Excel Tutorials
Add arrows, boxes and callouts on top of your spreadsheet for diagrams and annotations. This lesson uses the Event Planner workbook from Excel Foundations, free to download below.
Follow along in the same file used in the video. No email required.
Shapes are visual elements, arrows, boxes, lines, callouts and more, that sit on top of your spreadsheet rather than inside a cell. They're used for diagrams, flowcharts, or annotating a specific part of your data.
Because shapes float independently of the grid, they need to be positioned, sized and (optionally) grouped deliberately, which is the part most people skip and then struggle with later.
Step-by-step, matching the video above.
Go to the Insert tab on the ribbon.
Click Shapes to open the full gallery of lines, arrows, boxes and callouts.
Click a shape from the gallery, then click and drag anywhere on the sheet to draw it at the size you want.
Double-click the shape and start typing. The text sits centered inside it by default.
With the shape selected, a Shape Format tab appears on the ribbon with fill color, outline color and effect options.
Drag the corner handles to resize, or click and drag the shape itself to move it anywhere on the sheet.
Select all the shapes (click one, then Shift-click the rest), right-click, and choose Group to move or resize them as a single unit.
Once you have more than a couple of shapes, lining them up by eye gets messy fast. The Format tab has real alignment tools for this.
Click one shape, then Shift-click each additional shape to add it to the selection.
On the Shape Format tab, click Align to see options like Align Left, Align Center and Align Middle.
Choose Distribute Horizontally or Distribute Vertically to space three or more shapes evenly apart, instead of nudging each one by hand.
By default, a shape's anchor behavior varies. Right-click the shape, choose Size and Properties, and check "Move and size with cells" if you want it to follow the grid.
Open the Selection Pane (Shape Format tab) to see and click each shape by name, rather than hunting through a stack visually.
Ungrouped shapes drift out of alignment the moment you drag one instead of the whole set. Group them before repositioning.
A diagram shouldn't need to be built from scratch every time.
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Go to the Insert tab, click Shapes, choose one from the gallery, then click and drag on the sheet to draw it.
Double-click the shape and start typing, the text centers inside it automatically.
Select all the shapes, then use the Align and Distribute options on the Shape Format tab instead of adjusting each one by eye.
Its anchor setting controls that. Right-click the shape, choose Size and Properties, and adjust whether it moves and sizes with cells.
Select all of them and choose Group from the right-click menu first, then drag or resize the whole group as one object.
Open the Selection Pane on the Shape Format tab to click each shape by name rather than trying to click through the stack.
Yes, select it and press Ctrl+C then Ctrl+V, or hold Ctrl while dragging it to place a duplicate.
Yes, select the shape, click in the formula bar, type =, then click the cell whose value you want it to display and press Enter.
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