Convert Bulleted Text to SmartArt in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

With all the bad publicity that bulleted text on PowerPoint slides gets these days, it may be a good idea to look at some alternatives. One option that works great is SmartArt. If you have some bulleted text on your slide in PowerPoint, you can easily convert it into a SmartArt graphic with just a few clicks. Do note though that this works best when your original bulleted text does not have too much text. Just a few words or a phrase in each of the bulleted items translates very well to SmartArt.

Follow these steps to change bulleted text to SmartArt graphics in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac:

1. Open a slide in your PowerPoint presentation that includes bulleted text, as shown in Figure 1, below. If you do not have such a slide handy, go ahead and create one.
2. 
   Figure 1: Slide with bulleted text
2. Click anywhere within your bulleted text. Then, right-click to summon the contextual menu, shown in Figure 2, below. Choose the Convert to SmartArt option.
3. 
   Figure 2: Convert to SmartArt option within the contextual menu
3. This action activates the SmartArt tab of the Ribbon, as shown in Figure 3, below.
4. 
   Figure 3: Choose a SmartArt Graphic

Contextual Tabs

The SmartArt and Format tabs are contextual tabs. These tabs are special tabs in the Ribbon that are not visible all the time. They only make an appearance when you are working with a particular slide object which can be edited using special options.
5. Within the SmartArt tab, you will find the Insert SmartArt Graphic group that you can see highlighted in red within Figure 3, above. Within this group, select the SmartArt graphic category that you want to apply to the selected bulleted text. As shown in Figure 3, we chose the List category to bring up a drop-down gallery that includes different types of List SmartArt graphics. Thereafter, we clicked on the Vertical Picture List graphic.

Learn More About SmartArt

Want to know more about the different types of SmartArt graphics, and individual categories of SmartArt, explore our What is SmartArt and Some SmartArt Samples tutorials. Also look at our Insert SmartArt in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.
4. You can see the resultant SmartArt graphic in Figure 4, below. This figure shows the same bulleted text, as previously shown in Figure 1, above. It is now converted to a Vertical Picture List SmartArt graphic. Notice the placeholders before the text in the SmartArt graphic? You can click on those placeholders to fill them with pictures.
5. 
   Figure 4: Bulleted text converted to a SmartArt graphic
5. Save your presentation.