How to create a spiral in PowerPoint

While it's possible to create a spiral using PowerPoint's curve and edit points tools, it can be very tedious.

If you need to draw a spiral and have a program like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw, try this:

Use the program's Spiral tool to draw the spiral you want, then do one of the following:

• Export the drawing or just the spiral shape to an EMF (Enhanced Metafile) file.
• Switch to PowerPoint.
• Bring the picture into PowerPoint (Insert, Picture, From File).
• Ungroup the picture twice.

or

• Copy the spiral
• Switch to PowerPoint.
• Use Paste, Special, as Enhanced Metafile to bring the picture into PowerPoint.
• Ungroup the picture twice

Either method gives you a spiral in PowerPoint that's constructed of a curved shape that you can fine tune using Edit Points.

If you don't have Illustrator or Draw, right-click this link and save spiral_001.emf to your computer then insert and ungroup it as described above.