Creating Semi-Circles in PowerPoint 2003 for Windows

PowerPoint 2003 and previous versions don't allow you to draw a semi-circle shape although that's not an issue within PowerPoint 2007. In this tutorial, we'll show you three ways in which you can add a semi-circle to your PowerPoint 2003 slide. Whichever way you choose, make sure you save one semi-circle so that you can copy-paste and reuse it again whenever required.

First Option: Find a friend who has PowerPoint 2007

Yes, this really is the easiest option:

1. Find a friend or colleague who has PowerPoint 2007, and ask them to follow the steps in our Creating Semi-Circles in PowerPoint 2007 tutorial.
2. Then tell them to save the resultant file as a PPT file, as opposed to PowerPoint 2007's default PPTX format.
3. Thereafter whenever you need a semi-circle, just copy that shape from the PPT file you received, and paste it into any slide as required.

Second Option: Use a Block Arc

OK, this must be one of the most counter-intuitive things in PowerPoint, but it can be done:

1. Get started with a blank slide. Now access the Drawing toolbar, and choose AutoShapes | Basic Shapes | Block Arc, as shown in Figure 1.
2. 
   Figure 1: Basic Shapes
2. Place an instance of the Block Arc, as shown in Figure 2. Note that there is a diamond handle in the left side of the arc tube. Drag it to the right very, very carefully until you end up with a semi-circle. We know, you may not be able to achieve the semi-circle the first time you try—if that is the case, try again.
3. 
   Figure 2: Block Arc
Note: OfficeOne provides a PowerPoint add-in called ProTools (on the ProTools page, look for a section called Tips) that makes it easy to create a semi-circle in PowerPoint and PowerPoint 2007 creates an easy semi-circle too.
3. Either way, you'll end up with an almost perfect semi-circle as shown in Figure 3.
4. 
   Figure 3: Semi-circle



4. (Optional) Rotate the circle 180 degrees using the green rotation handle on top so that your semi-circle looks like what you can see in Figure 4.
5. 
   Figure 4: Rotate at 180 degrees
5. Save your presentation.

Third Option: Get Leftovers From A Chart!

Yes, you read that right you can create a semi-circle from a chart in PowerPoint 2003, follow these steps:

1. Get started with a blank slide. Now choose Insert | Chart so that you are in PowerPoint's special charting mode called Microsoft Graph.
2. Choose Chart | Chart Type to bring up the dialog box that you can see in Figure 5. As you can see, we choose the first option that's a regular pie. Click the OK button to exit this dialog box.
3. 
   Figure 5: Chart Type
3. If you cannot see the Datasheet, choose View | Datasheet so that you can see it as shown in Figure 6.
4. 
   Figure 6: Datasheet
4. Clear the data within all the cells except for A1 and B1. In both these cells, type in identical values—we typed in 100 in both of them (see Figure 6 again).
5. Click anywhere on the slide outside the chart area to exit Microsoft Graph.
6. Select your chart, be careful not to double-click your chart since that will re-activate Microsoft Graph—so just gently select it. Then choose Edit | Copy.
7. Insert a new blank slide (Ctrl + M ), and then choose Edit | Paste Special to bring up a dialog box of the same name as shown in Figure 7. Choose the Picture (Enhanced Metafile) option, and then click the OK button.
8. 
   Figure 7: Paste Special
8. Right-click the pasted chart graphic carefully, and choose the Group | Ungroup option in the resultant menu as shown in Figure 8.
9. 
   Figure 8: Ungroup
9. PowerPoint will warn you that the chart picture will convert to a Microsoft Office drawing object (see Figure 9). Click the Yes button to proceed
10. 
    Figure 9: Ungroup
10. Right-click the ungrouped chart graphic carefully again, and choose the Group | Ungroup option one more time.
11. You'll now find two semi-circles within the ungrouped leftovers from the chart! Select any of them, and copy-paste them wherever required.