How to Use SmartArt in PowerPoint?

Visuals make your presentations more engaging, visually appealing, and easy to process. SmartArt is an amazing feature in PowerPoint that turns your data into visuals. Imagine you need to show different stages of a process. How to use SmartArt in PowerPoint to insert layouts, charts, timelines, and other elements?

All charts, graphs, timelines, funnels, and other such visuals are available in the SmartArt tab. In the Insert tab, you can find the SmartArt feature and then explore the different available templates and smart visuals that are easy to edit and customize.

Category	Description	Visuals/Shapes within the Category
List	Used to show non-sequential information, such as lists of items, processes, or steps.	Vertical Block List, Horizontal Block List, Tab List, Picture List, etc.
Process	Used to show a sequence of steps in a process, timeline, or workflow.	Basic Process, Bending Process, Circle Process, Continuous Block Process, etc.
Cycle	Used to show a continuous process or a sequence of steps that repeat in a cycle.	Basic Cycle, Text Cycle, Radial Cycle, Segmented Cycle, etc.
Hierarchy	Used to show a hierarchy or a tree-like structure, such as an organization chart or a decision tree.	Organization Chart, Hierarchy, Horizontal Hierarchy, Labeled Hierarchy, etc.
Relationship	Used to show the relationships between different ideas, concepts, or objects.	Basic Venn, Target, Radial, Converging Arrows, etc.
Matrix	Used to show the relationship of components to a whole in quadrants.	Basic Matrix, Grid Matrix, Titled Matrix, etc.
Pyramid	Used to show proportional or foundational relationships.	Basic Pyramid, Inverted Pyramid, Pyramid List, etc.
Picture	Used to add pictures to the visuals.	Picture Strip, Picture Captions, Picture Accent, Circle Picture, etc.

How to Insert SmartArt in PowerPoint

Accessing SmartArt is easy, but making the right use of visuals and options in SmartArt requires practice and experience. Here is how to access SmartArt in PowerPoint.

Step 1: SmartArt in the Insert Tab

Open PowerPoint and go to the Insert tab in the top ribbon. You will find SmartArt in the Illustrations section.

Step 2: Insert SmartArt

When you click on the SmartArt button, a new pop-up will appear with different types of graphics. Selecting any category will display other available SmartArt graphics in that category.

Select any SmartArt graphic and click OK to insert the visual into your PowerPoint presentation slide.

How to Edit SmartArt in PowerPoint?

Once you have found the graphics that you want, PowerPoint will show you basic SmartArt graphics with dummy text and limited objects and shapes.

Users can easily add custom text, change colors, insert shapes, and change the layout of the graphics. Select your graphics and then go to the SmartArt Design tab in the top ribbon. Here you have all the options related to customizing your SmartArt graphic.

How to Edit Text in SmartArt?

Initially, SmartArt graphics have dummy text. Users can edit text by clicking on the shape. This might be a little bit complicated if there are many shapes in SmartArt. The other way is to use the Text Pane from the top ribbon.

Select your graphics and then go to the SmartArt Design tab and click the Text Pane button, as shown in the image below. A text editor will appear where you can write, delete, or paste text, and it will automatically reflect on the shapes in the SmartArt.

How to Add Shapes and Visuals with AI?

The SmartArt feature is a useful tool for simple and complicated presentations. But manual editing takes time, and not all users have a strong grip on graphics and design tools. Apart from design tasks, users have to write content for the shapes.

Imagine you are creating a timeline for “Evolution of AI.” You want to add text and visuals to represent different stages of the process. With SmartArt, you will insert a timeline SmartArt first, edit it, and then write text for different stages.

AI SmartArt Graphics in PowerPoint

Twistly is an AI add-in for PowerPoint where you can do all of this within two clicks. Yes, Twistly allows you to insert complete slides with ready-made layouts.

Whether you want to add a slide with three text boxes, pie charts, or timelines, you just pick the slide layout and enter an AI prompt or topic, and Twistly will create visuals, edit shapes, and finally write text for you.

How to Add Slides with Twistly?

Users can make a complete presentation from scratch within a minute. But for this tutorial, let’s see how to add a slide with different elements and SmartArt graphics in PowerPoint.

Step 1

Open a new presentation or existing presentation and launch Twistly.

Step 2

Click the ” Add Slide option, and you will see available slide layouts. You can also apply filters for templates and layouts.

Step 3

Select your desired slide layout. We choose a slide with a timeline and then click Continue.

Step 4

Enter the topic, text, AI prompt, or any other details that you want to talk about in the slide. You can also turn on Advanced AI options, where you can change the language, set the length of text, and also use AI to generate images. Finalize your choices and click OK.

Step 5

Wait for a moment while Twistly does its magic. You will see that a new slide has been added with an attractive layout and relevant content.

You can still use Twistly to make any changes to this slide or presentation with AI.

Conclusion

SmartArt is a simple feature, but customization requires experience and practice, or you can use Twistly for instant slides. Using manual tools and editing features takes time, and for a normal user, sparing 3-4 hours for a simple slide is almost impossible.

If you want to speed up your presentations with AI, download Twistly for PowerPoint. A free trial version is available for new users. It works inside PowerPoint, so you won’t be switching tabs again and again.

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