Everyone has played "Windmill" when they were children. When the breeze blows, the windmill rotates gently, and the colors of the windmill flow, adding many happy memories to our childhood. In addition to physical windmills, in the E era, we can actually make rotating windmills in our presentations, which can not only help us regain the joy of childhood, but also add luster to our presentation works.

1. Production of a single sector

Windmills can be seen as composed of fan-shaped surfaces of different colors. We can use AutoShape to create it. For example, to be simpler, use six sectors with the same radius and a central angle of 60 degrees, and fill each sector with a different color, so that you can get a simple windmill graphic.

Click the shape button of the "Illustration" function group on the "Insert" tab of the ribbon, click the "Straight Line" button in "Line" in the pop-up list, then hold down the "Shift" key and drag a horizontal straight line in the window. Select this straight line, press the "Ctrl" key, and then drag this straight line with the mouse to copy a second horizontal straight line. Right-click on the straight line and click the "Size and Position" command in the pop-up menu to open the "Size and Position" dialog box. Click the "Size" tab in the dialog box and enter the angle "60 degrees" in the "Rotation" input box, as shown in Figure 1. In this way, the angle between the two straight lines becomes 60 degrees. We will use this angle later.

Figure 1 Adjust the size and position of straight lines in PowerPoint 2007

Now click the "Shape" button in the "Home" tab of the "Illustrations" functional group of the ribbon, and click the "Pie Shape" button in the "Basic Shapes" in the pop-up list, as shown in Figure 2. Press the "Shift" key and click in the window to get a three-quarter circle pie shape. You can see that there are two yellow diamond-shaped adjustment handles on the shape.

Figure 2 Insert basic shapes in PowerPoint 2007 Office software tutorial

​ ​Select the two straight lines made previously, right-click, and click the "Send to Front→Send to Front" command in the pop-up menu to place them at the top.

Adjust the size of the pie shape and move the center point of the pie shape to the intersection of the two straight lines we made earlier so that they coincide. Adjust the yellow diamond handle so that the two sides of the fan coincide with the two intersecting straight lines we made. In this way, you can get a basically accurate fan shape with a central angle of 60 degrees.

Once done, the two auxiliary straight lines can be deleted.

2. Production of windmill

​​Select the completed sector, right-click on the sector, and click the "Size and Position" command in the pop-up shortcut menu to open the "Size and Position" dialog box. Remember the data in the "Horizontal" and "Vertical" input boxes in the "Position" tab are available, as shown in Figure 3.