SmartArt Internal margins?

[Jenny55]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: intel

Hi

I have inserted a complicated hierarchy into my word doc using the SmartArt options - but the internal margins on the finished product are enormous (almost the same size as the graphic inside).

Is there any way of changing this?

I really don't want to have to do it all again in a drawing package!!

Thanks

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Jenny -

I'm not really clear on what you have or what you want to do - remember, we
can't see over your shoulder All we have to go on is your description.

My interpretation is that the elements within the boundary of your SmartArt
Object don't come as close to the edges as you'd like. IOW, perhaps you've
applied a border to the Object & there's too much space between the border &
the shapes. If that's the case, the Object doesn't have internal margins
because it doesn't contain text (although each of the shapes in it do). But
if you want to increase (or decrease) the size of all the shapes to fill
more of the area, try this;

Select the Object, then Command+A to select all the shapes.

While holding the Shift key use the corner sizing handle of any of the
shapes & drag to increase or decrease their size. (The Shift key maintains
proportionality of the shapes.) If necessary you can then Shift+Drag the
corner of the Object itself to scale it up or down - the elements within
will resize accordingly and the spacing between them & the edge of the
Object will be proportionally maintained.

If this doesn't address your problem please provide a more detailed
description of the situation, which SmartArt object you're using & what you
want to accomplish.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Jenny55]

Hi Bob

Thanks for the reply (and some new short cuts I didn't know). But my problem is not solved and I realize that I gave you little to go on.

I am using the "grouped hierarchy" SmartArt and I have 4 groups and about 20 levels in my hierarchy. I don't think I put a border in there. The one I am having a problem with is the blue box that delineates the boundaries of the SmartArt. It is a good 2 - 3 inches away from the text box elements inside. When I try and make it smaller - it makes the boxes inside smaller as well. When I tried making the objects inside bigger (following your instructions) it went completely crazy and moved everything around into different locations.

I suppose I can save it as a picture and crop it - but then I can't edit it if I need to.

Sorry if this still makes no sense - it's a bit hard to describe.

Jenny

 

[CyberTaz]

OK - That's one of the more complex combinations. I can't seem to duplicate
what you're describing but I think I get the idea. Trying to rescale that
one is a bit tricky. If you haven't applied a border, however it shouldn't
be a problem. The size of the bounding box really doesn't matter because
without a border it only displays when selected. That makes me think that
your actual objective is to get the document text to come closer to the
shapes within the boundary, right?

If that's the case, don't worry about changing the size of anything. What
you need to do is control how the text flows - or *wraps* - around the
object. Take a look at the Formatting Palette while the object is selected &
you'll see a section called Wrapping. Alternatively you can work through the
Format> Shape dialog. Try starting with these settings:

Style: Tight
Wrap to: Right

Note that you can also change the margin offsets to determine how close the
text can come to the shapes within the boundary. The margins can also be set
to negative values if necessary.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Suzan O'Connell]

Hi Jenny and Bob...I have been going crazy with the same problem. The Text wrapping feature you suggested does not work for me as the option doesn't seem to recognize the SmartArt Graphic as a graphic. (this was the first option I tried). I also tried selecting the SmartArt Graphic to try to 'crop' the white space out but the picture palette doesn't recognize the smart art graphic as a picture. It seems to think it is text so...I tried to reset the margins but that only screwed up the margins in my whole document. So...I inserted section breaks above and below the document and tried to set the margins for the section only but...this doesn't seem to be a feature included in Word 8. Any other ideas? :chagrin:

 

[Jenny55]

Hi Suzan and Thanks Bob for all your helpful suggestions. Unfortunately I gave up. I ended up saving the SmartArt as a picture, then cropping it. I now have two versions of my document - one for printing that has the SmartArts as pictures (which means you can't edit them) and another for editing with them left as SmartArts.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Suzan -

You've actually interjected 3 issues here, 2 of which are off-topic, so I'll
address them first

1- You're correct that SmartArt Graphics cannot be Cropped because they are
not "pictures".

2- Setting separate margins for different sections definitely is able to be
done in Word 2008 and is done exactly as in 2004. If you're having a problem
with that please post as a separate message with the appropriate Subject &
provide complete details on how you're proceding as well as exactly what
does/doesn't happen when you try. Also include your OS & Mac specifics.
However, that isn't the solution to this problem anyway (as I understand
it). Also, many printers will not respect variable margins on the same page.

Now - as to the main issue...

Select the SmartArt Graphic (not one of the shapes within), then go to
Format> Shape, select Layout from the left list and reply with what you
find. The same settings should be available on the Formatting Palette in the
Wrapping section. If that section isn't displayed in the FP click the curved
arrow button at the right end of the Palette's title bar and add a check to
Wrapping in the list. If you continue to have difficulty *please* give
specifics when you post back - "does not work for me" doesn't tell us
anything useful

 

[Jason Andersen [MSFT]]

Hello Jenny,

From what I can understand, the issue you are having is that as you add
additional objects (referred to as "nodes") to the diagram, the left and
right "margins" of the smartart get small. That is, you wind up having
something like this:

Edge of smartart -> | (lots of space) | (edge of first group)
and the same thing on the right side, correct?

The reason for this is because there are a lot of nodes vertically, so in
order to maintain the look of the diagram, the diagram grows vertically as
nodes are added. Unfortunately, because the size of the actual diagram isn't
changing, in order to maintain that look, the diagram gets "smaller" and
thus there is white space that grows on the sides of the diagram.

To fix this, resize the entire diagram (that's the frame around the entire
diagram, not the objects inside the diagram) vertically. That is, stretch it
either up or down. This should cause the nodes to resize to a larger size,
and thus will eliminate the whitespace on the left and right margins.

Please do let me know if this doesn't remedy the issue, or if it is a
different issue you are seeing and I'm just not understanding.

- Jason

 

[daiva.mackenzie]

Hello Jenny,

From what I can understand, the issue you are having is that as you add
additional objects (referred to as "nodes") to the diagram, the left and
right "margins" of the smartart get small. That is, you wind up having
something like this:

Edge of smartart -> | (lots of space) | (edge of first group)
and the same thing on the right side, correct?

The reason for this is because there are a lot of nodes vertically, so in
order to maintain the look of the diagram, the diagram grows vertically as
nodes are added. Unfortunately, because the size of the actual diagram isn't
changing, in order to maintain that look, the diagram gets "smaller" and
thus there is white space that grows on the sides of the diagram.

To fix this, resize the entire diagram (that's the frame around the entire
diagram, not the objects inside the diagram) vertically. That is, stretch it
either up or down. This should cause the nodes to resize to a larger size,
and thus will eliminate the whitespace on the left and right margins.

Please do let me know if this doesn't remedy the issue, or if it is a
different issue you are seeing and I'm just not understanding.

- Jason

What you need to do is ungroup the smart art and then go into the textbox formatting and adjust the margins that way

 

[daiva.mackenzie]

You need to ungroup the smartart and then go into each shapes textbox formatting and adjust the margin that way