[Tex/LaTex] Diagram with LaTeX (Smart Art)

Question

I would like to create the following diagram:

I have tried with the following code:

\begin{figure}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1, transform shape]
%\draw[step=0.5cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (12,6);
\node (i) at (1.5,2.5) {\small\textbf{Somoza's Dictatorship}};
\node (ii) at (4.5,5.5) {\small\textbf{Sandinista Revolution}};
\node (iii) at (8,2.5) {\small\textbf{Neoliberalism}};
\node (iv) at (11,5.5) {\small\textbf{Hybrid Model}};
\node (a) at (1.5,4) {1936-1979};
\node (b) at (4.5,2) {1979-1990};
\node (c) at (8,4) {1990-2007};
\node (d) at (11,2) {2007-Present};
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{Political Context of Nicaragua.}
\end{figure} 

However, I do not know how can I include the circle, the colors and the bullets. My result is something like this below. Is there any other way to do it? I found my code too difficult and messy.

Best Regards,
Rony.

Answer 1

If you set the text width of the node you can use a standard itemize list inside the node. To make a big circles, make a node with e.g. draw,circle,line width=2.5mm in the options.

Positioning these nodes is easier if you use the positioning library, and place nodes relative to each other. For example, if you have \node (a) {...};, then you can place node b below it by saying \node [below=of a] (b) {...};.

Here is an example, I added some comments in the code:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{metropolis}
\usepackage{ragged2e}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}[fragile]
\frametitle{Intro}
\begin{tikzpicture}[
 bigcircle/.style={ % style for the circles
    text width=1.6cm, % diameter
    align=center, % center align
    line width=2mm, % thickness of border
    draw, % draw the border
    circle, % shape
    font=\sffamily\footnotesize % font of the year
  },
 desc/.style 2 args={ % style for the list nodes
   % this style takes two mandatory arguments, as indicated by "2 args", so is used as
   % desc={first arg}{second arc}
   % the first arg is the color of the title/heading, the second is the title itself
  text width=2.5cm, % means the node will be kind of like a 4cm wide minipage, and if the
                  % text in the node becomes wider than that, it will wrap to the next line
  font=\sffamily\scriptsize\RaggedRight, % set the font in the list
  label={[#1,yshift=-1.5ex,font=\sffamily\footnotesize]above:#2} % add the title as a label
  },
 node distance=10mm and 2mm % vertical and horizontal separation of nodes, when positioned with e.g. above=of othernode
]

\node [bigcircle] (circ1) {1936--1979};
\node [desc={black}{Somoza's dictatorship},below=of circ1] (list1) {
\begin{itemize}
\setlength\itemsep{0pt} % reduce space between items in list
\item Point 1
\item Point 2
\item Point 3
\item Point 4
\end{itemize}
};

\node [bigcircle,red,right=of list1] (circ2) {1979--1990};
\node [desc={red}{Sandinista Revolution},above=of circ2] (list2) {
\begin{itemize}
\setlength\itemsep{0pt}
\item Point 1
\item Point 2
\item Point 3
\item Point 4
\end{itemize}
};

\node [bigcircle,blue!60!red,right=of list2] (circ3) {1990--2007};
\node [desc={blue!60!red}{Neoliberalism},below=of circ3] (list3) {
\begin{itemize}
\setlength\itemsep{0pt}
\item Point 1
\item Point 2
\item Point 3
\item Point 4
\end{itemize}
};

\node [bigcircle,gray,right=of list3] (circ4) {2007--Present};
\node [desc={gray}{Hybrid model},above=of circ4] (h) {
\begin{itemize}
\setlength\itemsep{0pt}
\item Point 1
\item Point 2
\item Point 3
\item Point 4
\end{itemize}
};

% draw the line between circles
\draw [dashed,black!80] (circ1) -- (circ2) -- (circ3) -- (circ4);
\end{tikzpicture} 
\end{frame}
\end{document}