Harvey Balls PowerPoint - Easily add Harvey Balls

How to create Harvey balls in PowerPoint? PPT Productivity PowerPoint add-in's Harvey Ball feature lets you add Harvey ball icons to PowerPoint slides in a single click! PPT Productivity is a time-saving PowerPoint plugin that makes it faster and easier to create, refine and reuse slides.

With PPT Productivity's PowerPoint Harvey Balls feature you can:

• Insert standard Harvey Ball sizes in single click: Choose from standard empty, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full size Harvey Balls.
• Insert Custom fill size Harvey Balls: enter a value between 1-100% (e.g. make a 1/3 Harvey Ball, 2/3 Harvey Ball, etc).
• Change color of Harvey Balls to suit your PowerPoint slide - recolor Harvey Balls to match your template theme colors and/or slide colors.
• Resize or align the Harvey balls - after being added to your PowerPoint slide, they behave as shapes.
• Share a PowerPoint presentation with the Harvey Balls displaying correctly - as opposed to the issues that can occur if you use Harvey ball PowerPoint fonts. Custom Harvey Balls ppt font solutions cause issues for readers of the presentation who don't have the Harvey Ball font installed.
• Embed Harvey Balls in Tables - Harvey balls embed in powerpoint tables for easy formatting
• Cycle Harvey Balls fill - You can click on a harvey ball already inserted on your PowerPoint slide and cycle through the different standard fill sizes to update the harvey ball (eg if you had inserted a 1/2 Harvey Ball but need to change it to a 1/4)

In this guide we explain what Harvey Balls are, how they are typically used in PowerPoint and how PPT Productivity plug-in makes it easy to add Harvey Balls to PowerPoint slides. There's also step by step instructions for how to create harvey balls in PowerPoint if you don't have PPT Productivity add-in. PPT Productivity has a free 30 day trial. The trial lets you use the PowerPoint Harvey Balls feature (plus all other timesaving features including formatting and library features) for free!

What are Harvey Balls?

For those not familiar with the term, Harvey Balls are a Pie Chart diagram. McKinsey consultants call Harvey Balls Moons, but they're also known as status circles.  Harvey Ball icons are believed to have been created by Harvey Poppel, a Partner at Booz Allen Hamilton, but Booz consultants call them Booz Balls!

What do Harvey balls represent? Harvey Balls are used as a graphic representation of comparative or status data.  In PowerPoint Harvey Balls charts can make it easier for your audience to compare options, gap / fit assessment, project status and more.

The darker color or fill color denotes the fraction or amount of each Harvey Ball. Harvey Balls can be 'filled' to any amount, but typically the standard fractions of 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full and empty are used. When using the PPT Productivity Harvey Balls feature you can choose any percentage for your Harvey Balls, by entering a number between 0 and 100% in the Custom size Harvey Ball (in addition to the standard 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full and empty options).

Option 1: How to add Harvey Balls to a PowerPoint slide with PPT Productivity?

PPT Productivity has customizable Harvey Balls for PowerPoint feature on the PPT Productivity ribbon.

To add Harvey balls to your PowerPoint slide, simply click the Harvey Ball icon in the PPT Productivity toolbar. This will paste a Harvey Ball to your presentation.  The feature lets you select from standard 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full and empty balls from a dropdown. Plus there's a custom fill option so you can choose a custom size Harvey Ball (e.g. if you want a 1/3 Harvey Ball).  PPT Productivity also provides a single click option to insert all Harvey ball fills on a page.  Note that they are clockwise Harvey ball icons by default (which means the fill shows on the right rather than left hand side for a partially filled Harvey Ball). However if you want counter-clockwise Harvey balls, you can select and flip the Harvey balls once added to your slide.

PPT Productivity's PowerPoint Harvey balls behave as shapes once added to your slide (they are partially filled circles in PowerPoint). You can easily change Harvey Ball colors using the PPT Productivity Color Toolbar (the feature recognizes fill versus negative space).  You can also use PPT Productivity's align and distribute features to format the layout of your Harvey Balls.

Watch the brief video below to see how to add Harvey Balls to your slide using the Harvey Balls feature.

Can I create a Harvey Balls PowerPoint Template for easy reuse?

Yes! PPT Productivity's PowerPoint Harvey Balls feature lets you quickly add Harvey Balls to any PowerPoint slide. PPT Productivity makes it easy to create a PowerPoint Harvey Balls chart. To do this, create or insert a table layout in your presentation based on your preferred formatting and add the Harvey Balls. Save your Harvey Balls PowerPoint chart to your PPT Productivity Slide Library for easy reuse in future presentations.

When you use the Harvey Balls feature in a PowerPoint table, the Harvey Balls embed into the table for easy formatting.

Tip: if you select any Harvey Balls already on a slide and then click a new Harvey Ball fill amount from the dropdown, the selected Harvey Balls on your PowerPoint slide will update to the new fill amount. Great if you need to make updates to a Harvey Ball chart e.g. if reusing the slide for regular status updates.

Option 2: How to create Harvey Balls in PowerPoint without PPT Productivity addin?

If you don't have PPT Productivity add-in for PowerPoint, you can either create Harvey Balls in PowerPoint using a series of shapes, or you can use the Microsoft Office Harvey Ball Icons. The following steps show you how to create Harvey Balls in PowerPoint using shapes, icons and symbol font.

2.1 How to create Harvey Balls in PowerPoint using PowerPoint shapes?

You can make Harvey Balls with partially filled circles in PowerPoint, it just takes a few more steps. To create Harvey Balls using shapes, you overlay a circle shape with a a partial circle shape. To do this:

Step 1: From the Home tab on the PowerPoint ribbon click Shapes and insert an oval shape from the list of shapes. To draw a circle, you can freehand draw to approximately your preferred size and then click on the circle.

Step 2: A Shape Format tab will appear on the PowerPoint ribbon. Click this tab and use the Size panel on the tab to ensure you have a true circle.

Step 3: Next, go back to Shapes and insert a partial circle shape from the list of shapes.

Step 4: Click on the partial circle and return to the Size panel on the Shape Format tab. Make the partial circle height and width the same as the full circle. Position the partial circle over the top of the full circle - you have a Harvey ball! Adjust your colors as preferred - for this example I have chosen to make the full circle blue and the partial circle white. Equally I could have made the full circle white and the partial circle blue (or any other combination!).

Use the adjustment options on the partial circle to adjust the angle, to find your preferred harvey ball fill proportion.

Step 5: If you need to add multiple harvey balls to your PowerPoint presentation, take the time now to copy and paste your harvey ball multiple times and use the adjustment points to create each of the different sized fill harvey balls you might need. Then you can quickly copy and paste each one as you need it into different slides of your presentation (or remember, you could use the PPT Productivity Harvey Balls feature which is a lot faster!).

2.2 How to make Harvey Balls in PowerPoint using Microsoft Office icons?

If you're using Microsoft Office 365, you have access to Microsoft's creative content library which includes icons. To open the icon library, go to the Insert tab on the PowerPoint ribbon and click on Icons.

Microsoft's Stock Images library popup window will open and the Icons tab should display by default. Type Harvey balls into the search bar and a variety of Harvey Ball icons for PowerPoint will appear. Choose your preferred styles by clicking on them and when you're done, click insert. Note that they will all insert onto your slide in an overlapping fashion, so you will need to separate them out.

For this example I have chosen some standard sized Harvey balls, plus the additional 1/3 and 2/3 fill. The Harvey Ball symbols will be added to your presentation in black by default. To change the colors of the Harvey Balls, click on the Graphics Format tab on the PowerPoint ribbon. The Graphics Format tab offers a range of editing features for the shapes including to change color of the Harvey Balls, adjust the sizes or convert the graphic to shapes for further editing.

When you create Harvey Balls using shapes or icons there are a few constraints. You cannot cannot align the Harvey Balls over tables (however this is possible using PPT Productivity - read more about how to align Harvey Balls in tables). Also if you add a Harvey Ball to your presentation using shapes or icons and need to change the fill amount (e.g. from 1/4 to 1/2), you will need to manually adjust the partial circle or insert a new icon. However PPT Productivity add-in lets you click on a harvey ball in PowerPoint and replace it simply by clicking the required size from the drop down.

Is there a Harvey Balls font in PowerPoint?

Before alternatives were available, the original option was to add Harvey Balls in PowerPoint using a special font. This option is still available but it is the most constrained option (resizing is limited to font sizes as it is a font based symbol). To use the symbols, select the Insert tab from the PowerPoint Ribbon, then select Symbols. From the Font drop down menu select Segoe UI Symbol font. From the Subset drop down menu select Geometric Shapes. You will see the available options once the subset is selected - eg Circle with Left half black, circle with upper right quadrant black etc. You will need to select each symbol one at a time and click insert to add them to your slide, then repeat the process for each Harvey ball symbol that you want to add.

What can I use instead of Harvey Balls in PowerPoint?

Looking for alternatives to Harvey Balls diagrams for your PowerPoint presentation? PPT Productivity's Slide Library for PowerPoint includes alternative pie chart ratings icons that are great alternatives to Harvey Ball charts. PPT Productivity's Slide Library PowerPoint templates include Star Ratings, Square Ratings, Heart Ratings and Diamond Ratings charts. You can find these rating charts in the Basic Elements gallery. Find out more about how to download the shape and slide galleries.