MS Word offers many powerful drawing tools to let you control fill color, line color, line style, shadows, 3D effects, grouping, ordering, and lots more. The easiest way to access these great features is through the Drawing toolbar.
Normally the drawing toolbar is positioned at the very bottom of your Word screen. If, however, it has not been activated, you can turn it on yourself by following the steps below:
- Click on View in the Menu toolbar.
- Select Toolbars from the drop-down menu.
- Check Drawing from the sub-menu that appears to the side.
- The toolbar with look like the image below.
You can make simple lines, arrows, rectangles, and ovals by clicking on the icons on the Drawing toolbar, that are highlighted below.
- Click on the button for the shape you want.
- Your mouse pointer will change to look like a plus sign.
- Move your mouse to where you want the shape to be positioned.
- Click and hold down your left mouse button and drag your mouse to stretch out the shape to the size you want.
- Let go of the mouse button to drop the shape on your document.
Here's something a lot of folks aren't aware of but because Dave is one of my favorite people and you're his subscribers, you have become my favorite people too, I'm gonna let you in on the secret:
If you want to have a perfect square or circle, hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard while performing the last couple of steps.
There are AutoShapes that you can choose from and these are usually a lot of fun to work with. I will tell share with you today and show you how to use one of them that most people don't think you can do in MS Word. I will also cover this one area of the toolbar in OpenOffice Writer in this article as well.
Follow the steps below:
- Click ont he Autoshapes button.
- Select a category from the sub-menu.
- Click on the shape you want from the category.
- Click and hold down your left mouse button and drag your mouse to stretch out the shape to the size you want.
- Let go of the mouse button to drop the shape on your document.
You can edit and change the size of your shape (wouldn't it be great if we could do it so easily with our own shapes??)
If you want to change the size of any of the shapes you have created, the quickest way is by clicking and dragging its corners or edges.
Follow along with the steps below to learn how:
- Click on the shape once with your left mouse button. This will select the image and you should see eight circles or squares around the it, one for each corner and one on each edge.
These are called handles. You use these to modify your image.
- Begin by hovering your mouse over one of the handles until the mouse pointer changes shape into a double-sided arrow.
- Now click and hold down your left mouse button on the handle to grab it.
- With your mouse button held down, move the mouse in any direction you like to enlarge or shrink the shape.
- When you are happy with the new size, simply release the mouse button.
You do, however, have to drag the corners, as dragging only the edge changed just the width or height.
Ok, here's the cool thing I promised to show you:
I have heard many folks complain that they cannot have curved edges in MS Word, but guess what? With a little tweaking, you can!
- On the Drawing toolbar, click on the Lines option.
- Word will display a palette of different variations of lines.
- Click on the Curve option. You will see it at the bottom left corner of the palette.
- Click at the point in your document where you want the curve to begin.
- Click at each point where you want the line to curve.
- When you reach the place where you want the curve to end, double-click.
The curve will be treated the same as any other graphic image in your document.
You may have to do it a couple of times to get the hang of it, but you have to admit, it's pretty cool isn't it?
Callouts are a specific type of AutoShape, but are useful enough to warrant a special mention. A callout is like a text box with a pointing line to connect it to something.
- Click on Autoshapes | Callouts.
- Select the callout you want to use.
- Now click on your document where you want the callout tail to connect, and then drag your mouse to position the text box.
- Now you can type in the text box as usual.
- You can also resize and move the callout as you like.
- To make special formatting changes to the callout you need to right-click ont he callout's gray-shaded border and select Format Autoshape.
- Click on the Text Box tab and choose Format Callout.
- Now you can alter the different options until it is to your liking.
Carol Bratt is the Office Applications Editor at Daves Computer Tips. She has authored several informative Microsoft Office books and writes the monthly Word Bytes Newsletter with more tips and tricks in each issue. Visit Carol's website for more great Microsoft Office tips and tricks! Click here to see her latest books! You can read more about Carol here.