Chapter 2
Making a SmartArt Diagram
IN THIS CHAPTER
Creating a diagram
Entering text on a diagram shape
Changing the appearance of a diagram
Creating a diagram from shapes
Along with charts and tables, diagrams are the best way to present your ideas. Diagrams clearly show, for example, employees’ relationships with one another, product cycles, workflow processes, and spheres of influence. A diagram is an excellent marriage of images and words. Diagrams allow an audience to literally visualize a concept, idea, or relationship.
This chapter explains how to construct diagrams from SmartArt graphics and how to create a diagram. It shows how to customize diagrams by changing the size of diagrams and diagram shapes, adding and removing shapes, and changing shapes’ colors. You also discover how to change the direction of a diagram and enter the text. Finally, this chapter demonstrates how to create a diagram from scratch with shapes and connectors.
The Basics: Creating SmartArt Diagrams
In Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, diagrams are made from SmartArt graphics. These diagram graphics are “interactive” in the sense that you can move, alter, and write text on them. In other words, you can use them to construct diagrams. You can alter these diagrams to your liking. You can make a diagram portray precisely what you want it to portray, although you usually have to wrestle with the diagram a bit.
Choosing a diagram
The first step in creating a diagram is to select a layout in the Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box, shown in Figure 2-1. To open this dialog box, go to the Insert tab and click the SmartArt button. After you create the initial diagram, you customize it to create a diagram of your own. About 160 diagrams are in the dialog box. They fall into these nine categories:
Diagram Type |
Use |
List |
For describing blocks of related information as well as sequential steps in a task, process, or workflow |
Process |
For describing how a concept or physical process changes over time or is modified |
Cycle |
For illustrating a circular progression without a beginning or end, or a relationship in which the components are in balance |
Hierarchy |
For describing hierarchical relationships between people, departments, and other entities, as well as portraying branchlike relationships in which one decision or action leads to another |
Relationship |
For describing the relationship between different components (but not hierarchical relationships) |
Matrix |
For showing the relationship between quadrants |
Pyramid |
For showing proportional or hierarchical relationships |
Picture |
For creating diagrams that include photographs and pictures (This catch-all category presents picture diagrams from the other categories.) |
Office.com |
For presenting data in tabbed arcs, radials, block processes, and other unusual ways |
FIGURE 2-1: To create a diagram, start by selecting a diagram in this dialog box.
If you intend to construct a “flow chart type” diagram with many branches and levels, go to the Hierarchy category and select the Organization Chart or one of the hierarchy diagrams. As “Laying Out the Diagram Shapes” explains later in this chapter, only these choices permit you to make a diagram with many different branches and levels.
Making the diagram your own
After you select a generic diagram in the Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box and click OK, the next step is to make the diagram your own by completing these tasks:
- Change the diagram’s size and position. Change the size and position of a diagram to make it fit squarely on your page or slide. See “Changing the Size and Position of a Diagram,” later in this chapter.
- Add shapes to (or remove shapes from) the diagram. Adding a shape involves declaring where to add the shape, promoting or demoting the shape with respect to other shapes, and declaring how the new shape connects to another shape. See “Laying Out the Diagram Shapes,” later in this chapter.
- Enter text. Enter text on each shape, or component, of the diagram. See “Handling the Text on Diagram Shapes,” later in this chapter.
If you so desire, you can also customize your diagram by taking on some or all of these tasks:
- Changing its overall appearance: Choose a different color scheme or 3-D variation for your diagram. See “Choosing a Look for Your Diagram,” later in this chapter.
- Changing shapes: Select a new shape for part of your diagram, change the size of a shape, or assign different colors to shapes to make shapes stand out. See “Changing the Appearance of Diagram Shapes,” later in this chapter.
If you’re comfortable creating a diagram of your own by drawing shapes and lines, no law says you have to begin in the Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box. Later in this chapter, “Creating a Diagram from Scratch” looks into creating a diagram by making use of text boxes, lines, and shapes.
Creating the Initial Diagram
The first step in fashioning a diagram is to choose a SmartArt graphic in the Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box. After that, you roll up your sleeves, change the diagram’s size and shape, and enter the text. If you select the wrong diagram to start with, all is not lost. You can choose another diagram in its place, although how successful swapping one diagram for another is depends on how lucky you are and how far along you are in creating your diagram. These pages explain how to create an initial diagram and swap one diagram for another.
Creating a diagram
Follow these steps to create a diagram:
On the Insert tab, click the SmartArt button.
You see the Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box (refer to Figure 2-1). In PowerPoint, you can also open the dialog box by clicking the SmartArt icon in a content placeholder frame.
Select a diagram in the Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box.
Diagrams are divided into nine categories, as I explain earlier in this chapter. The dialog box offers a description of each diagram. Either select a type on the left side of the dialog box or scroll the entire list to find the graphic that most resembles the diagram you want.
If you want to create a graph with many levels and branches, go to the Hierarchy category and select one of these charts: Organization Chart or Name and Title Organization Chart. These two diagrams are much more complex than the others and allow for branching. See “Laying Out the Diagram Shapes,” later in this chapter, for details.Click OK.
The next topic in this chapter explains how to swap one diagram for another, in case you chose wrongly in the Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box.
Swapping one diagram for another
If the diagram you chose initially doesn’t do the job, you can swap it for a different diagram. How successful the swap is depends on how far along you are in creating your diagram and whether your diagram is simple or complex. Follow these steps to swap one diagram for another:
- Click your diagram to select it.
- Go to the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab.
Open the Layouts gallery (you may have to click the Change Layout button first).
You see a gallery with diagrams of the same type as the diagram you’re working with.
- Select a new diagram or choose More Layouts to open the Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box and select a diagram there.
You may have to click the trusty Undo button and start all over if the diagram you selected for the swap didn’t do the job.
To break a diagram into its component parts, select the diagram, go to the Format tab, click the Group button, and choose Ungroup on the drop-down list. (Book 8, Chapter 4 describes grouping and ungrouping in detail.)
Changing the Size and Position of a Diagram
To make a diagram fit squarely on a page or slide, you have to change its size and position. Resizing and positioning diagrams and other objects is the subject of Chapter 4 of this minibook, but in case you don’t care to travel that far to get instructions, here are shorthand instructions for resizing and positioning diagrams:
- Resizing a diagram: Select the diagram, move the pointer over a selection handle on the corner or side, and start dragging after the pointer changes into a two-headed arrow. You can also go to the (SmartArt Tools) Format tab and enter new measurements in the Height and Width boxes. (You may have to click the Size button to see these text boxes, depending on the size of your screen.)
- Repositioning a diagram: Select the diagram, move the pointer over its perimeter, and when you see the four-headed arrow, click and start dragging.
Notice when you resize a diagram that the shapes in the diagram change size proportionally. Most diagrams are designed so that shapes fill out the diagram. When you change the size of a diagram, remove a shape from a diagram, or add a shape, shapes change size within the diagram.
Laying Out the Diagram Shapes
At the heart of every diagram are the rectangles, circles, arrows, and whatnots that make the diagram what it is. These shapes illustrate the concept or idea you want to express. Your biggest challenge when creating a diagram is laying out the diagram shapes.
The following pages explain how to select diagram shapes, add shapes, reposition shapes, and remove shapes from diagrams. They also offer instructions specific to working with hierarchy diagrams.
Selecting a diagram shape
Before you can remove a shape from a diagram or indicate where you want to add a new shape, you have to select a diagram shape. To select a diagram shape, move the pointer over its perimeter and click when you see the four-headed arrow appear on your pointer.
You can tell when a diagram shape is selected because a solid line, not a dotted line, appears around the shape, as shown in Figure 2-2. When you see dotted lines around a shape, you’re expected to enter text.
FIGURE 2-2: A selected diagram shape is surrounded by solid lines.
Removing a shape from a diagram
Removing a shape from a diagram is as easy as falling off a turnip truck as long as you correctly select the shape before you remove it. To remove a shape, select it and press Delete. Other shapes grow larger when you remove a shape, in keeping with the “fill out the diagram by any means necessary” philosophy.
Moving diagram shapes to different positions
If a shape in a diagram isn’t in the right position, don’t fret because you can change the order of shapes very easily by going to the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab and clicking the Move Up or Move Down button.
Select the diagram shape that needs repositioning and click the Move Up or Move Down button as many times as necessary to land the shape in the right place.
Adding shapes to diagrams apart from hierarchy diagrams
Unlike hierarchy diagrams, list, process, cycle, relationship, and matrix diagrams don’t have branches. They always travel in one direction only. This makes adding shapes to these diagrams fairly straightforward. To add a shape, you select a shape in the diagram and then add the new shape so that it appears before or after the shape you selected, as shown in Figure 2-3.
FIGURE 2-3: To add a shape, start by selecting the shape that your new shape will go before or after.
Follow these steps to add a shape to a list, process, cycle, relationship, matrix, or pyramid diagram:
In your diagram, select the shape that your new shape will appear before or after.
Earlier in this chapter, “Selecting a diagram shape” explains how to select diagram shapes.
Choose the Add Shape After or Add Shape Before command.
To get to these commands, use one of these techniques:
- On the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab, open the drop-down list on the Add Shape button and choose Add Shape After or Add Shape Before, as shown in Figure 2-3.
- Right-click the shape you selected, choose Add Shape on the shortcut menu, and then choose Add Shape After or Add Shape Before on the submenu.
Adding shapes to hierarchy diagrams
Hierarchy diagrams are more complex than other diagrams because they branch out such that shapes are found on different levels. This branching out makes adding shapes to hierarchy diagrams problematic.
As shown in Figure 2-4, Office offers four Add Shape commands for adding shapes to hierarchy diagrams: Add Shape After, Add Shape Before, Add Shape Above, and Add Shape Below. What these commands do depends on whether the diagram is horizontally or vertically oriented, because what constitutes after, before, above, and below is different in vertical and horizontal diagrams. Suffice it to say that when you add shapes to hierarchy diagrams, you often have to try different commands, clicking the Undo button and starting all over until you get it right.
FIGURE 2-4: You can add a shape after, before, above, or below a shape in a hierarchy diagram.
Follow these steps to add a shape to a hierarchy diagram:
In your diagram, select the shape to which your new shape will be connected.
Earlier in this chapter, “Selecting a diagram shape” describes how to select a shape.
Choose an Add Shape command.
Figure 2-4 shows what Add Shape commands do. You can choose Add Shape commands with one of these techniques:
- On the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab, open the drop-down list on the Add Shape button and choose an Add Shape command (refer to Figure 2-4).
- Right-click the shape you selected, choose Add Shape on the shortcut menu, and choose an Add Shape command on the submenu.
Adding shapes to Organization charts
An Organization chart diagram offers many opportunities for connecting shapes. The shapes can branch out from one another in four directions as well as appear to the side in the “assistant” position. When you place one shape below another shape, you can make the new shape hang so that it is joined to a line that drops, or hangs, from another shape. These pages explain how to add shapes and create hanging relationships between one shape and the shapes subordinate to it.
Adding an Organization Chart shape
Besides adding a shape after, before, above, or below a shape, you can add an assistant shape to an Organization Chart diagram, as shown in Figure 2-5. An assistant shape is an intermediary shape between two levels. Follow these steps to add a shape to an Organization Chart diagram:
Select the shape to which you will add a new shape.
Earlier in this chapter, “Selecting a diagram shape” explains how to select shapes. As shown in Figure 2-5, shapes are surrounded by solid lines, not dotted lines, when you select them properly.
Choose an Add Shape command.
You can choose Add Shape commands in two ways:
- On the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab, open the drop-down list on the Add Shape button and choose an Add Shape (or Add Assistant) command (see Figure 2-5).
- Right-click the shape you selected, choose Add Shape on the shortcut menu, and then choose an Add Shape (or Add Assistant) command on the submenu.
FIGURE 2-5: Adding a shape to an Organization Chart diagram.
Figure 2-5 demonstrates what the Add Shape commands do to a vertically oriented diagram. Notice that Add Shape Before places a new shape to the left of the shape you selected; Add Shape After places a new shape to the right.
Be careful about choosing the Add Shape Above command. This command effectively bumps the shape you selected to a lower level in order to make room for the new shape. In effect, you demote one shape when you place a new shape above it.
Shapes created with the Add Assistant command land on the left side of the line to which they’re attached, but if you prefer the assistant shape to be on the right side of the line, you can drag it to the right.
Hanging a shape below another shape in an Organization Chart
Besides the standard relationship between shapes above and below one another, you can create a hanging relationship in an Organization Chart diagram. Figure 2-6 shows the four kinds of hanging relationships — Standard, Both, Left Hanging, and Right Hanging. In a hanging relationship, the line hangs from a shape, and subordinate shapes are connected to the line.
FIGURE 2-6: Ways that shapes can hang in Organization Chart diagrams.
You can create a hanging relationship between shapes before or after you create the subordinate shapes. Follow these steps to create a hanging relationship:
- Select the shape to which other shapes will hang or are hanging.
- On the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab, click the Layout button.
- On the drop-down list, choose Standard, Both, Left Hanging, or Right Hanging.
Promoting and demoting shapes in hierarchy diagrams
Shapes in hierarchy diagrams are ranked by level. If a shape is on the wrong level, you can move it higher or lower in the diagram by clicking the Promote or Demote button on the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab. Promoting and demoting shapes can turn into a donnybrook if you aren’t careful. If the shapes being promoted or demoted are attached to subordinate shapes, the subordinate shapes are promoted or demoted as well. This can have unforeseen and sometimes horrendous consequences.
Follow these steps to promote or demote a shape (and its subordinates) in a hierarchy diagram:
Select the shape that needs a change of rank.
You can select more than one shape by Ctrl+clicking.
- Go to the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab.
Click the Promote or Demote button.
Do you like what you see? If not, you may have to click the Undo button and start all over.
Handling the Text on Diagram Shapes
When you create a new diagram, “[Text]” (the word Text enclosed in brackets) appears on shapes. Your job is to replace this generic placeholder with something more meaningful and less bland. These sections explain how to enter text and bulleted lists on shapes.
Entering text on a diagram shape
Use one of these techniques to enter text on a diagram shape:
- Click in the shape and start typing. The words you type appear in the shape, as shown in Figure 2-7.
- Enter text in the Text pane. Enter the text by typing it in the Text pane, as shown in Figure 2-7. The text pane opens to the left of the diagram. To open the text pane, go to the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab and click the Text Pane button or click the arrow button to the left of the diagram.
FIGURE 2-7: Type directly on diagram shapes or enter text on the Text pane.
The text in diagrams shrinks as you enter more text so that all text is the same size. If you want to make the text larger or smaller in one shape, see “Changing fonts and font sizes on shapes,” later in this chapter.
Entering bulleted lists on diagram shapes
Some diagram shapes have built-in bulleted lists, but no matter. Whether or not a shape is prepared to be bulleted, you can enter bullets in a diagram shape. Here are instructions for entering and removing bullets:
- Entering a bulleted list: Select the shape that needs bullets, and on the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab, click the Add Bullet button. Either enter the bulleted items directly into the shape (pressing Enter as you type each entry) or click the Text Pane button to open the Text pane (refer to Figure 2-7) and enter bullets there.
- Removing bulleted items: Click before the first bulleted entry and keep pressing the Delete key until you have removed all the bulleted items. You can also start in the Text pane (refer to Figure 2-7) and press the Delete key there until you’ve removed the bulleted items, or drag to select several bulleted items and then press Delete.
Changing a Diagram’s Direction
As long as your diagram is horizontally oriented, you can change its direction. As shown in Figure 2-8, you can flip it over such that the rightmost shape in your diagram becomes the leftmost shape, and what was the leftmost shape becomes the rightmost shape. If arrows are in your diagram, the arrows point the opposite direction after you flip the diagram. You can’t flip vertically oriented diagrams this way. Sorry, but diagrams that run north to south, not west to east, can’t be rolled over.
FIGURE 2-8: You can flip horizontal diagrams so that they run the opposite direction.
Follow these steps to flip a horizontally oriented diagram:
- Select the diagram.
On the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab, click the Right to Left button.
If you don’t like what you see, click the button again or click the Undo button.
Choosing a Look for Your Diagram
Decide how a diagram looks by starting on the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab. Starting there, you can choose a color scheme for your diagram and a different style. Between the Change Colors drop-down list and the SmartArt Styles gallery, you can find a combination of options that presents your diagram in the best light:
- Change Colors button: Click the Change Colors button to see color schemes for your diagram on the drop-down list, as shown in Figure 2-9. Point at a few options to live-preview them.
- SmartArt Styles gallery: Open the SmartArt Styles gallery to choose simple and 3-D variations on the diagram.
FIGURE 2-9: Experiment freely with the Change Colors and SmartArt Styles gallery options.
If you experiment too freely and want to backpedal, click the Reset Graphic button on the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab. Clicking this button reverses all the formatting changes you made to your diagram.
If your Word document, Excel worksheet, or PowerPoint presentation includes many diagrams, make sure your diagrams are consistent in appearance. Choose similar colors for diagrams. If you like 3-D diagrams, make the majority of your diagrams 3-D. Don’t let the diagrams overwhelm the ideas they are meant to express. The point is to present ideas in diagrams, not turn your work into a SmartArt diagram showcase.
Changing the Appearance of Diagram Shapes
To call attention to one part of a diagram, you can change the appearance of a shape and make it stand out. Any part of a diagram that is different from the other parts naturally gets more attention. To change the appearance of a shape, consider changing its size or color, exchanging one shape for another, or changing the font and font size of the text. These topics are covered in the following pages.
Changing the size of a diagram shape
A shape that is larger than other shapes in a diagram gets the attention of the audience. Select your shape and use one of these techniques to enlarge or shrink it:
- On the (SmartArt Tools) Format tab, click the Larger or Smaller button as many times as necessary to make the shape the right size.
- Move the pointer over a corner selection handle, and when the pointer changes to a two-headed arrow, click and start dragging.
Notice that the text inside the shape remains the same size although the shape is larger. To change the size of the text in a shape, see “Changing fonts and font sizes on shapes,” later in this chapter.
To return a diagram shape to its original size after you’ve fooled with it, right-click the shape and choose Reset Shape.
Exchanging one shape for another
Another way to call attention to an important part of a diagram is to change shapes, as shown in Figure 2-10. Rather than a conventional shape, use an oval, block arrow, or star. You can substitute a shape in the Shapes gallery for any diagram shape (Chapter 4 of this minibook explores the Shapes gallery). To exchange one shape for another in a diagram, select the shape and use one of these techniques:
- On the (SmartArt Tools) Format tab, click the Change Shape button and select a shape in the Shapes gallery.
- Right-click the shape, choose Change Shape on the shortcut menu, and select a shape on the submenu.
FIGURE 2-10: Using different shapes and different-sized shapes in a diagram.
Changing a shape’s color, fill, or outline
Yet another way to call attention to a shape is to change its color, fill, or outline border, as shown in Figure 2-11. Select a shape and go to the (SmartArt Tools) Format tab to change a shape’s color, fill, or outline.
- Restyling a shape: Select an option in the Shape Styles gallery to give a shape a makeover.
- Filling a shape with a new color: Click the Shape Fill button and make a choice from the drop-down list to select a color, picture, two-color gradient, or texture for the shape.
- Changing the outline: Click the Shape Outline button and choose a color and weight for the shape’s border on the drop-down list.
- Applying a shape effect: Click the Shape Effects button to select a shape effect for your shape.
FIGURE 2-11: Ways to make a diagram shape stand out.
Changing fonts and font sizes on shapes
To make a diagram shape stand out, try changing the font and font size of the text on the shape. Before you change fonts and font sizes, however, you should know that changing fonts in a shape effectively disconnects the shape from the other shapes in the diagram. Normally text changes size throughout a diagram when you add or remove shapes, but when you change the font or font size in one shape, it is no longer associated with the other shapes; its letters don’t change their size or appearance when shapes are added or removed from the diagram of which it is a part.
To alter the text on a diagram shape, select the text, go to the Home tab, and choose a different font, font size, and font color, too, if you want.
Creating a Diagram from Scratch
If you have the skill and the wherewithal, you can create a diagram from scratch by piecing together shapes, arrows, and connectors. The diagram in Figure 2-12, for example, was made not from SmartArt graphics but from shapes, arrows, and connectors. Chapter 4 of this minibook explains how to draw shapes and lines between shapes. You can enter text on any shape merely by clicking inside it and wiggling your fingers over the keyboard.
FIGURE 2-12: A homegrown diagram made without SmartArt graphics.
Making a diagram from scratch has some advantages. You can draw the connectors any which way. Lines can cross the diagram chaotically. You can include text boxes as well as shapes (the diagram in Figure 2-12 has four text boxes). Don’t hesitate to fashion your own diagrams when a presentation or document calls for it.