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Insert Your Diagrams into Presentations and Memos
Common Controls Export buttons
SmartDraw Button
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 Windows®-based 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 Microsoft Office® buttons in the Common Controls.
You'll have the choice to name and save your PDF where you choose.
How to Embed a Diagram
When you export your diagram using the Export to buttons, you're simply copying an image of your diagram.
To actually embed your diagram in the other program so that it's still editable, use Ctrl + A to select everything than hit Ctrl + C to copy it. Now open the other program and simply hit Ctrl + V to embed. Alternatively, you can choose Paste or or Paste Special -> Paste -> SmartDraw Drawing Object from their File menu or from the Paste submenu on their Home tab.
This will embed your diagram in the other program, which 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 by double-clicking the content you want to edit.
Updating an Embedded Diagram
From the other program, double-click on the content you want to edit to open SmartDraw.
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 to Create an OLE Link
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 or the File menu.
Because Paste Special combined with Paste Link 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 then choose Paste Link.
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!
