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Old 05-08-2019, 09:33 AM
TAJ TAJ is offline SmartArt hierachy won't keep dotted lines in place Windows 10 SmartArt hierachy won't keep dotted lines in place Office 2013
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Default SmartArt hierachy won't keep dotted lines in place


Hi! I created a SmartArt hierarchy chart for our organization, after finding Visio does not translate very well to Word. (But that's another issue...). So I created an org chart but I had to add dotted lines. To do this, I went to Insert -> Shapes and clicked the elbow connector and placed it in my drawing, changing it to a dotted line. Everything was great until I tried to do anything with the org chart, like rotate it, make it an image, etc. The dotted lines just don't stick with the rest of the org chart or they just completely disappear. Is this a flaw with the program because Shapes are not part of SmartArt, or is it a flaw with my Word skills. Either way, I need to know how to fix this if anyone could be so kind...

Thanks in advance!
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Old 05-08-2019, 06:42 PM
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Guessed Guessed is offline SmartArt hierachy won't keep dotted lines in place Windows 10 SmartArt hierachy won't keep dotted lines in place Office 2016
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Smart Art is highly automated but relies heavily on specific rules to lay out the shapes. For this reason it is not flexible when you want to vary the script such as adding dotted lines.

I wouldn't say it is a flaw with the program but it certainly is a limitation with SmartArt.

IMO, Visio is better for org charts but even the OrgChart Wizard suffers a similar behaviour. You need to be careful about the autolayout features there too.

My recommendation is to not use Word's SmartArt if you have a need for customisations. In fact, I would never recommend Word as a drawing tool - better to use purpose-built applications and let Word manage the word processing and layout. You should use Visio and export the graphic to a format that can be inserted into Word in a robust way. We use a high resolution PNG to avoid any font issues and find a macro is best for creating the exported PNG in Visio.
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Old 05-19-2019, 11:45 AM
TAJ TAJ is offline SmartArt hierachy won't keep dotted lines in place Windows 10 SmartArt hierachy won't keep dotted lines in place Office 2013
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Thanks for the info. The reason I used the word SmartArt was because when you take your drawing from Visio, the fonts go all goofy.
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Old 05-19-2019, 06:45 PM
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If you export the Visio graphic as a bitmap, the fonts can't possibly go all goofy.

I use a macro to routinely export to PNG at a specific resolution.
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