"Our Process" - Creating a Process Flow Chart - Part 1

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About this lesson

We will create a cross-functional process flowchart using flowchart shapes. This includes: inserting and formatting tables, connecting shapes with lines and connectors, resizing objects and adding text. 

Quick reference

Slide 7: Our Process - Creating a Process Flow Chart - Part 1

In Part 1 of this lesson we are going to create a cross-functional process flowchart. This type of flowchart is similar to a standard flowchart but each step of the process is determined based on responsibility. Our flowchart will be contained within a PowerPoint table and we will use flowchart shapes, lines, connectors, format painter and text boxes to build the flowchart. 

When to use

Use shapes in the flowchart category whenever you want to build a flowchart to show the steps in a process. 

Instructions

Insert a Table

  1. From the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click Table.
  2. Create a 3 column by 2 row table by dragging the mouse over the grid. 
  3. Drag the bottom of the table down to the bottom of the slide. 
  4. Select the table. 
  5. From the Home tab, in the Drawing group, click Align. 
  6. Select Align Middle and Align Center. 
  7. Adjust the height of the table and the first row as necessary. 
  8. In the first row add the headings 'Customer', 'Admin Team' and 'Trainer'.
  9. Hover the mouse to the left of the first row of the table. 
  10. Click to select the first row. 
  11. From the Home tab, in the Font group, change the font style to Lato Black. 
  12. In the Paragraph group, select Center. 
  13. From the Layout tab, in the Alignment group, select Center Vertically. 

Create a Cross-Functional Flowchart with Shapes

We will use Flowchart Shapes to build a cross-functional flowchart. 

  1. From the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Shapes. 
  2. In the Flowchart category, select Flowchart: Terminator. 
  3. Draw a terminator in the 'Customer' column of the table. 
  4. Add the text 'Start' to the terminator. 
  5. Select the text. 
  6. From the Home tab, in the Font group, change the font style to Lato and the font size to 18. Apply bold formatting.  
  7. From the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Shapes. 
  8. In the Flowchart category, select Process. 
  9. Draw a process shape in the 'Customer' column directly underneath the terminator. Leave a gap between the two shapes. 
  10. Use the Smart Guides to help with width. 
  11. Add the text 'Books Training Course' to the process shape. 
  12. Select the text in the terminator shape. 
  13. From the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Format Painter. 
  14. Click on the placeholder of the process shape to paste the formatting. 
  15. Press CTRL+D to duplicate the process shape. 
  16. Move the shape to the 'Admin Team' column.
  17. Add the text 'Process Booking' to the process shape. 
  18. From the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Shapes. 
  19. In the Flowchart category, select Decision. 
  20. Draw a decision box in the 'Admin Team' column directly underneath the process shape. Leave a gap between the two shapes. 
  21. Use the Smart Guides to help with width. 
  22. Add the text 'Spots Available?' to the decision box.

Hints & tips

  • Flowcharts and other types of process charts can also be created using SmartArt Graphics. 
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  • 00:04 In this lesson I'm going to show you how to create a process flow chart
  • 00:08 in PowerPoint, and specifically a cross functional process flow chart.
  • 00:13 If you've never heard of this before,
  • 00:16 I have one displayed on the screen right now.
  • 00:19 And a cross functional process flowchart
  • 00:22 is pretty much the same to a regular flowchart,
  • 00:24 in that it lays out a process of something which could be pretty much anything.
  • 00:29 But it's divided into different sections, depending on who is responsible for
  • 00:34 that part of the process.
  • 00:36 So if we take a quick look at this process flow chart,
  • 00:39 you can see that this is the booking process for a training course.
  • 00:44 So it starts out with the customer.
  • 00:45 They book the training course, possibly online or via the phone.
  • 00:49 It then moves across to the admin team who process that booking.
  • 00:54 They check if there are any spots free on this training course and if they are,
  • 00:58 the responsibility then moves across to the trainer to deliver the course.
  • 01:02 If there are no spots free then the admin team will contact the customer.
  • 01:07 The customer then decides if they want to cancel.
  • 01:10 And if they don't, it basically moves round to the start of that process again,
  • 01:14 so they can book another training course.
  • 01:16 So this is a really nice way of showing a process determined by roll.
  • 01:21 Now the way that I've created this is pretty straightforward.
  • 01:24 I've used a table and I've used some process, shapes and connectors.
  • 01:30 So let me show you how I put this together.
  • 01:32 So I'm starting out with just a blank slide that has my background on it, and
  • 01:36 this is just a duplicate of that title slide again.
  • 01:38 So the first thing I need to do here is add a table.
  • 01:41 Now, you might be used to working with tables in something like Word and
  • 01:46 I will say the process is pretty much the same.
  • 01:48 But you'll find out that with tables in PowerPoint you do have a lot less
  • 01:52 flexibility, but they're good enough for the job that we need to do.
  • 01:55 And they're just going to ensure that we get a really nice consistent layout to our
  • 01:59 process flow chart.
  • 02:01 So let's jump up to insert.
  • 02:03 And we're going to go to table and
  • 02:05 we're going to create a table that is three columns by two rows.
  • 02:10 I need to resize this using my resize handles.
  • 02:13 I'm just going to drag it out on both sides.
  • 02:16 And let's drag it all the way down to the bottom.
  • 02:19 And I'm going to use my alignment tools to align this whole thing to the middle and
  • 02:25 also to the center.
  • 02:28 Now immediately I can see that this first row,
  • 02:31 which is basically going to house my column headings is a little bit too wide.
  • 02:36 So if I hover my mouse over the boundary of the rows at the bottom,
  • 02:42 I can just drag up to resize that first row.
  • 02:46 And I think I'm going to make it about that big, and
  • 02:50 then I can jiggle around with this until I get it exactly the size that I want.
  • 02:55 And I think that is pretty much good enough.
  • 02:58 Let's add our titles.
  • 03:06 And we need to do a little bit of formatting here.
  • 03:09 So I'm going to select that top row just by hovering my mouse
  • 03:13 in that left hand margin until I see that little black arrow,
  • 03:17 clicking and then I can go in and set my fonts.
  • 03:21 So let's choose lato black, and I'm reasonably happy with that size.
  • 03:25 But what I do want to do is align them to the middle.
  • 03:29 And also if I go up to layout, you'll see that in addition to horizontal
  • 03:33 alignment tools, I also have some vertical alignment tools as well.
  • 03:38 So I want these to be vertically in the middle, so let's do that.
  • 03:43 And there we go, job one complete.
  • 03:46 Now I have my headings, I'm going to start out to build out my process flow chart.
  • 03:50 And once again, I'm not going to go through the entire process flow chart, but
  • 03:54 I will show you some key points.
  • 03:56 Now, when you are building something like this,
  • 03:59 you have a special set of shapes specifically for creating flow charts.
  • 04:04 So let's jump up to insert and go into our shapes gallery.
  • 04:08 And you'll see, towards the bottom, we have a group called flow chart, and
  • 04:12 this is where you'll find things like your process boxes, decision boxes, start and
  • 04:16 end boxes, things like that.
  • 04:18 So I'm going to grab the first one.
  • 04:21 Which is what we call a terminator and I'm going to just drag and
  • 04:26 create the first part of my process chart.
  • 04:30 Let's type in start, and once again,
  • 04:32 I'm probably going to want to apply some formatting.
  • 04:35 And the reason why I keep having to apply this formatting is because I'm using
  • 04:39 a different font to the one determined by my theme.
  • 04:42 So let's go for lato, and I'm actually going to take that down a little bit and
  • 04:46 make it bold.
  • 04:48 Now we're going to change all the colors at the end and make this look a little bit
  • 04:51 nicer, but for the time being, I'm just going to start adding in different shapes.
  • 04:55 So next I want to add a process box.
  • 05:01 And let's just draw one of these, and you'll see as I'm drawing,
  • 05:04 I'm getting my little guidelines come up,
  • 05:07 which is going to really help me when it comes to sizing.
  • 05:10 because I want this to be exactly the same width as the terminator above.
  • 05:18 Now a quick way for me to copy across this formatting is to use my format painter.
  • 05:23 So if I select this start shape, go to my home tab and select format painter,
  • 05:29 I can then click and it's going to make that exactly the same.
  • 05:35 Now, I think for this one I want to make this a little bit longer, and
  • 05:38 I might even decide that I want to take that font down very slightly.
  • 05:45 I'm then going to add another process box.
  • 05:47 So what I'm going to to do is just duplicate this one, Ctrl+D.
  • 05:52 And I´m going to drag this across the ADMIN TEAM area.
  • 05:56 And I´m going to use my guidelines to make sure it´s not lined up in the center
  • 06:02 of that column, but also with the shape in the customer column.
  • 06:06 Next, I need to add a decision box, so back up to Insert into shapes,
  • 06:12 and we want this diamond shaped one just here.
  • 06:15 And I'm going to drag this out, and we're going to say,
  • 06:24 Spots available, and again, you might need to jiggle around with this.
  • 06:28 And again, you might want to drag this out a little bit so
  • 06:31 that you have it all looking nice and neat.
  • 06:34 And I'm basically going to carry on going through, adding in my process shapes.
  • 06:38 So I'm going to do that off camera, join me in a couple of seconds and
  • 06:41 we'll move on to the next stage.
  • 06:43 That's the end of part one, guys, this lesson continues in part two

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