How to remove a fragment of a shape in PowerPoint?

I have a circle and I want to remove a fragment. I tried to use a square to include the fragment.

But none of the Merge Shapes could achieve it.

So how to do it properly?

2 Answers

Use the Pie shape tool

Draw a Pie just as you would a circle (hold down shift to make it same width and height). Grab the yellow marker to adjust the size of the segment that is removed from the complete circle.

Change the fill and line colour as for any other shape, then choose "Edit Points" from the right-mouse context menu.

Select one of the straight segments and choose "Delete Segment" from the right-mouse context menu.

If the other "straight" segment now changes into a curved line (it does on my version of PowerPoint), right-click and change it into a "Straight Segment" before proceeding.

Now at this point, I don't understand why PowerPoint doesn't allow you to delete the other straight segment, but so long as it is a straight segment, you can just move the point in the centre of the circle to be exactly on top of the point at the other end of the straight segment to essentially remove that segment. It may be that newer versions of PowerPoint don't have this quirk.

Finally click anywhere outside the shape to exit from "Edit points" mode.

A possible solution:

1. Add the circle then a rectangle.

2. Change the Shape fill and Shape Outline colors f the rectangle to White.

3. Group both shapes, so they move together if/when you move the circle.