Now that you are comfortable adding and formatting text, headers and footers, columns, and tables, let’s learn to enhance your documents by adding objects and pictures.

The Drawing toolbar offers many options for including lines, lines with arrows, and many types of shapes into your document.

Drawing objects include:

• AutoShapes, including lines, curves, and text boxes
• WordArt drawing objects

Drawing objects

To draw lines and shapes:

• Open the Drawing toolbar by clicking View on the menu bar, then selecting Toolbars and Drawing from the cascading menu.

OR

• Right-click any toolbar and select Drawing.

OR

• Click the Drawing button on the Standard toolbar.
• The Drawing toolbar will appear.

• Choose an AutoShape from the AutoShape drop-down menu.

OR

• Click any of the drawing tools in the first group of buttons.
  • Line Tool 
  • Arrow Tool 
  • Rectangle Tool 
  • Oval Tool 
• The mouse pointer changes to a crosshair .
• Drag the crosshair from a starting point until the object is the desired size.
• Release the mouse button to end the drawing object and turn off the Drawing tool.

Hold down the Shift key to create straight lines, perfect circles, and perfect squares.

AutoShapes are inserted on their own layer with the In front of text wrapping style applied.

 

WordArt drawing objects

Also included on the Drawing toolbar is the WordArt feature. Using WordArt, you can create text graphics that bend, slant, and appear metallic or wooden and much more. WordArt can even be shadowed, skewed, rotated, and stretched.

Here are just a few examples of what WordArt allows you to do:

To insert WordArt:

• Place the insertion point where you want to insert WordArt.
• Click the WordArt button on the Drawing toolbar . The WordArt gallery opens.

• Choose a WordArt style.
• The Edit WordArt Text dialog box appears.
• Edit the font, size, and style.
• Click OK.

Formatting drawing objects

Use the Drawing toolbar to format AutoShapes and WordArt.

 

	To select several objects, hold down the Shift key and click each object, or use the Select Objects tool.
	Fill color allows you to color all selected drawing objects. No fill is the color white.
	Change the line color of a selected object.
	Change the text color of a selected object.
	Change the line style of a selected object.
	Change the line style of a selected object. This includes solid and dotted lines.
	Change the style of arrow.
	Give selected objects some depth.
	Give selected objects a 3-D effect .

Challenge!

Using both AutoShapes and WordArt, try to create a stop sign. Select the Octagon shape under AutoShapes and Basic Shapes, and select any of the WordArt designs for the text.

Here’s an example:

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/wordxp/working-with-objects/6/