How to use Office 2007 SmartArt

Posted on February 20, 2009 at 5:35 am

Communicating ideas using illustrations are natural for us MS Office users, especially when illustrations are the best way to communicate a certain message. Of course we can create our own good looking illustrations using a separate application like Photoshop or Flash, but if you have Office 2007 installed, there are built-in illustration templates called SmartArt that you can use to effectively present those abstract ideas.

For example, you have a list like the one below which is represented using plain enumerated list:

  1. Stockton
  2. Malone
  3. Hornacek
  4. Russel
  5. Ostertag
  6. Foster
  7. Carr

Now to make that list stand out we will use the SmartArt list template to hold these items on a more visually appealing illustration. An example output is the one below:

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To achieve the illustration above, just follow the steps below in MS Word 2007.

Step 1. Click the Insert menu then under the Illustrations group choose SmartArt:

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Step 2. Choose a type of graphic. In the example I used a Vertical Box List but you should use the right type of art for the content that you want to display (i.e. process, cycle, hierarchy, etc.)

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Step 3. Enter the contents of the text. You should see the SmartArt object change realtime as you edit the text.

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Step 4: Resize the object by dragging the dotted borders.

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You can change the colors and fonts by using the Styles panel. In the example below I used the colors option to change the theme color:

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You can also use the context sensitive SmartArt Tools menu that will appear only when you click a SmartArt object. See the example below where I changed the style of the list by choosing one of the predefined styles:

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In my opinion, it is a big step for users who depended on basic shapes and clip art before SmartArt came out. Thanks to Office 2007 and SmartArt we now have an easier way to create great looking illustrations on the fly.

Ben Carigtan shows you how it’s done.

» Filed Under MS Office Tips

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Comments

2 Responses to “How to use Office 2007 SmartArt”

  1. elmow said on : February 20th, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    This is a well explained tutorial. So many are poorly written or leave steps out – your site is a treat.

    Hopefully SmartArt will make PowerPoint presentations a bit less boring!


  2. Denis said on : February 24th, 2009 at 9:57 am

    Great and all, but… that looks absolutely *awful*! Is there someone who would actually use the final result over a simple enumerated list?


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