SmartArt: The best thing since sliced bread?

I always used to hate the cliché, "a picture's worth a thousand words" because with my standard of drawing it usually took me at least several hundred words to explain what was happening in the first place. Not any longer, at least not now that Microsoft have come up with a fantastic way to illustrate a wealth of content with little use of words.

To back this up I wanted to share an experience I had recently with you. Having this year studied for a marketing qualification I needed to produce 12 assignments for my final assessment. Word count was tight and I found it increasingly difficult to get across what I wanted to in the limit allowed. This is when I discovered SmartArt! A quick, simple way to get information across using few words.

All, at the click of a button............even I could do it .........which I think is why I was so impressed!

After submitting my drafts to my tutor they all came back with the same comment...alongside my SmartArt diagrams...... 'reference?' 'reference?' 'reference?' It was then I had great pleasure in informing my tutor that these diagrams were actually MINE using SmartArt, a cool new feature in Office 2007...."what do you mean???" (Clearly, he had not heard of it) And when I explained, he was very impressed.....THAT is how professional and fantastic these diagrams were.....he thought they had come from a book!

So, my final assignments were submitted with my SmartArt diagrams, referenced as follows:

Saunders.E, 2007 (using SmartArt, feature of the 2007 Microsoft Office system)

Not being one to brag but I did receive my first ever A grades for those assignments......and if I'm honest, I think this is partly down to effectively & professionally presenting my ideas in a clear & concise manner.

It really is simple.....just click on 'insert' then 'SmartArt' on the top ribbon and you're given a whole host of different ways to show your data:

So there you have it in a nutshell - If I this had been available to me as a school child or university student my life would have been so much simpler (and probably my grades higher!!)

Does anyone else love this feature or is it really just me?

Oh, and this one below is my particular favourite diagram: