- Understanding SmartArt
- Adding SmartArt to a Presentation
- Formatting SmartArt
- Sample SmartArt Variants
- Common SmartArt Procedures
- Working with Organization Charts
- Troubleshooting
Adding SmartArt to a Presentation
The fastest way to add SmartArt to your presentation is to apply a slide layout that contains a placeholder for SmartArt. To do so, click the down arrow below the New Slide button in the Home tab of the ribbon, and then choose any of the Content layouts from the fly-out Layout Gallery.
→ |
To learn more about how slide layouts affect your presentation, see "Understanding Slide Layouts" in Chapter 2, "Creating a Basic Presentation," p. 30. |
If you chose any of the layouts that includes a Content placeholder, click the Insert SmartArt Graphic button in the placeholder. The Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box opens (see Figure 12.1).
Figure 12.1 The Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box gets you started.
You can also insert SmartArt by clicking the SmartArt button in the Insert tab of the ribbon.
Choosing SmartArt
This dialog box has a tri-pane view that makes exploring and choosing your options a quick, three-step affair:
Choose any of the SmartArt categories that you want to use. The top category called All lets you explore all SmartArt variants available on your system. Other categories place related SmartArt variants into logical types like Line, Process, Cycle, Hierarchy, Relationship, Matrix, and Pyramid.
You might have more categories available if you install a SmartArt collection from a third-party provider, or if you install something newer that you downloaded from the Microsoft site.
- The middle pane shows you all the variants available under a particular category. Large thumbnails of each variant make it easy to find exactly what you are looking for. If you don't find something that you need, choose something that is the closest to your requirement, and then refer to the editing options for SmartArt that are covered later in this chapter.
The last pane shows you an even larger preview of the selected SmartArt variant along with a very helpful description.
When you have selected the SmartArt variant you want to use, click the OK button to place it on the active slide.
Even if you choose the wrong SmartArt variant, you can change it later.