A SmartDraw Legal Edition TUTORIAL
Creating Crime Scene Diagrams
Common Controls Export buttons
SmartDraw Button
Exporting to Other File Formats
Insert your diagrams into Windows®-based programs, especially Microsoft Office® software such as Word® and PowerPoint®.
You can quickly add professional diagrams to your memos and eye-catching charts to your presentations!
Go ahead! Impress your colleagues and boss with graphic design skills you didn't even know you had!
"Export to ____" Buttons
The easiest way to transfer a SmartDraw diagram into another Microsoft Office® program is to simply click on one of the Common Controls Export buttons at the top left of the SmartDraw Application Titlebar (you can also export from the SmartDraw Button menu).
Choose the Word®, Excel®, or Powerpoint® button. This will open the selected program for you—if you don't have it running already—and insert your entire diagram. It's that simple!
Click the red PDF button
Exporting to PDF
If you want to share your SmartDraw diagram as a PDF, all you have to do is click on the red PDF button next to the Office buttons in the Common Controls.
You'll have the choice to name and save your PDF where you choose.
Editing the Embedded Diagram
When you paste your diagram into another program you are actually embedding it.
This means that the image in the other program is not just a simple picture of the SmartDraw diagram. The other program remembers that the diagram came from SmartDraw and allows you to edit and update the diagram within SmartDraw.
To edit a SmartDraw diagram while it is open in another program, simply double-click the content you want to edit.
Update the Diagram
When you are done making changes, simply close the document. This will transfer the changes you made back to the diagram wherever it is embedded.
Paste Special in Microsoft Word®
Paste Special
Another way to transfer a SmartDraw diagram to another Windows®-based program is to paste an OLE Link using the other program's Paste Special command usually found under the Paste menu on the Home tab.
Because Paste Special creates a link between the other program and the original SmartDraw file, any changes you make to the original SmartDraw diagram will automatically appear in the diagram pasted elsewhere.
To use Paste Special, first save the SmartDraw document (pasting a link will not work if the file is not saved first), then select and copy the contents of your SmartDraw document. In the other program, under Paste select Paste Special.
About OLE Linking
OLE linking creates a shortcut between the diagram in another program and the original SmartDraw file. When you simply copied-and-pasted (embedded) the diagram, the other program only remembered that the diagram came from SmartDraw but not the particular file it came from.
When you paste a link to the actual SmartDraw file, any changes to the original diagram will be automatically reflected in the linked diagram.
This feature can be a real time-saver if you need to use a single SmartDraw diagram in many different Microsoft Office® documents.
For example, let's say you want to always keep an updated version of a flowchart in three different corporate documents simultaneously: a Word® document, a PowerPoint® presentation, and an Excel® spreadsheet. You need not update all three documents. Just update the linked SmartDraw flowchart, and the other documents will all automatically update themselves!
