How to Make an Org Chart in PowerPoint (SmartArt Guide)

You need an org chart on a slide by Thursday, and you’ve got a spreadsheet of 30 names. Here’s how to make an org chart in PowerPoint without dragging 30 boxes by hand: use SmartArt, type the names in the Text pane, and let indentation set the reporting lines.

That method takes about ten minutes for a small team. The harder part is the bits SmartArt handles badly, like assistants, dotted-line managers, and a director with eleven direct reports. Each one is covered below.

One honest caveat up front. A drawn chart is a picture of the company on the day you made it. The first time someone changes teams, it’s wrong.

How to make an org chart in PowerPoint with SmartArt

These steps follow Microsoft Support’s guide to SmartArt organization charts and work in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, 2024, 2021, 2019 and 2016.

1. Insert the graphic. On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click SmartArt.
2. Pick the layout. In the Choose a SmartArt Graphic gallery, click Hierarchy, then Organization Chart, then OK.
3. Open the Text pane. If it isn’t showing, click the small control on the left edge of the graphic.
4. Type one person per line. Name first, then a line break and a job title if you want both in the box.
5. Set levels with Tab. Tab pushes a line one level down. Shift+Tab pulls it back up. The CEO sits at the left margin, their direct reports one indent in, and so on.

Do the typing in the Text pane, not in the boxes. Microsoft’s own note says clicking into boxes works best only after you’ve added every box you need. The Text pane also accepts paste, so you can copy a column of names straight out of Excel and indent them.

If you’d rather start from a design, PowerPoint ships with an org chart template. Go to File > New, search org chart, choose one and click Create, per Microsoft Support’s org chart template instructions. That’s the “PowerPoint org chart template” most people are looking for. It’s still SmartArt underneath, so everything below applies.

Add people, assistants and dotted lines

Once the chart exists, you’ll mostly edit it from the SmartArt Design tab (called Design under SmartArt Tools in older versions). Select the box closest to where the new person goes, click the arrow next to Add Shape, and pick:

• Add Shape After or Before for a peer on the same level.
• Add Shape Above to insert a new manager. The selected box and everyone under it drop one level.
• Add Shape Below for a direct report.
• Add Assistant for an executive assistant or chief of staff.

The assistant option catches people out. It only exists in organization chart layouts, not the plain Hierarchy layout. If the button’s greyed out, you picked the wrong layout in step 2.

Dotted-line reporting is a line style, not a relationship. Right-click the connector, choose Format Shape, open Line, and pick a Dash type. That only restyles a line SmartArt already drew. A project lead who reports to someone in a different branch needs a connector you draw yourself with Insert > Shapes, and it won’t move when the chart reflows.

Want faces? In step 2, pick the Picture Organization Chart layout described in Microsoft Support’s SmartArt guide or Circle Picture Hierarchy instead. Each box gets a photo placeholder.

Fix the chart when a team is too wide

A manager with eight direct reports turns the default layout into a strip of unreadable 9-point text. Hanging layouts stack those boxes vertically instead.

Select the manager’s box, then on the SmartArt Design tab click Layout in the Create Graphic group:

• Standard centres everyone below the box. The default.
• Both puts the manager on top and arranges reports two per row.
• Left Hanging or Right Hanging puts reports in a single column beside the manager.

Mix them. Leave the leadership level on Standard and set each department head to Left Hanging, and a few dozen people fit on one slide at a readable size.

Past roughly 50 people, stop fighting the slide. Split it: one slide for leadership, one per department, with each department head appearing on both. Nobody reads a 120-box chart projected on a wall anyway.

Where a PowerPoint org chart breaks down

SmartArt is a drawing tool. It doesn’t know who anyone is. It holds no email addresses, phone numbers or time zones, and it can’t read a manager column and build the tree for you.

That matters because org charts change constantly. Total separations ran at 3.2 percent of US employment in August 2026, according to the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. For a 100-person company, that’s about three people leaving every month, before you count promotions, reorgs and new hires. Each one means somebody reopening the deck, finding the box, and hoping the layout doesn’t reflow into chaos.

And the deck multiplies. One copy sits in the onboarding pack, another in last quarter’s board slides, a third in someone’s downloads folder. Which one’s current? Usually none of them.

So use PowerPoint for what it’s good at: a one-off slide for a board meeting, a reorg announcement, or a proposal. For the everyday question of “who does this person report to,” you want the chart generated from the same staff list you already keep. If that list doesn’t exist yet, this free spreadsheet employee directory template includes a manager column, which is all the data an org chart needs.

FAQ

Does PowerPoint have an org chart template?

Yes. Go to File > New, search for org chart, pick a result and click Create. The templates are SmartArt graphics underneath, so you edit them the same way as a chart you build from scratch.

How do I add an assistant box in a PowerPoint org chart?

Select the manager’s box, then on the SmartArt Design tab click the arrow next to Add Shape and choose Add Assistant. The option only appears in organization chart layouts, not plain hierarchy layouts.

How do I show a dotted-line reporting relationship?

Right-click the connector between the two boxes, choose Format Shape, open Line, and pick a Dash type. SmartArt only draws lines between parent and child boxes, so a dotted line to someone elsewhere on the chart has to be drawn by hand.

Can I make an org chart in PowerPoint automatically from Excel?

Not with SmartArt. You can paste a list of names into the Text pane and indent it, which is fast, but PowerPoint won’t read a manager column and build the tree for you. Tools that generate charts from data, such as Visio or dedicated org chart software, do that.

An org chart that updates itself

InstaCheckin People, our employee directory and org chart app, is coming soon. It’s planned to include a browsable org chart you can move up and down the reporting line (coming soon), built from profiles that show each person’s manager, direct reports and assistants (coming soon). Sync with Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra ID is coming soon too, so a reorg in your identity system shows up in the chart without anyone opening a slide deck.

See how InstaCheckin People (coming soon) fits alongside other employee directory software, then join the waitlist and we’ll email you when it opens.