PowerPoint Tips: Create professional diagrams in PowerPoint

crop pictures in PowerPoint

By Ellen Finkelstein

In PowerPoint 2007 and later, you can easily convert bulleted text to diagrams that look great — with just a few clicks. For example, you can change this to this.



Why is the diagram better?

  • It shows a relationship among the 3 components, something the bullets don’t do
  • It’s more visually striking, so it attracts the attention of your audience. As a result, they’re more likely to remember what you say


  • These diagrams are called SmartArt. Creating such a simple one is simple:

    1. Click inside the text placeholder to select it.

    2. On the Home tab, click Convert to SmartArt.

    3. Choose the layout you want from the gallery. If the layout you want isn’t visible, click More SmartArt Graphics, where you can choose from all the options.

    4. You can stop there, but I highly recommend trying out the Change Colors button on the SmartArt Tools Design tab as well as the SmartArt gallery options.

    Article continued here

    This excerpt is shared with permission from ellenfinkelstein.com.

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