Half Circle in PowerPoint 2007
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2007
OS: Microsoft Windows XP / Vista
Date Created: September 14th 2009
Last Updated: September 14th 2009
Excerpt/Capsule: Learn how to create a half circle in PowerPoint 2007.
An Indezine reader asked me if he could create three circles next to each other, and make sure that they looked like this:
- The first circle should be filled-in full (entirely)
- The second circle should be half full
- The third and last circle should have no fill (empty)
The first and third circles are easy -- all you need to do is ensure that the first circle has both an outline and a solid fill, and that the third circle has only an outline with no fill. The second circle though is an easy challenge that I'll teach you create in this one page tutorial using PowerPoint 2007 -- a similar tutorial called Creating Half Circles in PowerPoint 2003 is also available on this site.
Follow these steps to get started:
- Launch PowerPoint. Most of the time, PowerPoint will open with a new slide in a presentation -- PowerPoint 2007 users can change the slide layout to Blank by selecting Home tab | Layout | Blank.
- Under the Home or Insert tab of the Ribbon, choose the Shapes button to view the Shape gallery that you can see in Figure 1. Select the Oval shape, and click once on the blank slide to place an instance of the oval shape. Position the circle as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1: Shapes

Figure 2: Oval
- Copy the circle (select and press Ctrl+C), and paste twice (Ctrl+V) to end up with three circles. Reposition as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 2: Copy circle
- Select all three circles, and add a medium-thick outline to them. You can also change the line color. Your slide will look similar to what you can see in Figure 4.

Figure 3: Add outline
- Select the second and third circles, and format their fills to No Fill, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 4: No fill
- Now create a semi-circle on a new slide, as shown in our Creating a Semi-Circle in PowerPoint 2007 tutorial.
- Set the outline for this semi-circle to no fill, and match the solid color fill to the same as the fill in the first circle (refer to Figure 2). Copy this semi-circle and paste it on top of the second circle so that it looks like what you can see in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Paste semi-circle
- Now carefully select the pasted semi-circle, right-click and choose Send To Back | Send Backward as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Send Backward
- Repeat the Send Backward option until the semi-circle is behind the full circle and looks like a half circle as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Half circle
Related Link: My book Cutting Edge PowerPoint 2007 For Dummies covers many aspects of PowerPoint 2007. A free chapter excerpt PowerPointing with the Best of Them is available on this site.