Discover the Swoosh Arrow in PowerPoint
PowerPoint gives us a lot of shapes and icons from which we can choose, but doesn’t offer an adjustable swoosh arrow like this one (Figure 1):
Figure 1
Or does it?
PowerPoint had hidden a few awesome shapes that I access often by reaching into the nether regions of SmartArt. The swoosh arrow (my name for it, I have no idea of what it’s really called) is one of them. It even comes with handles so you can adjust the thickness of the base and the size of the arrow head.
Here’s how you can access the swoosh arrow in SmartArt.
Navigate to the Insert Tab on your ribbon and click on SmartArt (Figure2)
Figure 2
In the SmartArt dialog, navigate to Process > Upward Arrow (Descending Process arrow will also work). Select the arrow and hit OK (Figure 3).
Figure 3
You’ll end up with this object (Figure 4):
Figure 4
Under normal circumstances, you would enter your text and end up with a SmartArt graphic for your slide. I never use this. As a matter of fact, I purposely break the SmartArt by, with the object selected as in Figure 4, navigating to the SmartArt design tab, then choosing Convert to Shapes (Figure 5).
Figure 5
The SmartArt properties will be stripped and you’ll be left with a group of shapes. Select the group then ungroup it. You’ll end up with the ungrouped shapes as shown in (Figure 6).
Figure 6
Delete everything but the arrow. You’ll be left with an editable swoosh arrow. Adjust the arrow size, base thickness, and arrow head size as needed.
