PowerPoint 2007 advances the program’s constant move toward more professional-looking built-in art tools. The improvements aren’t just in quantity of graphics, but in sophistication, as well. As you’ll see when you start exploring features such as SmartArt, the new PowerPoint provides subtle design tweaks that can fool a lot of audiences into thinking you’re an undercover designer. SmartArt, in particular, applies slick-looking designs to the kinds of diagrams you’ve probably created from individual boxes and lines in the past.

Look for the SmartArt button on the ribbon’s Insert tab, in the Illustrations section. Click it to open the dialog box with the SmartArt choices inside. Options are categorized by type of diagram, including List, Process, Cycle, Relationship, and a few other, less common, types of diagrams. When you click a category, you’ll see thumbnails of all the available options. Click one of those to see a larger preview on the right side of the dialog box, along with a short explanation of situations that suit that particular diagram. You’ll find diagrams designed for lists of interconnected information, lists with large amounts of text, and more.

Basic Formatting

When you find a diagram you like, click it in the dialog box and then click OK to add it to the active slide. Now it’s time to customize the diagram for your needs.

Trade dull diagrams and bullet lists for quick SmartArt options that add a fresh, professional look.

Diagrams include placeholders for text. Click in them and start typing to add information. As you type, PowerPoint adjusts the font size so the words fit into the allotted space. You can manually change the font, its size, its color, and other elements by highlighting text and using the Font tools on the Home tab. Better yet, look for the ghostly toolbar that appears when you select text. Move the cursor over the toolbar to make it usable.

SmartArt diagrams can act as an overall unit or individual parts, depending on what you click. To move or resize the entire diagram, click it and look for a frame with handles that encompass the entire diagram. Drag the handles as needed. To modify a single object, such as a box or triangle within a diagram, click it and look for handles around just that object. Other parts of the diagram may automatically change shape to accommodate the enlargement (or reduction) you just made.

SmartArt Tools

For more formatting options, click the diagram and look for a new tab called SmartArt tools. The leftmost section, Create Graphic, includes some fast ways to alter the diagram. Add Shape, for example, adds another section that usually resembles those built into the diagram. The Promote and Demote tools move bullet points up or down in the hierarchy, inserting a whole new shape if promoting an item requires that.

The toolbar’s Layouts section lets you try out different kinds of diagrams on the information you’ve entered. Remember to take advantage of Office 2007’s Smart Preview feature. Rest the cursor over an option to temporarily apply it to the diagram on the active slide and click the option to apply it. When you choose a new layout, any changes you entered or color changes you made appear in the new diagram.

The Change Colors button presents a large palette of color combinations you can apply to entire diagrams at once. The SmartArt Styles section might be the coolest part of the whole package. It lets you apply packages of shades, shadows, and angles that create looks more impressive than some of the graphics you see on the evening news.

Joining SmartArt In Progress

Since you’re in the habit, you’ll probably still create plenty of plain-text bullet lists that you realize later would look better as a SmartArt diagram. Anticipating this change of heart, PowerPoint’s designers placed the Convert To SmartArt button in the Paragraph section of the Home tab (the tiny button, which is located in the Paragraph section, that looks like a fat arrow with a sheet of paper on it). Click the button and hover the cursor over the diagram types to see how your bullet list would look in each style. Click one when you’re ready to make the conversion.