Smart Art re-sizing issue

Anonymous
2010-02-16T20:44:14+00:00

I often need to use hierarchies in presentations and documents (word or powerpoint). The smart art function seems like a dream for this sort of thing, however, it never works. Anything more than the simplest graphic is hopelessly mis-sized.  The problem is, as you add more layers, the boxes and the size shrink. When you attempt to change the size on one box (eg make it bigger), the other boxes change (become even smaller) relative to the first box. It is like some sort of cruel joke: the more you try to fix one box, the more jumbled the other boxes become. A hierarchy would be far more useful if you could adjust the sizes of individual boxes to show their relative importance or to emphasize a particular part.

There must be some way to lock the the size/position of part of the graphic or to adjust only specific parts without effecting the others. If not, then this "tool" strikes me as completely useless and I wonder if anyone anywhere in the world ever uses it? I have not been able to find any help any place else, so this is my last hope.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2010-02-18T00:29:09+00:00

Yeah, I read that help article before I posted here. It does not answer the question.

Let me restate the problem. When you change the size of one box, the others change as well. I suppose that it is intended to be relative size change (as discussed in the help article), but it does not work with hierarchies of more than three levels or when resizing several boxes. I guess the algorithms which are meant to auto adjust the relative size where not constructed to handle anything more than the most simple graphic.

So, again, the question is: **is there a way to disable the auto re-sizing of shapes.**In other words, to prevent powerpoint (or word) from auto re-sizing boxes and only change the size of a single box.

This problem seems to be worse in powerpoint, but is easily demonstrated in word as well.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-12-22T16:57:42+00:00

    This link is broken. Do we have any up to date information on this?

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-11-30T21:30:08+00:00

    I had the same question and tried a tip I found in a forum. I think it works pretty well.

    • Disable the Slide Layout content placeholder by changing the Slide Layout (Home tab) to either "Blank" or "Title". No more auto-layout! Yay!

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-07T18:36:09+00:00

    I typically opt to "insert shape" and then insert a text box with.  It's a bit of a pain, but nowhere near the annoyance of the auto-resizing SmartArt does.  TIP: To move the shape and text box together or copy/paste both together, just select one, press and hold Ctrl and select the other.  Viola, you have both selected simultaneously.

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