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Drawing Target Diagram in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Learn how to draw a target diagram with multiple circles in PowerPoint 2011.

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2011
OS: Mac OS X

Date Created: March 7th 2012
Last Updated: March 7th 2012

PowerPoint provides a large collection of ready-made shapes that you can easily insert in your PowerPoint slides. You can go ahead and add multiple shapes on the same slide and then flip, rotate, reorder, or group them as required, or combine them to create your own new diagrams and designs. These combined shapes help create more involved diagrams such as a target diagram -- in this tutorial we'll show you how simple it is to create a target by placing circles of succeeding smaller sizes one on top of the other. Before we begin, let us show you how a target diagram created in PowerPoint can look like, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Target created using multiple circle shapes in PowerPoint 2011

Follow these steps to create your own target diagram:

Launch PowerPoint. You will see the Presentation Gallery which allows you to set all attributes of your new presentation, such as a preset Theme or template. Make selections or just click Cancel in this gallery to open a blank presentation with a new slide -- PowerPoint 2011 users can change the slide layout of this slide to Blank by selecting Layout | Blank within the Home tab of the Ribbon.

Within the Home tab of the Ribbon, locate the Insert group and within this group, click the Shape button to view the Shape gallery that you can see in Figure 2. Select the Oval shape from the Basic Shapes category since that's what we will use to draw a circle.

Figure 2: Oval shape selected

Now either hold the Shift key while you drag and draw, or click once on the blank slide to place a perfect circle shape, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Circle shape placed on the slide

Create a duplicate of the circle -- there are several ways you can duplicate:
1. Duplicate a shape by dragging, or
2. Duplicate a shape using the Command+D shortcut , or
3. Just use the Copy (Command+C) and Paste (Command+V) shortcut keys.
Figure 4 shows a duplicated circle placed over the original circle we created earlier.

Figure 4: Circle's duplicate copy created

Now we have to resize the duplicated circle to a size that is a little smaller than the original circle. To do that, carefully select the duplicated circle and right-click it -- and from the resultant menu, chose the Format Shape option as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Format Shape option selected

This brings up the Format Shape dialog box (see Figure 6) -- make sure that the Size panel in the sidebar is active where you'll find the shape resize options as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Format Shape dialog box

Now, select the Lock aspect ratio check-box is checked (highlighted in red in Figure 7). Thereafter, reduce the Height and Width values as required (we reduced 1 cm) within the Size and rotate section. Previously, the Height and Width values were 11.05 cm (refer in Figure 6 above) -- after reducing 1 cm, it now shows 10.05 cm, as shown highlighted in green, in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Size values changed within the Format Shape dialog box

This will resize the duplicated circle, as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Resized duplicated circle

Create several such duplicated copies one upon another to end up with as many circles as you need (you will need to repeat steps 4 through 8 for each circle you add, so that each circle is smaller than the previous circle) -- we did this repeatedly to end up with ten circles, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Array of ten circles placed one upon another

Now, select all the circles (see Figure 10) by pressing the Command+A shortcut key on your keyboard, or by dragging a marquee around them.

Figure 10: All the circles selected

With all the circles selected, access the Home tab of the Ribbon, and click the Arrange button. From the resultant drop-down gallery, select the Align or Distribute option, as shown in Figure 11. This bring up another sub-gallery with the options to align and distribute the selected shapes (refer to Figure 11 again). Make sure that the Align Selected Objects option within this sub-gallery is selected. Thereafter, click both the Align Center and the Align Middle options (highlighted in red in Figure 11) one after the other.

Figure 11: Align options to be selected within the Align or Distribute sub-gallery

This will align all the circles to the center of the first circle we created, as shown in Figure 12. Learn more about aligning shapes in our Aligning Shapes in PowerPoint 2011 tutorial.

Figure 12: All circles are aligned

Now, you can change the color of individual circles. To do that, select an individual circle and double click it to activate the Format tab of the Ribbon, locate the Shape Styles group, then click the downward arrow next to the Fill button to view the Fill drop-down gallery that you can see in Figure 13.

Figure 13: Fill drop-down gallery

Select one circle at a time and chose any color to use it as the shape fill color. You can also change the outline color of individual circles, or remove the outline from all circles completely, and you can also change the style of the circles by applying the Shape Styles.

Figure 14 shows the created target diagram.

Figure 14: Target diagram created in PowerPoint

You can even add an Arrow shape on the target created, as shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15: Target with arrow shape added

Tip: It is a good idea to align the target to the center of the slide. To do that you first need to select all the circles (and other shapes such as the Arrow added) and then group them. Then align the target to center of the slide, as explained in our Align shape to center of slide in PowerPoint 2011 tutorial.