Adding shapes

Excel has a large number of shapes (rectangles, ellipses, arrows, triangles, etc.) held into groups that we can use to illustrate a flowchart, process, hierarchy, organizational scheme … Excel can significantly replace Visio, whose purpose is to draw various diagrams, and allow us to display them in the report, and the text that follows will describe the ways they are added and edited.

Adding the shape is done by positioning on the Insert ribbon, and then clicking on the Shapes icon, after which the menu opens that displays a multitude of of available shapes. First we see the most commonly used shapes, and lines, rectangles, basic shapes, arrows, then shapes used in equations, shapes used in the flowchart, stars, flags, pointers … From the menu you need to select the desired shape by clicking on it, after which the menu closes and the cursor takes the form of a cross (+). By clicking on the left mouse button and dragging down to the right, we create the shape that we have previously selected. By releasing the left mouse button, the shape will be created. This form, in the same way as the image, we can move or change the dimensions. The newly created form gets its unique name in the Excel document. Typically, this name consists of a form name and a regular number (eg Rectangle1, Rectangle2) and we can change it if we so desire.

If we click on the Format ribbon, we will see a number of options for formatting the layout of the form. By clicking on Shape Styles, we can choose from some of the style-shaped style styles, and there are other options for shaping the shape layout.

On the left side of the Format ribbon is the Insert Shapes group of options. It is used to quickly add some new shapes that we may need when creating a diagram. We add the new shape by choosing it by clicking on the desired shape, and then repeating the procedure for adding an object that is just described.

Clicking the Edit Shape icon opens a menu with three options. The first option, Change Shape, allows us to change the shape that we added. For example, to modify the rectangle into a rounded rectangle. Then there is the Edit Points option. By activating the point (marker) from which the shape is formed it becomes active, so, for example, by dragging the angles in which markers are into the side we can get some other quadruple shape. Finally, the option is Reroute Connectors. It is used if we have more shapes, e.g. rectangles, which are connected by connectors (arrows). As a rule, the arrow should point to the connection point that is in the middle of each side of an object. By choosing this option, we change the direction of the arrow so that it points to another point of connection. By clicking on the Text Box icon, we enter the text into the selected form. This is useful if we make flowcharts so we want to describe the activities from which they are made.