In this tutorial, we’ll create a flowchart also known as SmartArt in Excel. Microsoft Excel allows you to create bar charts, histograms, line charts and pie charts, and many more types of graphical representations for a tabular dataset.
Steps to create a flowchart in Excel
Let’s get started with this step-by-step tutorial to creating a flowchart using SmartArt in Excel.
For example, you work in a company in the logistics department and are looking forward to creating a flowchart explaining the complete product delivery process to customers.
Let’s create a flowchart in Excel to achieve this.
- Open an Excel workbook.
- Go to the Insert tab.
- Under Illustrations group, select SmartArt.
- A window named Choose a SmartArt Graphic opens.
You can choose a style that suits you best from a wide variety of chart styles from multiple categories in SmartArt in Excel. The most recommended graphics can be found in the Process, Cycle, and Hierarchy categories, but you can always explore the other categories to match your needs.
- We have selected the Basic Process option under the Process category.
- Click OK to continue.
You can find that a flowchart has been created and is ready for you to make changes and edit it the way you like.
Add or delete shapes in a flowchart
You can see that you’ve been provided with 3 text boxes to name each process. But what to do if there are more than 3 processes? To add an additional text box, here is what you can do.
- Click in the flowchart area.
- Go to the Design tab that appears once a chart is selected.
- Under Create Graphic window, directly click on Add Shape.
- If you have selected a specific text box in the chart, then pull down on this button and select Add Shape Before or Add Shape After.
You can see that a new shape has been added and you can now name the next process. Another way you can add or delete a shape in a flowchart is as follows.
- Click anywhere in the chart area.
- Go to the Design tab.
- Under Create Graphic group, select Text Pane.
- Type the text you want in a box and press ENTER to add a new box and create a text for it too, all in one place.
- Backspace on a bullet point to delete that shape and text from the flowchart.
Changing positions of shapes in a flowchart
To convert a flowchart from flowing from right to left to left to right.
- Go to the Design tab.
- Select Right to left under the Create Graphic section.
To swap two shapes:
- Click on the shape you want to swap.
- Click on Move Up or Move Down to change shift a shape it from its current position to the next position and swap the next shape in its former position.
To combine two shapes together:
- Go to the Design tab.
- Click on any textbox except the first one.
- Select Demote under the Create Graphic section.
The box you demoted gets combined with the box placed before it.
Customizing flowcharts in Excel
Once you’ve added all the processes to the flowchart, you might want to customize it a little bit more to make it look presentable and legible.
Changing the size of a flowchart
If your flowchart is too small to view, then you can resize it by adjusting the circles outside the flowchart like this.
Customizing the textbox in a flowchart
To resize a box, change its color, shape, etc. follow these steps.
To change the size of a box.
- To increase or decrease the size of the textboxes in the flowchart, click on the text box and adjust the size by adjusting the circles bordering each box.
- Or go to the Format tab.
- Select the textbox for which you want to change the size.
- If you want to change the sizes of all textboxes, then press and hold CTRL and click on the other boxes one by one after clicking the first box naturally.
- Click Larger to increase the size or Smaller to decrease the size under the Shapes group.
To change the color of the boxes.
- Click in the chart area.
- Go to the Design tab.
- Under SmartArt Styles, pull-down on Change Colors and choose a color you like.
To change the shape of the boxes.
- Go to the Format tab after clicking the chart area.
- Select the textbox for which you want to change the shape.
- If you want to change the shapes of all textboxes, then press and hold CTRL and click on the other boxes one by one after clicking the first box naturally.
- Under the Shapes group, click Change Shape.
You can see that the shapes of the boxes have been changed all at once.
Customizing the text in a flowchart
To change the text size, color, and font style in a flowchart, do as follows.
- To change the text sizes of all boxes in a chart click anywhere in the chart area.
- To change the text size of a specific box, click on that textbox and start editing.
- In the Home tab, increase or decrease the font size, change text color, and change font style under the Font group.
To add bulleting to the texts in a shape.
- Select the textbox to which you want to add bullets.
- If you wish to add bullets to all textboxes, then press and hold CTRL and click on the other boxes one by one after clicking the first box naturally.
- Go to the Design tab.
- Click Add Bullet.
- Or press ALT+7 before a text to add a bullet.
You can see that a bulleted text has been added in the flowchart shape.
Conclusion
This article was all about creating and customizing flowcharts in Excel. If you have any doubts regarding flowcharts, comment below and let us know!
References: Lucidchart