Creating dashboards in Excel can often feel like you’re recycling the same old bar charts and pie graphs. But did you know that you can convert SmartArt to shapes in Excel? This trick allows you to build more visually engaging dashboards and reports. You can add your personal style while still referencing your Excel data.

Converting SmartArt to shapes is easier than you think, and once you master it, your Excel dashboards will become more flexible and unique. Ready to learn how? Let’s dive into it.

Setting Up Your Dashboard

Before we get to the fun part—SmartArt conversion—start by setting up your Excel workbook. You’ll want two main sheets:

  • Dashboard: Where your visual charts and metrics will live.
  • Data: This holds the raw numbers or information you want to display.

To keep things simple, let’s assume you already have your data ready. You could easily highlight your data and create standard charts, but that’s not what we’re doing today. We’re going to turn SmartArt in Excel into something much more appealing – shapes.

Inserting SmartArt Shapes in Excel

To begin, follow these steps to insert SmartArt shapes into your Excel dashboard:

  1. Go to the Insert tab.
  2. Click SmartArt, then select a type you want to use as the base for your layout.
  3. Scroll down to Process and select Accent Process. This will give you a set of three linked text boxes.

You should now see three text boxes on your sheet. But what if you need more than three? Let’s expand it.

Duplicating the Boxes

In typical SmartArt setups, you’ll have a limited number of boxes by default. Here’s how to duplicate them:

  1. Select the boxes by pressing Ctrl + A.
  2. Press Ctrl + D to duplicate. (But here’s the catch—it stacks duplicates on top of each other, making a mess.)
  3. Undo this by pressing Ctrl + Z.
  4. Now press Ctrl + C and then Ctrl + V while inside the SmartArt box. This will duplicate correctly.

Repeat this until you have the number of boxes you need. In this example, we used eight boxes.

Resizing Your SmartArt Shapes in Excel

Now that your boxes are in place, let’s adjust their size. Trying to resize each one individually would take forever. Instead, resize the entire border area, and Excel will scale them all:

  1. Select the border around your SmartArt set.
  2. Right-click and choose Size and Properties.
  3. Change the Height and Width to 200 each (or whatever works for your dashboard size).

Resizing the border automatically adjusts all the shapes inside, saving you time. You can tweak the sizes based on the actual dimensions of your dashboard.

Changing the Colors

It’s time to make the SmartArt shapes in Excel look good. The default color scheme on SmartArt is, frankly, pretty bland—everything is blue and white. You can change that:

  1. Go to the Change Colors button in the SmartArt tools.
  2. Pick a color combination that suits your style. Even a simple switch can make your dashboard stand out.

Converting SmartArt to Shapes in Excel

Here’s where the magic happens. To make your SmartArt shapes in Excel more functional, you need to convert it to regular shapes. Why? Because SmartArt won’t let you reference specific cells for data, but shapes will.

  1. Right-click the SmartArt border.
  2. Select Convert to Shapes.

After converting, you’ll notice the SmartArt’s default bullet points are gone—this confirms that the conversion was successful. Now you can start linking data from your Data sheet.

Linking Your Data

Now that your SmartArt has been converted to shapes, link your Excel data to the text inside the shapes:

  1. Click on a shape.
  2. In the Function Bar, type = and then navigate to the cell in the Data sheet you want to reference.
  3. Hit Enter.

For example, if your shape is meant to display “Apples,” type =Data!A1 (or whatever the correct cell is), then press Enter. The shape will now update automatically whenever your data changes. Repeat this process for each shape.

Ungrouping Shapes for Customization

By default, your SmartArt shapes in Excel are grouped together. This is handy when organizing, but it can be restrictive if you want more control over individual shapes:

  1. Right-click the shape group.
  2. Select Group > Ungroup.

Once ungrouped, you’ll be able to apply different styles, colors, or fonts to individual shapes instead of applying formatting to the entire group.

Final Tweaks for Your Dashboard

Now that you’ve converted SmartArt to shapes in Excel and linked your data, you can tweak the design:

  • Resize individual shapes if needed.
  • Fine-tune colors and fonts to match your dashboard’s overall theme.
  • Make sure your text sizes are readable.

If you want to take this even further, you could even experiment with WordArt for bold effects on individual shapes.

Conclusion

Converting SmartArt to shapes in Excel is a powerful way to add a unique touch to your dashboards and reports. Regular charts might be quick and easy, but using SmartArt in this way helps your work stand out. By converting SmartArt into individual shapes, you gain more control over your design and can easily reference data from your main sheets.

Not only does this make your dashboards more attractive, but it also makes them more customizable. Try this on your next Excel project and see the difference it makes.

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