PowerPoint 2013

Introduction

Video: SmartArt Graphics

Watch the video (5:12). Need help?

SmartArt allows you to communicate information with graphics instead of just using text. There are a variety of styles to choose from, which you can use to illustrate many different types of ideas.

To insert a SmartArt graphic:

1. Select the slide where you want the SmartArt graphic to appear.
2. From the Insert tab, select the SmartArt command in the Illustrations group.
   Clicking the SmartArt command
3. A dialog box will appear. Select a category on the left, choose the desired SmartArt graphic, and click OK.
   Inserting a SmartArt graphic
4. The SmartArt graphic will appear on the current slide.
   The inserted SmartArt graphic

You can also click the Insert a SmartArt Graphic command in a placeholder to add SmartArt.

Inserting SmartArt from a placeholder

To add text to a SmartArt graphic:

1. Select the SmartArt graphic. The SmartArt task pane will appear to the left.
   The SmartArt task pane
2. Enter text next to each bullet in the task pane. The text will appear in the graphic and will resize to fit inside the shape.
   Adding text in the SmartArt task pane
3. To add a new shape, press Enter. A new bullet will appear in the task pane, and a new shape will appear in the graphic. You can delete any bullets you're not using to remove the shapes.
   Adding a shape

You can also add text by clicking on the desired shape and then typing. This works well if you only need to add text to a few shapes. However, for more complex SmartArt graphics working in the task pane is often faster.

To convert existing text to SmartArt:

PowerPoint makes it easy to transform traditional bullet points into an eye-catching SmartArt graphic. If you already have text on a slide, you can convert it to SmartArt. In our example below, we'll change the bullet points into SmartArt to help illustrate a process.

1. Right-click the list or paragraph you want to convert to SmartArt.
2. Hover the mouse over Convert to SmartArt, then select the desired SmartArt graphic.
   
   Converting text to SmartArt
3. The text will appear as a SmartArt graphic.
   
   The text converted to SmartArt

You can also convert SmartArt back to text. From the Design tab on the right side of the Ribbon, click the Convert command, then select Convert to Text

Converting SmartArt to text