Hand-drawn diagrams and flowcharts became popular lately, but you cannot use default PowerPoint shapes to create them. In this tip, you will see how to create a custom arrow shape with a freehand effect.

PowerPoint provides a lot of tools that help you to create unique and memorable presentations. Custom shapes allow you to develop reusable pieces and use them many times in the presentation or multiple presentations.

For some charts or diagrams, you need to create a regular polygon – equiangular (all angles are equal) or equilateral (all sides have the same length). E.g., equilateral triangle, regular square, etc.

When you create a shape in your presentation, it is created with the default style and any text that you type has the default font.

For the illustration of the complex organizational structure, you might think about using a Jigsaw puzzle. At first glance, pieces of Jigsaw puzzle look extremely complex, but this isn't true, and you will need a few simple steps to create an impressive Jigsaw puzzle chart.

If you have mastered simple Jigsaw puzzle pieces (see How to create simple Jigsaw pieces using PowerPoint shapes) and 2-D realistic pieces (see How to create 2D realistic Jigsaw pieces using PowerPoint shapes), you are ready to create 3-D realistic pieces. This will give you a presentation look of professional graphical designer work.

Using PowerPoint union and subtract operations, you can create basic Jigsaw puzzle pieces in a few minutes (see How to create simple Jigsaw pieces using PowerPoint shapes), but if you want them to look close to the real ones, you will need to master re-shaping tricks.

Currently, templates with Jigsaw puzzles are very popular on the Internet. Some of them are pretty expensive, but creating your own Jigsaw puzzle piece won't take a lot of time.

If you show historical data, it is often more informative to create a timeline chart. Several different predefined SmartArt graphics can be used for timeline charts.
This tip shows simple steps for creating a simple and informative timeline using data for Microsoft logo design changes (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft#Logo).

PowerPoint proposes a lot of predefined SmartArt graphics, which can help to create your perfect presentation. Sure, all predefined graphics can be modified, but some modifications don't work correctly. This tip shows simple steps that can help you to modify SmartArt graphics.