Creating Semi-Circles in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Just like other versions of PowerPoint, PowerPoint 2011 for Mac also does not provide the semi-circle as a basic shape within the Shape gallery. However there are workarounds to get over this limitation, in this tutorial you will learn how to draw a semi-circle in PowerPoint 2011 using the Pie shape.

Follow these steps to draw a semi-circle in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac:

1. Launch PowerPoint. You will see the Presentation Gallery which allows you to set all attributes of your new presentation, such as a preset Theme or template. Make selections or just click Cancel in this gallery to open a blank presentation with a new slide. PowerPoint 2011 users can change the slide layout of this slide to Blank by selecting the Layout | Blank option within the Home tab of the Ribbon.
2. Within the Home tab of the Ribbon, locate the Insert group and click the Shape button to access the Shape gallery with different types of shape options that you can see in Figure 1. Select the Basic Shapes option to access the related sub-menu. Select the Pie shape in this sub-menu—you can see the tool tip displaying the selected shape's name "Pie", as shown in Figure 1.
3. 
   Figure 1: Pie shape selected in the Basic Shapes sub-menu of the Shape gallery
3. Click and drag on the slide to insert the shape, or click once on the blank slide to place an instance of the shape, as shown in Figure 2.
4. 
   Figure 2: Pie shape placed on the slide
4. When you select the Pie shape, you'll see two diamond shaped, yellow handles appear (refer to Figure 2, above)—select the top yellow handle, this will change the cursor to an arrow head. Now start dragging the selected yellow handle leftwards, you can also see a line indicating the manipulated shape and the result from dragging the handle, as shown in Figure 3.
5. 
   Figure 3: Top yellow diamond handle of the Pie shape being dragged towards left
Tip: Any shapes that show diamond handles when selected can be manipulated by dragging those diamonds. Learn more in our Manipulating Shapes by Dragging Diamonds in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.
5. Keep on dragging the cursor till you end up with a semi-circle, as shown in Figure 4.
6. 
   Figure 4: Semi-circle drawn using the Pie shape
6. Remember that this semi-circle can be flipped or rotated, as shown in Figure 5.
7. 
   Figure 5: Flipped semi-circle
7. Once done, save your presentation.