Drawings aren't being removed or deleted in PowerPoint

Hello H R,

Based on your description, your drawings are not being deleted is that they are not normal objects like shapes or images. In your screenshot, the black lines are created using PowerPoint’s Draw (ink) tool, which means they are stored as ink strokes. Ink behaves differently from regular objects. If PowerPoint is still in drawing mode, you cannot select or delete those strokes, so they appear “stuck” even when you press Delete.

To fix this, follow these steps.

STEP 1 — EXIT DRAWING MODE

Press "Esc" on keyboard OR go to "Draw" tab > click "Select" (arrow tool)

This switches from drawing to selecting, and without this nothing can be deleted.

STEP 2 — TRY NORMAL DELETE

Click directly on the drawing Press "Delete"

If it deletes, you are done. If not, continue to the next step.

STEP 3 — USE LASSO SELECT (FOR INK ONLY)

Go to "Draw" tab Click "Lasso Select Draw" a circle around the ink lines Press "Delete"

This is required because ink must be selected differently from normal objects.

STEP 4 — USE ERASER (ALTERNATIVE METHOD)

Go to "Draw" tab Click "Eraser Drag" over the ink until it disappears

PowerPoint removes ink by erasing strokes, so this works when delete does not.

I hope this will help with your situation. Please feel free to reach back if you have further update or more questions.

Best Regards,

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Those strokes are ink annotations. How they are removed depends on where they were created.

1. If they were drawn during Slide Show (presentation mode):
   1. Start the slide show on the slide that has the ink.
   2. Right‑click the slide, point to Pointer Options.
   3. Choose Eraser, then hold down the left mouse button and drag over the ink you want to remove.
   4. Or choose Erase All Ink on Slide to delete all annotations on that slide at once.
2. If they were saved to the slide and behave like normal drawing objects:
   1. Click once on a stroke to select it (a gray outline/handles appear when selected).
   2. Press Delete on the keyboard.
   3. To delete multiple strokes at once, hold Ctrl while clicking each one, then press Delete.

If an ink stroke is behind other objects and cannot be clicked, open Home → Select → Selection Pane, locate the ink object in the list, drag it to the top layer, then select it on the slide and press Delete.

References:

• Draw on slides during a presentation
• Delete a picture in PowerPoint
• Add a drawing to a document