How to change units to inches in PowerPoint under

Question

How to change units to inches in PowerPoint under

Denis Rodriguez 0

My macOS is Tahoe 26.3.1.

I have tried this instructions on PowerPoint 365 for Mac

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/change-the-measurement-units-from-inches-to-centimeters-7fb08d33-750b-4e95-b332-e568d4550d82#OfficeVersion=macOS&officeversion=macos

But it does work.

PII Removed

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3 answers

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Answer 1

Goroll, Torsten 0

See this thread: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5247461/ms-office-for-mac-doesnt-use-system-settings-for-m?page=3#answers

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Answer 2

Anonymous

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Hi Denis Rodriguez,

I understand how frustrating this can be, especially after following the official documentation and not seeing the expected result. Thank you for your patience.

Based on my testing in a virtual macOS environment, I’d like to share a few important insights that may help clarify how measurement units work in PowerPoint for Mac:

US > uses inches
Metric > uses centimeters
UK > uses a mixed system, depending on the region’s measurement conventions

PowerPoint for macOS does not have its own independent setting for measurement units. Instead, it strictly follows the macOS system-level “Measurement system” configuration.

To ensure PowerPoint switches to inches, please try the following again carefully:

1. Go to Apple menu > System Settings > General > Language & Region

2. Under Measurement system, select US (or UK, if applicable for your region)

This ensures the system uses a measurement system where inches are the standard

3. To be extra certain, also try changing the Region to a country where inches are the default unit (for example, United States), not just the Measurement system alone

This helps ensure macOS fully applies all regional preferences

4. After making the change, completely close PowerPoint using Cmd + Q (This step is important, simply closing the window is not enough)

5. Reopen PowerPoint and check the ruler or size dialogs to confirm whether the unit has updated to inches User's image Above is a reference screenshot from my test environment showing the macOS configuration where PowerPoint successfully switched to inches.

I hope these steps can be helpful, at least partially, in getting the measurement units to switch as expected. If you have any further questions, or if the issue still persists after trying the steps above, please feel free to reach out anytime. I’ll be happy to assist further.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Anonymous

2026-03-26T05:20:50.8333333+00:00

Hi Denis Rodriguez,

I hope you're doing well. Just reaching out to see if you've had a chance to review the responses shared earlier.

I wanted to check in and see if the information above was partially helpful to you.

If you have any updates or further questions, please feel free to share.
Denis Rodriguez 0 Reputation points

2026-03-26T17:53:09.4966667+00:00

Hi Mattew.

Thanks for sharing that information. It was useful. That fixed the issue on MO 365 on Mac
Austin-H 8,385 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-30T02:20:44.4266667+00:00

Hi Denis Rodriguez,
Thank you for your response.
If you found Matthew's response to be helpful, please consider accepting his answer so that could help with future similar questions from other users.
Warm regards.
Goroll, Torsten 0 Reputation points

2026-03-30T03:35:53.92+00:00

As far as I can see the measurement system has no effect on PowerPoint at all. You need to set the language to switch the units. But changing the language also means changing the spelling. So you're left with a choice between incorrect spelling (e.g. organization vs organisation) or incorrect units.
Anonymous

2026-03-31T08:08:41.9566667+00:00

Hi Goroll, Torsten,

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Based on my testing in a virtual macOS environment, PowerPoint for Mac responds to the system‑level Measurement system, where US displays inches, Metric displays centimeters, and UK follows a mixed measurement convention depending on the region.

In my test setup, even though the initial Region was set to a country where centimeters are the standard unit, switching the Measurement system (and Region) to US, then fully closing PowerPoint (Cmd + Q) and reopening it, resulted in PowerPoint successfully switching to inches.

To avoid potential inconsistencies, I recommend not selecting UK, and instead toggling only between Metric and US, while keeping your current Region unchanged. After that, please follow the steps outlined in my initial response to check whether the measurement units update as expected.
Goroll, Torsten 0 Reputation points

2026-03-31T08:22:37.2866667+00:00

OK, I collected some screenshots. Maybe we're talking past each other. The unit highlighted yellow should show 'cm'. And it does, when switching the preferred language to English (UK):

Microsoft® PowerPoint for Mac: Version 16.107.2 (26032211)

Answer 3

On macOS, PowerPoint uses the system measurement setting. To change units to inches, the change must be made in macOS, not in PowerPoint itself.

On Tahoe (macOS):

Open the Apple menu and select System Settings.
Go to General.
Select Language & Region.
Next to Measurement system, choose US (this uses inches) instead of Metric or UK.
Close System Settings, then restart PowerPoint.

After this, PowerPoint for Mac should display measurements (rulers and dialog boxes) in inches.

If this still does not work on Tahoe 26.3.1, it is likely an interaction issue between that macOS version and Office. In that case, reinstalling Office for Mac has resolved Tahoe-related PowerPoint issues in similar scenarios.

References: