AVOID SMART ARTS IN POWERPOINT - Why you should not use SmartArt in PPT and what to do instead

Smart Arts are a function in PowerPoint that is frequently used by amateur users. In professional business contexts, smart arts are rarely used in management presentations. The reason is that they are not practical and rarely produce the professional look & feel that you are aiming at. This video covers all reasons why you should avoid Smart Arts in PowerPoint. It also gives tips on what to do instead, e.g., using the "Merge Shapes" functionality in PowerPoint. I also teach how you can create a process diagram without any smart arts.
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All views expressed on this channel are private opinions of this channel's creator Heinrich. This is NOT an official channel of any consulting firm.

[@FirmLearning]

Interested to learn how leading consulting firms such as BCG or Bain create their management slide presentations? I created an online course on how to create CEO-level slide presentations. If you are interested, this is a discounted link: link.firmlearning.com/slides

[@MrSimonkc]

Uttt

[@letiziamarchetti888]

Firm Learnig I am going to start a new job in Septemeber , could you kindly relase the new course asap 🤣🤣🤣🤣?

[@esakkisundar]

@Firm Learning, Here is a tip to save significant time on doing exactly what Smart Art has already, but without the pain of creating the Smart Art design from the scratch. Step 1 - Decide which Smart Art you would like to create Step 2 - Fill fewer details in the selected Smart Art. Lets say you want to create 5 process and 20 steps in each process, just create the 5 process and 2 to 3 steps Step 3 - Go to Design tab -> Convert -> Convert to Shapes. This will convert the smart art in to normal shapes Step 4 - Ungroup the shapes. You are now free to modify each shape as you wish. These steps will reduce the time significantly.

[@FirmLearning]

Great tip, thanks for sharing! Best! Heinrich

[@Im4Right]

This was much more helpful and less complicated. I am really glad I read your comment.

[@thomashartmann5037]

Exactly my point in a previous comment. Smart Art has its limitations but can save a lot of time and after conversion to shapes the tweaking possibilities are endless.

[@erriwibowo]

Yes, I have been using it like forever

[@wannabedal-adx458]

20 minutes to say Don't use Smart Art and use Shapes and Merge Shapes going forward! BEST 20 MIN SPENT EVER!!! I have been using smart arts for years and having lots of problems. This answers "instead of" question and the "how to" question about consulting presentation I have been asking for years! Danke Heinrich!!

[@FirmLearning]

Happy to hear you were able to take some value out of it ;) Agree that I could have been a bit more concise with this video.. Thanks for watching!! Best, Heinrich

[@wannabedal-adx458]

@@FirmLearning Sorry my American sarcasm doesn't translate well sometimes. Timing at 20 min was just fine. Well worth it!

[@XavierVillafuerte]

Finally KZbin algorithm recommended useful and professional content for me. Your advise and videos are so valuable. Greetings from Ecuador.

[@FirmLearning]

Hi Xavier, thanks appreciate it :) Thanks for watching! Best, H

[@Amanda-qp1hc]

As a current consultant, I find your video invaluable.

[@FirmLearning]

Happy to hear that - thank you!

[@thomashartmann5037]

Thanks for your video. You definitely have a point while showing the problems around adapting Smart Arts to your specific applications, but for our needs (producing educational material for online courses and more) it works just fine. For instance, when you need to tweak a Smart Art, you can always convert it to shapes and then do needed modifications, instead of creating the whole project from scratch.

[@FirmLearning]

Thanks for your input! Great to know that you took value from the video! :)

[@engineeringoyster6243]

I still remember with great clarity when I first saw a PowerPoint presentation. Until this time, people would make their slides using MS Word & simply print these onto transparencies. But this guy used PowerPoint & had discovered transitions. He used every variation available. It was a significant distraction from the technical content of his message.

[@elizabethnevis9756]

🎉 Yay! Thank you! I was going crazy trying to learn SmartArt and had the sneaking suspicion that I would finally get the hang of it the week before Microsoft discontinued it 😂

[@arthurantunes2811]

Me, a few weeks ago starting in PPT: "wow, this smart art feature is so useful, I can create anything". Now, seeing any presentation with these things: "this looks so unprofessional!"

[@robertmontgomery3892]

I'm a retired Software Engineer/Consultant and all I can say is this is what you get when you put engineers in charge of the overall design and they just pull S*iT out of their a** with little or no knowledge of the user's actual needs. I find it to be very sad indeed. Very sad.

[@TheMarinho1]

Thank you for the video. I would love to see an introduction to consulting alignment design principles. There is no video on youtube showing for example how to align a slide with four sections (using the gridlines the right way etc.).

[@FirmLearning]

Hi, thank you for the inspiration! Yes, sounds like a good topic for future videos. Well noted on my ideas list! Best, Heinrich

[@judyl.7811]

0:15 one of the things that be crucial in many roles in business will be powerpoint. 1:35 office support page. 3:25 people do professional presentation don't use SmartArts. 4:25 this is typical chart you would use in consulting. 11:35 it's a huge pain to work with these elements. 12:30 to drag & copy: shift + alt 14:20 you could go to the SmartArts and think out to create more complex shapes without using SmartArts. and act out. 17:10 Shape Format >> Merge Shapes >> Subtract. and this will get the shape you want. 18:00 Combine: subtract the upper part but still leaves the lower part. Fragment: give the subparts of all different shape. Intersect: the overlap part. 19:00 in strategy consultancy is no way to use smart arts.

[@mcdlr9197]

Now you got me.. I always use Smart Arts. Thank you for this video.

[@FirmLearning]

Glad I could help :) Best, Heinrich

[@Tastenrichter]

Nice Video. I am honestly using Smart Art for Presentations and struggle with the automations like you have shown. Lot of training was investet and im a bit more advanced as in your shown examples, but ist clear that I will try forms from now on more frequently. Thank you for your content. Its very worthy.

[@PowerUpTraining]

I believe your stated premise is blaming a tool when the slide contents are at fault. The various example provided contains WAY TOO MUCH DATA for a single slide. Eyes will glaze over if you show more than "five" important points on a single slide. Cramming rows and rows of data into a slide deck is the issue; and yes, SmartArt will crumble under the weight of too much data, but that is not PowerPoint problem, but a content creator design approach. If you need to create complex page graphics, then a true design tool, such as Adobe Photoshop, might be the better approach.

[@FirmLearning]

Hi, thanks for your sharing your view and perspective, much appreciated. Also looked into your channel, interesting! I created this video from the viewpoint of a person who needs to create slides in a top management consulting firm (e.g. MBB). The slides created in these firms often contain lots of data and text. It is a fact that SmartArts are almost never being used in these environments. Though I agree that there might be other use cases where Smart Arts do make sense! Best, Heinrich

[@PowerUpTraining]

@@FirmLearning I appreciate your positive response. PowerPoint is a strange open canvas area with no safety constraints letting people create both amazing visuals and cluttered train wrecks. As like so much in life, much is learned from trial and error; plus getting constructive feedback from coworkers.

[@dagwould]

I've got to agree. One can adapt smart art, but it requires separate text boxes usually. OK for a quick and dirty but that's about all.

[@thecrucible123]

Great tips, Heinrich. Thanks for the reminder of the subtract function.

[@FirmLearning]

Thanks for watching Gavin. Great to hear the video is helpful :) Best, Heinrich

[@unkrautgartenkeinnachname237]

Vielen Dank für das Video :). Ich bin erst an PPT verzweifelt, aber mittlerweile finde ich immer mehr Funktionen, die wie InDesign sind. Vor allem was hier wie der Pathfinder ist, sehr praktisch!

[@FirmLearning]

Klasse, freut mich sehr, dass es hilft. Dir ganz viel Erfolg weiterhin! LG, Heinrich

[@unkrautgartenkeinnachname237]

@@FirmLearning Danke dir auch :)

[@kimrandall281]

This was very helpful - I often struggle with getting SmartArt to look right and your approach is so much better.

[@woonyangchua4124]

Thank you for the video. How do you know which diagram will be most effective to present your information? There needs to be a basic concept before we can create the diagram.

[@FirmLearning]

Hi, thanks for the question. Yes, there are for sure some important pointers on that. Might make a video about that in the future! :) Best, Heinrich

[@takecommandproject]

Great content, Henrich! Thank you. Have you jumped into using Prezi or Prezi video at all?

[@FirmLearning]

Hi Paul, used to use it for a year or so.. but today very much focusing on PowerPoint ;) Best, Heinrich

[@solarpunk_]

The easier way to get what you are looking for is to select the smart art that resembles what you are looking for. Right click and select ‘convert to shapes’. Your smart art will be converted to individual shapes. No need to spend time messing about with ‘union’, ‘merge’, etc...

[@FirmLearning]

Yes, this can indeed also work! Thanks for your comment Tim. Best, H

[@ziranduan]

could you please also give a training about the color used in presentation?

[@mohammedhabeeb477]

Very helpful learning specially the last part of the video where you teach creating Special shapes 👍

[@FirmLearning]

Great to hear it was helpful!! Cheers! Heinrich

[@PayneMaximus]

I don't think I ever used those smart arts, but I must say I agree with you. Besides, even "if" you manage to make it look fine, it's likely that whoever sees the presentation might recognize it and think something like "aha, that guy used a smart art, he must be lazy".

[@guillaumepaquet1551]

Nice useful video but I just have one concern about distributing a bullet list into different shapes at once. SmartArts allow to feed different shapes at once where I see no straight solution otherwise. Another issue is how can we aligned evenly circles shapes for instance on a major circle shape like SmartArts are doing automatically? Thank YOU!😀

[@fuadhasanapiglotis]

I agree with you, smartart limits the opportunity to depict more dimension of the information you want to present to clients.

[@FirmLearning]

Agree! Thanks for watching Fuad. Best, Heinrich

[@terrydouglasjayasuriya5162]

Thank you for the great tips on creating shapes.

[@FirmLearning]

Thank YOU for watching Terry!

[@LoganRankeillor]

I went to college and learned of SmartArt there, I did not like it because I felt it was too complex a restricts creativity. My boss asked me to make a PowerPoint presentation and I made a very neat and professional presentation without SmartArt. My boss wants me to use SmartArt for the next presentation so I started searching videos to help me understand what it is that I am missing with SmartArt? Or... Do I need to convince my boss to give up on SmartArt? Why would she insist on using SmartArt in our presentations, what is the advantage?

[@FirmLearning]

Hi Logan, in the end of the day, SmartArts are nothing more than pre-configured collection of individual shapes. You can get to the same results with shapes. Suggest to use shapes individually instead of smartarts, this will usually create better results. Best, Heinrich

[@K6TJO]

Learned a lot. Thanks!

[@FirmLearning]

Super happy to hear that - thanks!

[@didleo5771]

Very good! thank you. just the volume of your voice is getting lower and lower...

[@pumpkhim]

Hi Heinrich, what about the PowerPoint templates on the market or infographical slides templates? I am in dilemma on should I use those templates to help create better communicated slides.

[@FirmLearning]

Hi, thanks for your comment! Well, depends on the quality of the template. Trust some can be helpful. I also made a video about "How to Use Icons" that shows a solution that I quite like. But you will get very far without templates as well. Best! Heinrich

[@ziranduan]

Is the SmartArt the competitor of Think-cell?

[@FirmLearning]

Hi Guowei, no, SmartArt is a built-in feature in PowerPoint (should be available in your PowerPoint as well). Best, Heinrich

[@hakankeskin9566]

Vielen Dank Heinrich!

[@Knowledge_Nuggies]

In general, I agree that SmartArts look like school presentations and are too unhandy for more sophisticated slides. However, there is one SmartArt that consultants might love: "horizontal hierarchy". It allows you to easily make horizontal issue trees without the necessity to align boxes or - even worse - make sure all lines connect correctly. GIven it's basically only boxes and lines, you also don't recognize it as a SmartArt in the presentation. Also, by using the options "convert to shapes" and "ungroup" you can't even see in editing mode that it was a SmartArt. Finally, as another commentator mentioned, you can in general convert SmartArts into shapes to use the more fancy ones like normal PPT shapes.

[@FirmLearning]

Hi man, thanks for sharing! Yes, do agree that there are some instances where working with smart arts can make sense. Of course these things are never black & white. All the best to you!! Cheers, Heinrich

[@manasakb]

Hi Heinrich, do you create hierarchies as org charts, hypothesis trees etc. manually as well? Thanks

[@FirmLearning]

Hi Manasak, yes I do!! :) Best, Heinrich

[@sdfasdfasdfsadfafsdfasdf9926]

amazing, bless up

[@minhvuongluu7644]

any advice for big table copy from excel to power point ? would take a lot of time to create in ppt but copy from excel make it look a little less nice

[@erickvicunaflores916]

Thanks, man! Your tips really helped me at work.

[@FirmLearning]

Glad I could help!

[@engineeringoyster6243]

SmartArt is a solution in search of a problem. The fundamental error is that the capability of PowerPoint is focused on appearance & not on the content.

[@TheLollypop1355]

Hi Heinrich, how did you automatically add the text boxes to the rest of the shapes at 12:50? Or was that a jump cut?

[@theodoremichael3693]

Just curious, why do you prefer to use Power Point instead of Keynote?

[@FirmLearning]

It is not necessarily better than PowerPoint, but PPT is the de facto standard in business, if you want to collaborate on docs with clients etc., you will be forced to use PPT. I do think that PPT is a great and powerful tool though. Best! H

[@111Econ]

Not many people will share their trade secrets guys. Learn as much as you can!

[@FirmLearning]

:) Thank you for watching! Best, Heinrich

[@andy5003]

what is the shortcut for that drag copy?

[@FirmLearning]

Hold "Ctrl" while dragging the object! Best, Heinrich

[@Psylinguist]

I was using shapes a lot. And I spent too much time for working with fonts and positions of shapes. And then I found SmartArt. No more shapes.

[@FirmLearning]

;) Thanks for watching Valery! Best, Heinrich

[@keeponballin6094]

Thanks Bro!

[@daykz69]

Tries Smart Art, but like you mention it’s just not practical so I just do manually

[@FirmLearning]

Way to go :) Thanks for watching! Best, Heinrich

[@CimolOk-nz5yj]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 📺 *Introduction to the Video* - Heinrich introduces the topic of Smart Arts in PowerPoint and their misuse in professional settings. - Emphasizes the importance of PowerPoint in business roles. - Mentions his intention to provide alternatives to Smart Arts. 01:25 🖼️ *Understanding Smart Arts* - Explanation of what Smart Arts are according to the Office support page. - Demonstrates various Smart Arts examples in PowerPoint. 02:51 🚫 *The Misuse of Smart Arts in Amateur Presentations* - Observes the frequent use of Smart Arts in amateur presentations. - Highlights the absence of Smart Arts in professional presentations by large companies and consulting firms. 04:17 💡 *Process Chart Example in Consulting* - Discusses the use of process charts in management presentations, especially in consulting. - Shows an example of a process chart commonly used in consulting. 05:15 🛠️ *Attempting Smart Art for Process Charts* - Attempts to recreate a process chart using Smart Art. - Discusses the limitations and impracticality of Smart Art designs. 07:09 🔍 *Challenges in Editing Smart Arts* - Illustrates the difficulties in editing and customizing Smart Arts. - Demonstrates the inflexibility of Smart Art designs when making simple changes. 09:07 🔄 *Trying Alternative Smart Art Designs* - Explores other Smart Art designs to find a more suitable option. - Highlights the inefficiency and limitations in using Smart Arts for specific design needs. 11:44 ✍️ *Creating Custom Designs Without Smart Arts* - Shows how to create custom designs and process charts without using Smart Arts. - Demonstrates the flexibility and efficiency of manual design creation. 14:30 🧩 *Creating Complex Shapes Without Smart Arts* - Teaches how to create complex shapes using basic shapes in PowerPoint. - Uses the merge shapes function to illustrate creating custom designs. 18:59 📊 *Conclusion: Avoiding Smart Arts in Professional Contexts* - Concludes that Smart Arts are not suitable for professional presentations. - Recommends manual creation of shapes and graphics for more professional results. Made with HARPA AI

[@MH-qp4ic]

Thank you so much! What shortcut did you use to did you duplicate the dotted line at 13:38 so that it is automatically copied and perfectly distributed?

[@FirmLearning]

Hi, just cut out a bit of the video to not make it too long / too boring :) Best! Heinrich

[@alexfrank1831]

18:00 min - I have learnt something there!

[@FirmLearning]

Thanks Alex happy to hear that!! Best, Heinrich

[@valentinacasadiego6421]

Thanks for the content!

[@FirmLearning]

Thank YOU for watching Valentina!! Best, Heinrich

[@superfreiheit1]

It was a very valuable video

[@FirmLearning]

Thanks!! Best, H

[@marvinschumann6832]

What on earth is the hotkey at 13:36 ? :O

[@FirmLearning]

Not a hotkey, just a jump cut in the video to not bore the viewers too much with me aligning elements :) Best! Heinrich

[@atmorita]

you can identify a Mckinsey slide in miliseconds...

[@FirmLearning]

Yes this is indeed possible :) Best, Heinrich

[@Gazzaroo]

Their logo is a dead giveaway

[@thinzar6394]

Smart art does not look professional and polished! Probably creating own smart art using shapes might be better + think-cell for charts! Nice video content and well-explained !

[@iaan81]

I always wondered what these consultants actually do. Now I know... They make PPTs...

[@FirmLearning]

;) definitely part of the job, yes! Best, Heinrich

[@iaan81]

@@FirmLearning I banned PPT in my company but you've just earned my subscription.

[@DerKurier95]

Soocksessful

[@FirmLearning]

Thanks for watching :)

[@royalmailgold]

Thanks for sharing another great vid. I am convinced now to not use smart arts. Thanks

[@FirmLearning]

Great!! :) Thanks for watching! Best, Heinrich

[@alexh.4842]

so the awkwardness was not me, it was the SmartArt!!

[@ArrogantBaSStard]

It’s pretty much recreating a Smartart when you can use an existing Smartart to communicate the same concepts.

[@FirmLearning]

Thanks for watching!

[@rudingeorge]

till first 5min, you are just saying the same thing!!!! which we alreafy read in the title. pl dont waste viewer's precious time

[@FirmLearning]

Thanks for the feedback Rudin, will continue to work on my delivery (do indeed hope that my newer videos are more concise than this older one). Best, Heinrich

[@TheNickybear70]

watching him trying to use &#%!@?! smart art ☠ is giving me rage

[@FirmLearning]

lol

[@schweiza87]

Imagine building powerpoints for a living

[@81027eric]

SmartArt doesn't smart. 😆😆😆

[@FirmLearning]

Indeed ;) Thanks for watching! Best, Heinrich

[@lakshmanprasad2798]

Not everyone is creative enough to convert their ideas and thoughts into impactful visual graphics, from first principles. It calls for good intuition and insight into the minds of the audience to make it visually appealing. I believe the Smart art and other infographics templates that are available on the internet helps those who are not artistically gifted/talented by way of giving suggested/possible graphic representation of basic ideas/principles used in business communication.

[@FirmLearning]

Fair point, thanks for sharing Lakshman! Best, Heinrich