MS Word – How to Draw a Venn Diagram

By Ugur Akinci

Use a Venn Diagram (named after John Venn of 1881) to illustrate the overlap between different sets of data or concept. Each data set or concept is represented by a separate circle.

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What is a Venn Diagram?

The Venn diagram is a diagram that shows all the possible logical relations between different sets. It is a useful tool for understanding the logical relationships between two or more sets.

The diagram provides a way to visualize what data points are in both of two different sets. It also provides a way to visualize what data points are not in either set, and what data points are only in one of the two sets.

Here is an example:

This hypothetical Venn Diagram suggests that some staffers are both Developers and Technical Writers (intersection of ORANGE and BLUE circles); some are both Developers and Graphic Designers (intersection of BLUE and GREEN circles), etc. A very small sub-set of staffers are all three at the same time (super-talented geeks at the small intersection of ORANGE, BLUE and GREEN circles):

MS Word 2010 VennDiagram_with_Intersection

To make this diagram even more meaningful, you can easily add numbers to designate the number of people falling into each category and intersection:

Another idea: you can make the radius of a circle proportionate to the number of staffers in that category.

Try to limit your Venn Diagram to 3 circles since beyond that it becomes hard to comprehend the interactions among the sets.

How to Do It with MS Word

1) Launch your MS Word.
2) Create a New document.
3) Select the Insert tab on the ribbon.
4) Click Smart Art to display the Choose a SmartArt Graphic screen.
5) Scroll down to the Relationship group of graphics and select one of the Venn Diagram options available:
(Click images to enlarge them)