prefer not to use a shape, you can type a large quotation mark directly in a text box and position it separately.

1. Insert a separate text box for the quote mark
   Insert a new text box and type a single left double quote character. Select the character and increase the font size to 72 pt or larger. Set the font color to your brand color.
2. Position the quote text box to the left of the quote text
   Move the text box containing the large quote mark so it sits to the left of the main quote text box. Adjust vertical alignment so the top of the quote mark aligns with the top of the first line of the quote.
3. Group the two text boxes
   Select both text boxes and group them. This method uses no shapes, only text boxes, and may be easier for users who prefer working with text formatting.

Common Mistakes and Limitations When Creating Hanging Quotes

The quote shape does not align with the text top

If the quote shape appears too high or too low, use the Align tools. Select both the quote shape and the text box. Go to Shape Format > Align > Align Top. This snaps the top edges together. Then use the arrow keys to nudge the quote shape left or right.

The quote shape changes size when copied to another slide

If you copy the grouped quote style to a slide with different dimensions or zoom, the relative sizes may shift. To avoid this, always paste the grouped element onto a slide that uses the same layout or slide master. Alternatively, save the grouped element as a picture by right-clicking and selecting Save as Picture. Insert the picture on any slide without size changes.

Text resizing breaks the visual balance

If you later edit the quote text and change the font size, the quote shape will not scale automatically. You must manually resize the quote shape to match the new text height. To make future edits easier, ungroup the element, adjust the quote shape size, and regroup.

The hanging quote style does not work well with long quotes

For quotes longer than three lines, the hanging quote mark can lose its visual effect. In those cases, consider using a block quote style with a colored left border instead of a hanging mark. Insert a rectangle shape on the left side of the text box, set the fill to your brand color, and set the width to 6 points.

Item	Shape Method	Text Box Method
Component used	Insert > Shapes > Left Double Quote	Text box with a large font size quote character
Color control	Shape Fill and Shape Outline	Font color only
Scaling	Drag corner handles to any size	Change font size in the Font dialog
Alignment precision	Align Top with text box	Manual nudging with arrow keys
Best for	Branded designs with exact color matching	Quick quotes without opening shape tools

You can now create a branded quote style with hanging quotation marks using shapes or text boxes. Group the elements to keep the design intact when moving or copying. For future presentations, save the grouped quote as a slide in a template or as a picture. An advanced tip: apply a slight shadow effect to the quote shape using Shape Effects > Shadow > Outer to give the quote mark depth against a light background.