»
Hand-Drawn Pie Chart
The second hand-drawn chart is a pie chart created to allow us to show additional detail on the slide in the form of a table showing the chart pieces.
The chart is created using pie slices from the Shapes collection. To do this choose Insert > Shapes and then select the Pie shape from the Basic Shapes collection. Hold the Shift key as you draw the shape on your slide so it is constrained to a portion of a circle.
The pie shape will have two yellow handles that you can drag on to size the pie piece as large or as small as you want it to be. Drag on the markers until you have the first segment of your pie chart created.
Duplicate the shape by holding the Control key as you drag a duplicate copy of it away from the original. Doing this ensures this slice of the pie has the same radius as the first piece. Drag on the yellow markers to size this next pie segment. Repeat for as many pie slices as you need.
To format a pie segment, select it and from the Drawing Tools > Format tab choose a Shape Style from the Shape Styles dropdown list. When your pie is created from individual shapes you can duplicate each shape and resize it to insert it over the top of a table such as I have done.
It is also possible to group the pie slices together by selecting all of them, right clicking, and choosing Group > Group. When you do this you can perform functions on the shape as a whole, for example you can add a reflection to the shape.
To do this, from the Drawing Tools > Format tab select the Shape Effects dropdown list and add a Reflection. In addition, because the shape is created from a series of smaller shapes you can size the group by dragging on its sizing handles and rotate it by dragging its rotate handle. When you do this the reflection adjusts accordingly.
»
Performance Chart
Another type of chart that benefits from a more visual approach is a chart recording progress towards a goal. This example chart uses a curved arrow shape to show the current status of the project
To create this chart, from the Insert tab choose Shapes and from the Block Arrows group choose Circular Arrow. Click and drag a circular arrow onto the page. Using its yellow handles, size it appropriately and adjust the arrow point too.
On this chart I have created a series of lines radiating from a fixed point. To do this, draw one line and format it appropriately. Hold the Control key and drag a duplicate of the line away from the original. Repeat this until you have all the lines you need.
Select each line in turn and drag on one end of it moving all the ends so they are on top of each other. Drag the other end of each line around into position. The indicator showing where the current progress is has been colored and formatted differently using options on the Drawing Tools > Format tab. Select the Shape Outline option and choose the arrow to use on the line and the weight of the line.
The starburst shape behind the progress figure is another shape from the Shapes collection, formatted using a style from the Shape Styles palette. The text elements are WordArt objects placed in position on the page. A chart like this is easy to update by simply rolling the progress line around to a new position and editing the text which shows the value of the amount saved to date.
You will find there are lots of ways to create one-off hand-drawn charts in PowerPoint that will give a visual boost to your presentations and still get your message across to your audience.
Helen Bradley is a respected international journalist writing regularly for small business and computer publications in the USA, Canada, South Africa, UK and Australia. She blogs at http://www.projectwoman.com/blogger.html.
Be sure to check out all of Helen's articles in the Exploring Office 2007 series:
