Microsoft Office: Drawing Toolbar

Microsoft Office – Overview

Page 5

Microsoft Office: Drawing Toolbar

2 hours

Unlock the mystery of Microsoft Office’s Drawing Toolbar. Learn to create multi-colored circles, squares and funny little triangles. Play with line styles, fill colors, textures, 3-D effects, shadows and more. Discover the ability to rotate and flip your graphical creations. Learn to group and link multiple objects in Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

Topics:

Microsoft Office – Overview

Page 5

- Circles and Squares

- AutoShapes

- Lines

- Line Styles

- Colors (Fill, Line, Text)

- Text boxes (Call Outs)

- Word Art

- Shadow and 3-D

- Align

- Group/Ungroup/Regroup

- Layers – Order

- Nudge

- Align and Distribute

- Rotate/Flip

- Change AutoShape

- Insert Graphics

Microsoft Office – Overview

Page 5

Worksheets:

Drawing Toolbar 1

AutoShapes 2

Using AutoShapes 2

Sizing Handles 2

Fill Colors 3

Line Colors 5

Font Colors 6

Line, Dash and Arrow Styles 6

Shadow and 3-D 7

Text Boxes 7

The Draw Menu 8

Grouping 8

Order 8

Grid… 8

Nudge 8

Align or Distribute 8

Change AutoShape 8

Set AutoShape Defaults 8

Wrapping Text Around Objects in Word 97 9

Wrapping Styles 9

Wrapping Text Around Objects in Word 2000 10

Wrapping Styles 10

Tips and Tricks for Graphics and Drawing Objects 11

Page 1

Drawing Toolbar

As you can see below, the drawing toolbar appears the same in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Word

Excel

PowerPoint

The Drawing Toolbar is usually located along the bottom of the application window, just above the status bar. If this toolbar is not showing, open the View menu, choose Toolbars, Drawing, or in Excel and Word you can click the Drawing button on Standard Toolbar ().

This toolbar gives us two new menus, Draw and AutoShape. There are slight differences between the three programs. Let’s talk about the AutoShapes menu first. All three programs have Lines, Basic Shapes, Block Arrows, Flowchart, Stars and Banners and Callouts. Excel has Connectors, and PowerPoint has Connectors and Action Buttons.

Word Excel PowerPoint

Notice the dark gray bar across the top of each of these menus. You can click inside this dark gray area and then drag this menu to make it “float”, it will make it a separate floating toolbar that will look similar to these:

Word Excel PowerPoint

These menus can be moved to sit next to other menus, or along the right side of the screen. They can be closed at anytime from the little x in the corner. When you pull a menu free, you are not “moving” the menu. The menu will still be where it always was; you are just creating a “copy”.

AutoShapes

Here is each of the AutoShape menus, pulled free for all three programs:

Excel and PowerPoint PowerPoint Only

On the Drawing Toolbar, we can see the most common AutoShapes as their own buttons. The first two (Line, Arrow) can be seen above in the Lines menu, the second two (Rectangle, Oval) are from Basic Shapes.

Using AutoShapes

To use any of these AutoShapes, simple click on the shape you want. Your mouse arrow will turn into a thin cross. Where you begin to click and drag, will be the corner of your object. The end will be determined by where you let go of the mouse.

· If you just click on the document the AutoShape will be drawn exactly one inch by one inch. (not applicable to lines)

· If you hold down the Shift key as you draw the shape, you will get a perfectly proportional shape (perfect square, perfect circle…). If you are drawing a line, the shift key keeps the line within 15-degree increments.

· If you hold down the Ctrl key, the AutoShape will take the first mouse click as the center of your shape (instead of the corner).

· Shift-Ctrl and click and dragging will draw a proportional shape, from the middle of the shape.

Sizing Handles

When you draw an auto shape it will have 8 sizing handles (2 for a line).

To resize the object, put your mouse over any one of the sizing handles, your arrow will change so that it points in two directions. Click and drag away from the image to increase its size, toward the center of the object to decrease.

To move the object, place your mouse over the center or over the actual lines of the object, and your mouse will show a four-way arrow. Click and drag where the object to it's new location.

*** If you move your object while holding down the Ctrl key, it will create a duplicate.

Some AutoShapes have movable parts, such as the Smiley Face. You can tell the movable parts by looking for the small yellow diamonds.

Fill Colors

This button is called Fill Color. The Fill Color controls the inside color of an object. When you draw an object in Word or Excel, it is automatically a white fill. PowerPoint will choose colors from the color scheme you are using.

When you pull these menus free you can see that we have the basic choices of No Fill, a set of colors, More Fill Colors…, and Fill Effects. If you choose No Fill your object will become hollow, you will be able to see through it, and you will not be able to select the object from the center.

Word Excel PowerPoint

The More Fill Colors... and Fill Effects... are shown on the next page.

More Fill Colors...

Fill Effects...

Line Colors

This button is called Line Color. The Line Color controls the color of the lines of an object. When you draw an object in Word or Excel, it is automatically a black line. PowerPoint will choose colors from the color scheme you are using.

When you pull these menus free you can see that we have the basic choices of No Line, a set of colors, More Line Colors…, and Patterned Lines…. The automatic color for Excel is the color of the grid, and is set within it's options.

Word Excel PowerPoint

More Line Colors... Patterned Lines...

Font Colors

This button is called Font Color. The Font Color controls the color of your text. This button also lives on your formatting Toolbar. This menu will be grayed out on the drawing toolbar unless you have chosen a text-related object.

No matter which of these three color buttons you choose, each has a menu you can pull free and each has the last color used shown on a bar at the bottom of the button. If you want to use the color shown on the button, you don’t have to open the menu, simply click on the button.

Line, Dash and Arrow Styles

These three buttons give you further control over how the lines appear. Line Style, Dash Style and Arrow Style, respectively. These menus do not pull free, but are identical between the three programs.

Updated: 09/03/03

Page 1

Line Style allows you to change the thickness of the line of an object, or even to double line status.

Dash Style allows you to change your object from a solid line to varies dashed lines.

Arrow Style only works on lines, but it allows you to put arrows at either end of a line.

More Lines... and More Arrows...

Updated: 09/03/03

Page 1

Shadow and 3-D

These two buttons allow you to give your objects more depth. They are Shadow and 3-D, respectively.

These menus can not be pulled free, however they both have special settings you can use.

These mini control panels allow you to move the shadow, or change the tiling of the 3-D object. You cannot have a shadow and a 3-D effect at the same time.

Text Boxes

This button is to create a Text Box. When you draw it, it will be have as any other object, except it will have a blinking cursor inside the box. All Callouts from the AutoShapes are automatically text boxes.

If you want to make an existing object a text box, simply click on the text box tool and then click one time on the object. You will now be able to type in that object.

Text boxes are tricky, in that when you go to select the box to move it you have to select it via the lines of the box (or object). If you click on the center of the box, it will think you want to type and you will see the blinking cursor

If you would like to change all the text inside the text box to a specific format, you can select the box as if you were going to move it and then change the font and/or paragraph formatting. This will change all the text within that text box/object.

In Microsoft Word, text boxes have their own toolbar that appears when a text box/object is selected.

The first button allows you to link the current box with another empty box, such that if too much information is contained in one box, it can “spill over” into the next box. The next button will break the connection and the following two will move between linked text boxes. The final button allows you to place text on its left-side then its right-side, and then back to normal. (Sorry, you cannot turn your text upside down.)

The Draw Menu

The Draw menu has many options to help you work with your drawing objects.

Grouping

The first three Group, Ungroup and Regroup, are for multiple objects. Use the shift key to pick up more than one object at a time. If you have difficulty clicking on an object, use the Select Objects arrow () on the drawing toolbar.

Order

This is a menu that can be pulled free. It allows you to play with the layers of objects as to which object is in front of the others.

Grid…

Word has an invisible grid that objects snap to. This option window will allow you to adjust that spacing.

Nudge

The arrow keys on the keyboard and the Nudge option on this menu will move the object to the next grid location.

However, you can always nudge your objects just a little bit by using Ctrl and the arrow keys on the keyboard.

Align or Distribute

No matter where you place your objects you can always have them line up where you want them to, or distribute an equal amount of space between them by using the Align or Distribute feature.

If the Relative to Page button is pushed, you only need to have one object selected.

Change AutoShape

You can Change AutoShape option allows you to change the selected object into any other shape, it will maintain it’s size, colors and position.

Set AutoShape Defaults

If you draw a object and then change it’s options, you can then choose the Set AutoShape Default option such that every time you draw that shape again it will retain your customized colors and line styles.

Wrapping Text Around Objects in Word 97

In Microsoft Word the flow of text around graphics and drawing objects can change. To access this feature, you must first select the object. If you are working with a graphic, you will get the picture toolbar, from here you can choose the Text Wrapping button (). You can also choose Format Object/Picture from the short-cut (right-click) menu, from the Format menu, or from the Format button () on the picture toolbar.

Wrapping Styles

Square - wraps text around all sides of the square bounding box for the selected object.

Tight - wraps text tightly around the edges of the actual image, or rather its wrap points.

Through - is supposed to behave like Tight, but it wraps inside any parts of the object that are open. I have never seen this work.

None - removes text wrapping from the selected object, and allows the text to flow over or under the image, depending on the Order.

Top and Bottom - wraps text around the top and bottom of the selected object (excludes the text from the sides). Text stops at the above the object, and restarts below the object.

Edit Wrap Points - Displays the vertexes so you can change the text-wrapping perimeter around the selected object. To reshape the perimeter, drag the vertex. To add a vertex, click once on the red line and a new vertex should form. Text will wrap to these points when using Tight or Through.

Wrapping Text Around Objects in Word 2000

In Microsoft Word the flow of text around graphics and drawing objects can change. To access this feature, you must first select the object. If you are working with a graphic, you will get the picture toolbar, from here you can choose the Text Wrapping button () or choose Text Wrapping from the Draw menu. You can also access this feature through the layout properties by choosing Format Object/Picture from the short-cut (right-click) menu, from the Format menu, or even from the Format button () on the picture toolbar.

Wrapping Styles

Square - wraps text around all sides of the square bounding box for the selected object.

Tight - wraps text tightly around the edges of the actual image, or rather its wrap points.

Behind Text - removes text wrapping from the selected object, and allows the text to flow over the image.

In Front of Text - removes text wrapping from the selected object, and allows the text to flow under the image.

Top and Bottom - wraps text around the top and bottom of the selected object (excludes the text from the sides). Text stops at the above the object, and restarts below the object.

Through - is supposed to behave like Tight, but it wraps inside any parts of the object that are open. I have never seen this work.

Edit Wrap Points - Displays the vertexes so you can change the text-wrapping perimeter around the selected object. To reshape the perimeter, drag the vertex. To add a vertex, click once on the red line and a new vertex should form. Text will wrap to these points when using Tight or Through.