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In my PowerPoint eBook, I have a section called “The Missing Diagram,” where I describe how one would go about creating a very distinct, specialized PowerPoint diagram from scratch.  I call this a “Missing Diagram,” because it’s one of those PowerPoint Diagrams that you don’t think you can easily create with AutoShapes.  In the book, the example used is a tool box diagram.

From the feedback I received, it seems this section was well received and readers would like more similar powerpointing examples.  So, here it is.  In this post, we will create a diagram of a money safe.

To build a custom diagram, I follow a simple 5-step process…

Step 1 – Find an image as your template

Whether it’s a bridge, a dinosaur, or a book shelf, chances are a picture of it already exists online.  The only problem is that picture isn’t PowerPoint friendly—as in, it will look out of place or unprofessional if you just copy and paste it into your present.

Your first step here is to find an image of what you would like to create.  You will use that image as your template.  I find mine on Google Image Search.  Sometimes, I couple my search phrase with words like ‘icon’ or ‘gif,’ because I want to find a template image that is already cartoonish.  I didn’t in this example.

The reason you want to find an existing image as a template is because it is too difficult (and inefficient) to create a diagram based purely on what you picture in your mind.  Unless you’re a trained artist, what you imagine in your head usually looks very different when you draw it out on paper—not to mention on PowerPoint.

Step 2 – Paste and grow.

Paste the image you found into PowerPoint.  Resize the image, so that it takes up the majority of your screen.  Remember to hold down ‘Shift’ on your keyboard as you resize to maintain proper dimensions.  Don’t worry if the image turns blurry or becomes pixelated.

Step 3 – Recreate the shell.

Starting out, this step is the most difficult.  However, with some practice, you will be able to do this with ease.  With the Freeform Line AutoShape (to find this, go to AutoShapes > Lines > Freeform), create the outline of the shape.  Remove any line colors and choose a solid fill.

You can do this with multiple shapes if easier.  For instance, piece together rectangles and triangles for simple outlines.  Just group (Ctrl + G) like shapes together for easier manipulation.  Remember, if you grouped shapes will resize proportionally together.  If, instead, you just select multiple shapes and resize, they won’t resize as cohesive unit.

In this example, I created 2 shapes.  One for the door alone; one for the rest of the safe.  The reason for this is because I would like to show different things (e.g. charts, documents) coming out of the safe in my final diagram.  Therefore, I want the door to be a separate that I want to bring to the forefront of the slide.

Step 4 – Create layers for depth.

Repeat the step before to capture additional detail to you diagram.  It helps to send the existing layer to the back, so that you can work off the original picture for each new layer.  This step is iterative, so let’s step through each iteration.

You see in this first iteration, I just added some additional darker freeform AutoShapes.

And some more.  The knob of the safe was constructed with a couple circles and a rectangle.

I am now adding some smaller details, narrow rectangles and lines, to highlight separations on the safe.

In the next several iterations displayed below, I started using PowerPoint fill effects, such as 2-color Gradient fills and Patterns, to add dimensionality and contour.  In addition, I added Shadows to some shapes for further dimensionality.

Here is a comparison of the final PowerPoint diagram versus the original image found on Google.

Step 5 – Group and shrink.

Group together all your shapes.  Then, resize it down to a more appropriate size.  It is critical to group everything together first.  Otherwise, as you will find out the hard way, your final diagram will not resize correctly.

Now, with your new diagram, you can use it in your slide to portray your original purpose.  See the example below, where I am using the money case to illustrate a vault of PowerPoint slides.

Discounting the time it took to write this tutorial, the actual time to create the money safe diagram took about 6 minutes.

The money safe is now included in the eBook PowerPoint Toolkit, which is a set of 50+ PowerPoint diagrams and templates free with the Become a PowerPoint Guru eBook.

You can download a free PowerPoint plugin called Flevy Tools that creates commonly used PowerPoint diagrams here: http://flevy.com/powerpoint-plugin.  Flevy Tools allows you to dynamically generate Gantt Charts, Harvey Ball diagrams, approach diagrams, and other diagrams.  For the time being, it’s a completely free download.

Questions, thoughts, concerns?  Go to my site (learnppt.com) and shoot me an email.

For pre-made PowerPoint diagrams used in business presentations, browse our library here: learnppt.com/powerpoint/.  These diagrams were professionally designed by management consultants. Give your presentations the look and feel of a final product made by McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Booz Allen, Deloitte, or any of the top consulting firms.

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The following is an except from my eBook, Become a PowerPoint Guru.  This is the introduction to Chapter 8, Approach.

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You will find most executive presentations have an Approach slide somewhere in the beginning.  The Approach shows a simple, intuitive diagram of how a certain initiative is laid out.  An example would be phases of a project (e.g. 1. Define the Problem, 2. Generate Hypotheses, 3. Conduct Research, etc.).  This chapter will cover how to quickly create an Approach Diagram and leverage it throughout your presentation for consistency.

First off, an Approach is nothing more than a sequence of steps.  A very basic example is a series of phases.  See below for an illustrative example:

Almost every presentation produced by a consulting firm has a diagram like the one above.  PowerPoint also makes it very easy to draw a diagram like that, as it is comprised of 2 PowerPoint AutoShapes, the Pentagon (used to start the Approach) and the Chevron (used for all other subsequent steps).  You can find both these AutoShapes under ‘Block Arrows.’  Because these two shapes are so widely used, you may have noticed I have added them as shortcuts in my PowerPoint Set-up (Chapter 2).  See the screenshot below

When you construct this diagram, always use a pentagon to start the Approach.  The flat edge on the right delineates that this is the start of the Approach.  When creating the diagram initially, don’t worry about sizing things correctly.  Once you create the full, X-Step Approach diagram, select all the shapes and group them (i.e. Ctrl+G).  This will allow you to easily resize the diagram as a cohesive unit.

Building on the Approach Diagram

There are many small things you can add on to this simple diagram to add additional insights and depth.  For instance, adding numbered circles furthers emphasizes the sequence of steps.  You can highlight a specific chevron to indicate ‘current phase/step.’  Furthermore, you can add an element of timing using a parallel arrow—or, by resizing the lengths of the chevrons.  The examples below illustrate Approach diagrams with added embellishments.

Example 1


Example 2 (Approach-Gantt hybrid)

Beyond the Basic

So, a series of steps not cutting it for your approach?  There are various deviations from the basic Approach Diagram outlined above.  Here are the most common:

  • Steps in parallel instead of series
  • Steps that are cyclical – i.e. the last step returns to step 1
  • Steps that converge

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I’ll post the rest of this chapter in a future blog post.

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