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Is there a way to connect a line to the center of a circle?

Anonymous
2014-05-05T08:35:32+00:00

I would like to attach a line to the centers of two circles and keep it attached while moving the circles. So far I could only find ways to attach to the outline.

My current (ugly) solution is to create a second, very small circle and center it in the bigger circle, thus giving me the inner circle's attachment points as a pseudo-center of the bigger circle. This work, however is not comfortable as attachments can only be made while the inner circles are in front and thus it's a lot of work to send them to the back in the end.

I need this for ~10 circles where almost all are connected to all others, hence approximately 100 lines.

Is there a better or even a correct way of doing this?

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-05-05T13:43:18+00:00

    I love the arc idea! I had a problem getting the handles exactly right so I used a tiny bit of code.

    Sub Fix_arc()

    With ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange(1)

    .Adjustments(1) = .Adjustments(2)

    End With

    End Sub

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-05-06T08:12:12+00:00

    OK, so in PowerPoint 2010, the best I can find is to draw an Arcwhile holding down the shift key (to keep it "square").  Fill the arc and it will have connection nodes at each end of the arc-line and at the centre.  Drag one of the yellow diamond adjustment handles all the way around (being careful not to go to far!) to make a circle.  You can then connect a line to the centre.

    Interesting solution, especially with the code snippet provided by @John. Thank you!

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-05-06T08:08:27+00:00

    I think that this is what I can use. This is VBScript code, right? I'll look up how to use it and try the code asap. Thank you!

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  3. Steve Rindsberg 99,161 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-05-05T14:44:06+00:00

    Another possibility:

    Make sure that guides are visible and that PPT is set to snap to guides.  Draw your circle, then move it so the center falls over the intersection of a vertical and horizontal guide.  The snap points along the edge will ensure that the center snaps to the intersection.  Then draw your line, letting the starting or ending point also snap to the intersection of the two guides.

    Group the line and circle so they move together. You'll still be able to click on the line until it's selected and move the non-centered endpoint if you like.

    Dupe and move the copies to wherever you need them.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-05-05T13:07:44+00:00

    Hi,

    Here's the best I can suggest for now...

    Draw two circles, one large and one small.  Make the small one as small as practically possible (0.1 x 0.1 cm).  Align the two circles Centre and Middle.

    Next use the combine shapes utility (in ppt2010 you have to add it to your Quick Access Toolbar), to Combine the shapes and effectively make a donut with a very small hole.  That then gives you the necessary nodes to attach a line to..... at least it does in PowerPoint 2013!!!

    OK, so in PowerPoint 2010, the best I can find is to draw an Arcwhile holding down the shift key (to keep it "square").  Fill the arc and it will have connection nodes at each end of the arc-line and at the centre.  Drag one of the yellow diamond adjustment handles all the way around (being careful not to go to far!) to make a circle.  You can then connect a line to the centre.

    Cheers

    Rich

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