How to Make an Org Chart in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Google Sheets

An org chart shows who reports to whom. You can make an org chart in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook with SmartArt, Microsoft’s built-in diagram graphics, or in Google Sheets from a simple two column list, or in your browser by pasting that same list. This guide walks through each method with the exact menu names from Microsoft’s and Google’s help pages, plus the parts of the job that no tool does for you: collecting the data, choosing the layout and keeping the chart current.

Open a sample org chart in the org chart maker

Before You Start: Get the Data Right

Every org chart method works best from a list, even the ones where you type into boxes.

One Row per Person

For each person, write down three things: their name, their job title, and the name of the person they report to. The person at the top reports to no one. Here is a small example we will use throughout.

Check the List Before You Draw

• Every manager must also appear as a person. If Ravi Menon is in the Reports to column, he needs his own row.
• Spell names the same way everywhere. Most tools match on the exact text.
• Decide on vacant roles now. Wikipedia’s article on organizational charts notes that a vacant or future position is often drawn as a shape with a dotted outline.
• Decide what the chart is for. A chart for new hires needs names and titles. A chart for a restructuring may only need roles.

Pick a Structure

Wikipedia lists three common types of organization chart: hierarchical, matrix and flat. Most small and mid-size organizations draw a hierarchical chart, the tree shape with the top person at the head. A matrix chart shows people with two managers, such as a department head and a project lead, and is hard to draw in any simple tool. A flat chart has few levels and wide rows.

How to Make an Org Chart in Word, Excel or PowerPoint

Microsoft’s help page “Create an organization chart in Office by using SmartArt” applies to Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word for Microsoft 365 and the 2024, 2021, 2019 and 2016 versions. The steps are the same in all four apps.

Step 1: Insert an Organization Chart Layout

1. On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click SmartArt.
2. In the Choose a SmartArt Graphic gallery, click Hierarchy.
3. Click an organization chart layout, such as Organization Chart, and then click OK.

To show photos, choose Picture Organization Chart or Circle Picture Hierarchy in step 3 instead. Each box then has a picture icon you click to insert a photo.

Step 2: Type or Paste the Names

You have three options, according to Microsoft:

• click in a box in the graphic and type,
• click [Text] in the Text pane and type,
• copy text from another program, click [Text] in the Text pane, and paste.

Microsoft’s tip is to type into boxes only after you have added all the boxes you need. If the Text pane is hidden, click the small control on the edge of the SmartArt graphic. When you paste a list, check the levels afterward; Microsoft’s page does not say how pasted text is split into levels.

Step 3: Add, Move and Delete Boxes

Click the box closest to where the new person belongs. On the SmartArt Design tab (called Design under SmartArt Tools in older versions), click the arrow next to Add Shape and choose:

• Add Shape After or Add Shape Before for a colleague at the same level,
• Add Shape Above for a new manager, which moves the selected box and everyone below it down one level,
• Add Shape Below for a direct report,
• Add Assistant for an assistant box, available only in the organization chart layouts.

To delete a box, click its border and press Delete. To move one, drag it; hold Ctrl and press the arrow keys to nudge it in small steps.

Step 4: Show Dotted-Line Reporting

A dotted line usually means an indirect or project reporting relationship. Right-click the line between the two boxes, choose Format Shape, click Line or Line Style, and pick a Dash type. Microsoft notes that you cannot automatically connect two top-level boxes; add a box at the top level and draw a line from Insert, then Shape, instead.

Step 5: Change the Layout and the Look

Wide teams do not fit on a page side by side. Select the manager’s box, then on the SmartArt Design tab choose Layout and one of the hanging layouts:

• Standard centers all the boxes below the selected one,
• Both puts the reports in two columns under the manager,
• Left Hanging and Right Hanging stack the reports in a column to one side.

Microsoft points out that hanging layouts are available only in the organization chart layouts. For colors, use Change Colors in the SmartArt Styles group, or right-click one box, choose Format Shape and set a solid fill.

Word, Excel or PowerPoint: Which One?

The SmartArt graphic is the same in all three, so pick the app where the chart will live. PowerPoint gives you a wide slide for a wide chart. Word suits an employee handbook or a policy document. Excel suits a chart that sits next to the staff list, although SmartArt in Excel does not read the list for you: you still type or paste the names into the Text pane.

How to Make an Org Chart in Google Sheets

Google Sheets has an organizational chart type that does read your list. This is the fastest route if your staff list is already in a spreadsheet.

Format the Data

Google’s help page for organizational charts asks for:

1. First column: the names of all group members.
2. Second column: the name of each person’s manager, parent or other hierarchical relationship.
3. Third column, optional: notes that appear when you point at a person.

Each row is one person. Unlike the table above, Google’s format has no title column; put the title in the notes column, or add it to the name, such as “Ravi Menon, Medical Lead”.

Insert and Customize the Chart

1. Select the columns.
2. Click Insert, then Chart.
3. In the chart editor, open Setup, and under Chart type choose Organizational chart.
4. Open Customize, then Org, to change the size or color of the boxes.

Google lists the organizational chart among its chart types for showing relationships between members of a company, a group of people or a family tree. It also offers a tree map for parent-child hierarchies, which is a different kind of chart; for reporting lines, stay with the organizational chart.

How to Make an Org Chart From a Spreadsheet List, Online

If you want a finished image without SmartArt, paste the list into our org chart maker. It runs in your browser, so the staff list is never uploaded.

Paste the Columns

Copy the Name, Title, Reports to and Department columns from Excel or Google Sheets and paste them. A header row with names such as Name, Title, Manager or Department is matched for you, and an ID column with a Manager ID works too. Leave Reports to empty for the person at the top, and type each manager’s name exactly as it appears in the Name column.

Or Paste an Indented List

If your structure lives in a document rather than a spreadsheet, switch the input to Indented list and paste one person per line, with each report indented under their manager.

Choose the Layout

Pick a box shape, right-angle, straight or curved connectors, and whether team members stack in a column under their manager, which keeps wide teams narrow. The image grows with the chart, so every name stays readable, and you can export it for slides or print.

Open the Riverside Clinic example in the org chart maker

Tips for a Readable Org Chart

Keep It to What Fits

Wikipedia’s article suggests that when an organization chart grows too large, it can be split into smaller charts for separate departments. A chart that needs zooming is a chart nobody reads. One chart for leadership and one per department is a good default.

Decide What Goes in Each Box

Two lines are enough for most charts: the name on the first and the job title on the second. Add a third line only if readers need it to act, such as a phone extension on a chart for the front desk. Photos help in a welcome pack for new hires, and Microsoft’s picture layouts make them easy in SmartArt, but they double the size of every box, so a large chart usually works better without them.

Keep Levels Honest

A box’s height on the page should mean rank. If two people are peers, put them on the same row, even if one team is much larger. If a role reports to two people, draw the main line solid and the second one dotted rather than inventing a level in between.

Show Roles, Then Names

Put the job title on its own line under the name. Titles change less often than people, and a reader looking for “who handles billing” scans for the role.

Use Color for Departments, Not Decoration

Color the boxes by department so a reader can see the groups at once, and add a legend. Avoid a different color on every level; the lines already show the levels.

Plan for Updates

Wikipedia lists the main limitations of org charts: if updated manually they quickly go out of date, they show only formal relationships, and they often leave out horizontal ones. Keep the source list in a spreadsheet and rebuild the chart from it, rather than editing boxes by hand. Put a date in the subtitle so readers know how current it is.

A Little History

Wikipedia credits the Scottish-American engineer Daniel McCallum with the first organizational charts of American business, around 1854, and says the term “organization chart” came into use in the early twentieth century. The idea has barely changed since: boxes for positions, lines for reporting, the top of the organization at the top of the page.