Four Generation Chart in Word SmartArt...Layout Page and Insert SmartArt

Click here to see post 1 in this series--the introduction.

I'm going to walk through the steps for creating the four generation chart template. After you have the template, you can complete it to create four generation charts for families. 

Layout Your Page

1. Open Word. The default Normal template displays automatically. Remember that this template is the lowest level template with just a few styles...the starting point for lots of documents.
2. Select File, Save As, and name the document Four Generation Chart.
3. Display the Page Setup dialog.
   --Word 2003: Select File, and then Page Setup.
   --Word 2007/2010: Select the Page Layout tab and locate the Page Setup group. Click the small arrow in the lower right of the group (group launch button).
   The dialog appears with the Margins tab displaying by default.
4. In the Margins group, enter .5 for the top, bottom, left, and right margins. Since this document is a chart, you are going to want to use as much of the surface area of the page as possible.
5. In the Orientation group, select Landscaped.
6. Click OK, and then save your document. 

Inserting SmartArt

1. From in Insert menu, click SmartArt to open the SmartArt dialog.
2. Select Hierarchy, and then select Horizontal Hierarchy. 
3. Click OK. The graphic opens in your Word document. 
4. Save the document. 

Doesn't look like much at the moment does it? In my next post, we're going to replace [Text] with entries that create a template and we're going to rearrange and add boxes. Depending on what you are doing, you'll use two different methods to affect what appears in the graphic. 

So stay tuned for upcoming posts.

Update 
I included Word 2003 in the page layout instructions above. However, Word 2003 options for this process are very limited. You have only one hierarchy chart that you can use. I'm going to have to work with it to see what you can do with it to make a template.