SmartArt is a great solution for converting text to visual elements. For a recent project I modified a simple timeline SmartArt (Closed Chevron Process) with customized drop shadows to add some visual interest to the slide.
All was accomplished by adjusting the shadow distance for each of the 3 elements.
Download the slide here.
– Troy @ TLC
With Office 2007’s SP2 installed SmartArt has become a lot more usable/smarter. Now you can use the great diagram templates in SmartArt and ungroup them if needed. Why ungroup? For fine tuning, modifying to meet the slides exact needs, or animating would be a few of my top reasons.
1. Insert SmartArt
2. Ungroup
3. Result is a single box of grouped autoshapes (and the smartart programming for updating text is removed)
4. Ungroup one more time and you have all individual elements
– Troy @ TLC
SmartArt really makes you look – smart! But did you know the Balance graphic is smart enough to adjust itself…?
Go to INSERT >> SMARTART >> RELATIONSHIP >> BALANCE
Like all SmartArt the graphic is actually controlled by a standard bulleted list.
Here is my sample Balance SmartArt graphic. It has two categories, one for each side. And it starts off with equal balance – 1 bullet point per side.
But if you add more bullets to one side, the scale automatically ‘tips’ to the heavier side! Here I have added a second bullet to Category 1 and tipped the scale.
Note: only primary bullets affect the balance. Adding sub-bullets is fine, but they have no impact on which way the balance beam leans.
– Troy @ TLC
Microsoft’s Office Online has a collection of additional Smart Art objects that can be downloaded and added to the PPT 07 library!
These work in PowerPoint, Excel, Word and Outlook. All are FREE. click here to go to the download page.
– Troy @ TLC