How to Create Puzzle Shapes in PowerPoint

Recently at our Slide Design training, a participant asked if there is a fast and easy way to draw a puzzle in PowerPoint.

Well, it’s pretty simple. During the training, it took me 2-3 minutes to show how to prepare the puzzle from scratch. Here I share a step-by-step instruction on how to create such a puzzle diagram graphics using only standard PowerPoint shapes.

Where to use puzzle graphics in a presentation?

The jigsaw puzzle shape can be very useful and play various roles within slides. You can put puzzles together and form different shapes – lines or squares. The scattered jigsaw puzzle can show, for example, the concept of a mess, or a problem that can be easily solved.

Therefore, puzzles are a good metaphor to illustrate different business ideas in a presentation, for example, synergy, teamwork, “big picture” or complexity. You can also show missing elements or timelines, formed with jigsaw puzzles.

If you want to learn more about using visual concepts in presentations

• join our online workshop on Designing Creative Presentations
• check our Icons Dictionary for visualization of business concepts (such as strategy, synergy, and growth in one picture).

How to create your own puzzles in PowerPoint? Step-by-step guide

We will use two basic shapes (square and circle) and some standard shapes formatting functions of PowerPoint. Let’s get to the work 🙂

Step 1

I insert a square and a circle and set them as shown below.

Step 2

Then I select both shapes, go to the Format / Merge Shapes / Union tab, and the first puzzle is ready.

Step 3

Now I copy the final shape, move to the right, rotate 90 degrees, and move underneath. I also changed the color to make the effect more visible.

Step 4

I repeat copying and rotating, up to the fourth puzzle. It turns out that you cannot see the fourth jigsaw puzzle.

Step 5

In that case, I duplicate puzzle 4 and place it exactly in the same place. I select puzzle 1 and then 4 (note the order of the selection is crucial), go to the Format / Merge Shapes tab and select Subtract. And that’s enough, the puzzles are ready.

Now I can add texts and icons and the diagram can be used in the presentation. Simple? 🙂

Maybe that’s not the simplest design, but on the other hand, you probably did not think that in a few steps, you are able to create your own puzzles in PowerPoint.

Extending Your Puzzle set

Below you can see a set of more advanced puzzle shapes for PowerPoint along with my favorite handwritten style :). This is a PPT shapes collection we created (you can get the whole puzzle shapes set here) or design yourself something similar.

See what other layouts you can create (for example, to add longer text descriptions or create an interesting timeline).

And here’s a timeline example:

Have fun while creating your own puzzle diagrams 🙂

If you have questions about puzzles or other tricks for creating graphical slides, please let us know in the comments.

PS. To learn more slide design tricks, I invite you to our training on Creating effective visual slides. Or let us design such slides for you.