Distance Cartograms - Part 2 in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

In an earlier tutorial, we've showed you how a distance cartogram can be created in PowerPoint 2013 by using the native shapes and the Merge Shape commands. Now that you have the "donut" structures and a small circle of the cartogram in place (see Figure 1), let us create an actual cartogram from this structure.

Figure 1: Donut shapes will help you create a cartogram

Follow these steps to customise your own distance cartograms:

1. Start with the single circle and the multiple donut shapes aligned together, as shown in Figure 2, below.
   
   
   Figure 2: All the donut shapes
2. Now select each individual shape and apply fills. In this example, we applied a gradient fill to each shape (see Figure 3).
   
   
   Figure 3: Apply gradient fills to the donut shapes
3. Optionally, apply outlines to your individual shapes (see Figure 4).
   
   
   Figure 4: Apply outlines
4. Now let us add a center caption -- in our example, we are going to explore air fares from Atlanta -- so we added a small circle shape (to make a dot) and a text box with the word "Atlanta", as shown in Figure 5, below.
   
   
   Figure 5: Add a center caption
   
   
5. Similarly, add more circles and captions -- do note that each sequential donut represents $50 more (your data may require a different value for each sequential donut) -- place the circles (dots) and captions as per your data (see Figure 6).
   
   
   Figure 6: Add more circles and captions
6. Once done, you can group the entire content. You could also add animation to individual shapes and/or the circles and the captions.
7. Save your presentation often.