If you have already created and saved illustrations or pictures that you want to use in your document, the easiest way to place those images into your document is to click the Picture tool in the Illustrations group on the Insert tab. The Insert Picture dialog box appears, in which you navigate to the location of the image you want to add. Select the picture and then click Insert to add it to your document (see Figure 17-1).

Figure 17-1. Use the Insert Picture dialog box to find and select the file you want to add to your page.

Word 2010 accepts graphics files in a number of popular formats, as Table 17-1 shows. By default, All Pictures is selected in the File Type list (located toward the lower-right of the Insert Picture dialog box). If you want to see only files of a certain format, click the All Pictures arrow and choose the format you want to display from the list.

Add Now, Edit Later

In some situations you might want to add a photo, logo, or drawing that is not quite finished to your document. If your group is designing a new logo, for example, you might want to insert the logo in your document while it is going through the review process, with the idea that you will update the logo with the finalized version after it’s finished.

When you use Insert Picture to add the image to your Word page, you can maintain a link to the original file so that when the image is updated (in the case of our example, the logo graphic), the changes are reflected in your Word document as well. To maintain this link, select the file in the Insert Picture dialog box then click the arrow to the right of the Insert button. Click Insert and Link from the list that appears.

You probably already know that Word includes a collection of clip art you can use in your own documents. You’ll find all sorts of different topics represented, from animals to transportation to people and holidays. In addition to the clip art images available in your version of Word, you can also include Office.com content to expand the number of results presented to you when you’re on the hunt for just the right illustration. When you want to insert a piece of clip art in a document, click Clip Art in the Illustrations group. The Clip Art task pane appears along the right edge of the document window (see Figure 17-2).

In the Clip Art task pane, type what you’re looking for in the Search for box and then click the Go button. You don’t need to know the name of a specific category—simply enter a word that describes the kinds of images you want to display: for example, people. A selection of clips related to the word or phrase you entered appears in the task pane. If you want to include clip art from Office.com, select the Include Office.com Content check box. The results of the search appear in the task pane display area.

Figure 17-2. Use the Clip Art task pane to find and add images that illustrate ideas in your document.

Adding Art and Entering Keywords

When you find the clip art you want, click it to have Word add it to your document. If you want to display additional choices, however, hover the mouse over the selection, and an arrow becomes available on the right side of the clip. Click it to see a contextual menu that offers additional ways you can fine-tune and work with the image (see Figure 17-3).

Figure 17-3. Use the contextual menu to customize the image for your use.

You can choose to use Insert to place the image, which is just like clicking it in the results panel; Word inserts it at the cursor position on your page. Or, you might want to use Copy To so you can use it in another document. The option Make Available Offline appears in the contextual menu when you click a clip that is currently stored on Office.com. Clicking the option displays the Copy To Collection dialog box in which you can choose where in the Microsoft Office Clip Organizer you’d like to save the file.

Edit Keywords is an important selection if you are preparing an online document because search engines will read the keywords you use and perhaps display your Web page in someone’s search results list. When you click Edit Keywords, the Keywords dialog box appears (see Figure 17-4). You can review the existing keywords or add keywords of your own by clicking in the Keyword box, typing the word, and then clicking the Add button. Click Close when you are finished entering keywords.

Figure 17-4. Keywords help your online document show up in search results.

Do you like to create your own illustrations using the various shape tools in Word? If so, you’ll find the shape tools in the Illustrations group on the Insert tab. When you want to draw any configuration of shapes or lines, you’ll begin with the Shapes tool. When you click Shapes, a gallery full of shapes and lines appears (see Figure 17-6).

Figure 17-6. The Shapes gallery offers you a large selection of shapes and tools to use.

To draw a shape or line, simply click the tool you want and use the pointer to draw the object on the screen. If you plan to use multiple shapes and lines—perhaps to create a simple diagram or flowchart—working on the drawing canvas helps you to keep all items together and work with them as a group. Using the drawing canvas is optional, however—you can choose to simply draw the shapes and lines directly on the document page. The next section gives you more detail on using the drawing canvas when you’re working with shapes.

Using the Drawing Grid

When you’re using shapes and lines, the drawing grid is another handy tool that can help you to align items in the drawing as you create them. The drawing grid is available whether you’re using the drawing canvas or not.

To display the drawing grid, on the View tab, click Gridlines in the Show group. A grid appears on the work area of your document, as Figure 17-7 shows. Notice that the margins of the document are left blank.

Figure 17-7. Display the drawing grid when you need to precisely align shapes and lines.

Now when you draw a shape or line, the object automatically snaps to a line on the grid. If you are displaying inches as your unit of measurement, the gridlines appear at intervals of 1/8 of an inch. If your unit of measurement is set to centimeters, the grid marks off 1/3 of a centimeter with each block. And if you are using picas, each grid block is equal to 1/8 of a pica.

To change the unit of measurement displayed in the grid, on the File tab, click Options then select the Advanced tab and scroll down to the Display options. Click the Show Measurements in Units Of arrow and choose the measurement setting you prefer. You can choose from Inches, Centimeters, Millimeters, Points, and Picas.

Tip

If you want to position an object in such a way that it doesn’t align to the grid (even though the grid is still enabled), click the shape and hold the mouse button down for a moment, then press Alt and drag the shape or line to the position where you want it to appear. When you release the mouse button, the object will remain where you placed it, whether or not it is aligned with the grid.

Now when you work with pictures in Word you can transform ordinary photos using a variety of available filters. The new Artistic Effects enable you to turn an everyday image into a stylized graphic that looks like a pencil drawing, a chalk sketch, a watercolor painting, or even a picture set in cement, viewed through a screen, or wrapped in plastic! To apply Artistic Effects to a picture on your page, simply click the picture and then select the Picture Tools Format tab. In the Adjust group, click Artistic Effects. A gallery of filters appears; you can preview the different effects by pointing to them with the mouse. Figure 17-8 shows the Texturize effect being applied to a picture.

Figure 17-8. With Artistic Effects, you can apply stylized looks to your everyday pictures.

The styles of the Artistic Effects vary widely, so you can find styles that range from conservative and understated (Line Drawing, for example) to abstract (Plastic Wrap). Here are the various effects you can apply:

You can tailor the look of individual Artistic Effects by clicking the Artistic Effects Options item at the bottom of the Artistic Effects gallery. In the Format Picture dialog box, choose the Artistic Effect you want to change, adjust the settings to reflect what you’d like to see, and click OK to save your changes.

Although Artistic Effects are fun and interesting, use them sparingly in your document (for example, choose one style and stick with it) and don’t overdo the artistic flair. A little “artsy” goes a long way, so make sure your products are recognizable, images of people are clear, and your pictures support the overall goal of your document, whatever that might be.

Word includes a number of image adjustment tools that you can use to bring out the best in your images. You’ll find the whole set located in the Adjustment group of the contextual Picture Tools. To display the tools, click on the picture you want to change. The Picture Tools appear on the Ribbon. The Format tab is automatically selected.

The Adjustment group is located on the far left. Depending on the type of change you want to make to your picture, click one of the following tools:

Cropping images is a simple process, but it can dramatically improve the look of your photo by removing unnecessary elements from the image. For example, suppose that a diver’s swim fin appears in the corner of an underwater photo you want to use for the Coral Reef Divers annual report. You can easily crop the photo to remove the unwanted fin and help your readers focus on the important part of the photo.

To crop your photo, follow these steps:

Now in Word 2010, you can do even more with the Crop tool. You can click Crop and use the tool as just described, or if you want, you can crop the image to a specific shape. To do so, click the Crop arrow and choose Crop To Shape then click the shape you want to use from the gallery that appears. The shape is applied to the selected image. You can also use the Fill and Fit options to change the way the picture appears after the crop. When you choose Fill, the cropped picture fills the resulting picture frame and any portions of the picture outside the frame are cropped. When you choose Fit, the picture is fitted to the new frame and the aspect ratio is preserved.

You can also adjust the aspect ratio of the picture you crop by clicking Aspect Ratio in the Crop list and then clicking the aspect setting you want to use. If you are unsure about what will look best on your page, click a size and preview it on the page. If you want to undo the change, simply press Ctrl+Z.

An operation that goes hand-in-hand with cropping is resizing the images you import. This is one technique you’ll use all the time—pictures rarely come into your documents at just the right size.

Resizing a picture in Word is similar to resizing any object. To begin, click the image to select it. Handles appear around the edges of the object. If you want to enlarge the image, click in one corner of the picture and drag the handle outward. When the image is the size you want, release the mouse button.

If resizing your picture to a precise measurement is important, use the Size command, available in the picture’s options. Here’s how:

Some of your documents are likely to be fairly straightforward and won’t require a lot of special picture techniques. But once in a while you will have a reason to do something fun like rotating pictures. With the Rotate control in Word you can simply drag a picture in the direction you want to turn it—very simple and easy to use. Instead of moving the image in predesigned increments, the Rotate tool lets you be in control of how far you want the picture to revolve.

Start by clicking the picture in your document. You’ll notice that a round green handle appears in the top center of your image. This is the rotate handle. Position the mouse on that handle; note that the pointer changes to a curved arrow, indicating that you can drag the handle in the direction you want to rotate the image (see the graphic that follows). If you prefer, you can alternatively indicate the specific degree by which you want to rotate the image by entering the value in the Rotation box on the Size tab of the Layout dialog box.

Picture styles work similarly to the other quick styles you’ll find in strategic places throughout Word 2010. When you select a picture in your document, the contextual Picture Tools become available on the Ribbon. The Picture Styles have their own group in the middle of the Format tab, as shown in the following illustration.

The Picture Styles gallery shows the various styles you can apply to the selected image. You can display the entire selection of styles by clicking the More button in the lower-right corner of the gallery (see Figure 17-13). Preview the various styles by positioning the mouse pointer over an item in the gallery; when you find one you want to use, click the mouse to select the picture style.

Figure 17-13. The Picture Styles gallery provides you with many different ways to display an image.

Adding a Picture Border

When you click Picture Border in the Picture Styles group, a color palette appears from which you can choose the color of the border you want to apply, as well as the weight and style of the line used to create the border (see Figure 17-14). The top portion of the palette lists the colors that match the theme that is currently applied to your document; the Standard Colors area of the palette provides primary colors. If you want to choose a color that does not appear in the palette, click More Outline Colors and then select the color from either the Standard or Custom tab. To apply it to the selected picture, click OK after you choose the color.

Figure 17-14. You can choose the color, weight, and style of the border you add to your pictures.

Adding a Picture Effect

Picture effects give you a wide range of special formats you can apply to the selected picture. You can choose from among a variety of shadow styles, apply a glow to the outer edges, display a reflection of the image, soften the edges, create a beveled effect, and apply 3-D effects and rotation.

To apply a picture effect, select the picture and then click Picture Effects in the Picture Styles group. A palette of choices appears. Point to the effects category you want to apply (Preset, Shadow, Reflection, Glow, Soft Edges, Bevel, and 3-D Rotation). A palette of effects opens to display your choice. Use Live Preview to see how the different effects will appear in your document (see Figure 17-15).

Figure 17-15. Use Picture Effects to enhance your pictures by adding shadows, bevel effects, 3-D effects, and more.

Readers like to know what your images contain, so unless you’re certain that readers will understand what your images are showing, you might want to consider adding figure captions. The process is simple, and you can control the look and placement of the text by following these steps:

The caption is displayed in a color, font, size, and style that are controlled by the theme selected for your document. If you change the theme later (on the Page Layout tab, select Themes and choose a new theme from the gallery), the captions will be reformatted automatically.

If you prefer to change the format of the captions, you can do so on the Home tab by choosing new settings from your choices in the Font group. Remember, however, that once you change the captions from a theme-supported style, you must reformat them manually if you ever apply a new theme.

When you first add a shape to your document, it might not look like much—perhaps just a simple black outline on a white page. You can change that dramatically with a click of the mouse.

Select the shape or shapes, and the contextual Drawing Tools appears on the Ribbon. Click one of the selections in the Shape Styles palette or click the More button in the lower-right corner of the gallery to display the entire collection, and then click the style you want to apply to the shape. Suddenly it takes on depth, color, and in some cases, lighting qualities (see Figure 17-17).

Figure 17-17. Use the Shape Styles to add color, line style, and perspective to your shapes.

You can easily add text to some shapes you draw using the Shapes tools. Right-click the shape into which you want to include the text and then choose Add Text if it is available (see Figure 17-18). The cursor is positioned in the shape. Type the text you want to appear in the shape. Notice that the text reformats automatically to accommodate the amount of room in the shape.

Figure 17-18. Choose Add Text to position the cursor inside the shape.

If you want to reformat the text inside the shape, simply highlight the text and choose the formatting you want from the Mini Toolbar that appears above the selection (see Figure 17-19). For best results, keep the text items short and easy to understand.

Figure 17-19. Change the format of shape text by using the Mini Toolbar that appears above the added text.

A shape you create in Word has two main areas: the borders (called the shape outline) and the interior (called the shape fill). With the Shape Fill and Shape Outline tools in the Styles group of the Drawing Tools palette (located just to the right of the Shape Styles gallery), you can choose different settings for the display of those items.

In addition to adding textures and colors, you can apply shadow and three-dimensional (3-D) effects to your shapes and lines in Word 2010. Although some shadow and 3-D effects were available in the previous version of Word, these features have been dramatically improved and are now included as a choice in the Shape Effects gallery. Now you have a broad collection of options at your disposal for tailoring your shapes and lines to get just the look you want.

Adding and Controlling Shadows

You can instantly add depth to your drawings in Word by adding a shadow to the edge of an object. Click Shape Effects in the Shape Styles group on the Drawing Tools Format tab and point to Shadow. The gallery of choices shown in Figure 17-21 appears, from which you can choose the type of shadow you want to apply.

Figure 17-21. You can easily add depth to a shape in your document by adding a shadow effect.

If you later want to remove the shadow, click the shape and choose Shadow Effects again, But this time, click No Shadow (at the top of the gallery).

Changing the Position and Appearance of Shadows

After you apply a shadow, you can adjust the shadow’s position relative to the object and control additional settings, such as how transparent the shadow is, what its angle looks like, and how far it extends from the edge of the shape. You can make these changes using the Shadow Options choice (available at the bottom of the Shadow gallery) that appears when you click Shape Effects and point to Shadow.

The Format Shape dialog box appears, as you see in Figure 17-22, in which you can enter your choices for the Transparency, Size, Blur, Angle, and Distance of the shadow.

Figure 17-22. You can tailor the appearance of the shadow by using the settings in the Shadow tab of the Format Shape dialog box.

You might wonder what else is involved in making a shape appear three-dimensional. Shadows seem to be the most important characteristic, right? Word 2010 makes 3-D easy by offering a number of shape styles that apply the effects for you. But you can further customize the look if you like. For example, you can set the depth and height of an object, apply a special surface covering such as metal or plastic, and choose the way in which you want the light to reflect off the shape’s surface.

Changing 3-D Effects

To change or add 3-D effects to the shapes in your document, you can use several of the choices in the Shape Effects gallery. For example, Bevel settings make the shape appear to rise up from the surface of the page; Shadow adds depth and a sense of background. You can also use the 3-D Rotation choices to skew the shape and give it a more three-dimensional feel (see Figure 17-23). Position the pointer over an item to preview how it will look in the document. When you find the one you like, click it to select it.

Figure 17-23. The 3-D Effects group enables you to control depth, height, perspective, lighting, and more.

Inside Out: I Want to Add Text to Freehand Drawings

When you create a freehand drawing, you can’t right-click the drawing and choose Add Text. To work around this limitation, you can click Text Box in the Text group on the Insert tab and then draw a text box on top of your freehand drawing. Now you can type and format text in the text box. If you want to ensure that the text and drawing aren’t separated or layered incorrectly in the future, choose the shape and the text box (by pressing Shift as you click the objects), and then click Group in the Arrange group on the Ribbon.

When you have a number of objects in your document, arranging them so that they fit together well is a big part of making sure your document looks as good as possible. If you’ve created a drawing that includes a number of shapes and lines, or you’ve added special elements to offset WordArt titles, or you want to ensure two photos line up on the page, you can use the Align tool in the Arrange group to put things in their proper order.

Here are the steps for aligning objects on your page:

All art objects you add to your document—pictures, shapes, lines, and WordArt—are individual objects in their own right. If you create a drawing by using a variety of art elements (whether you use a drawing canvas or not), being able to combine those elements into a single group enables you to move, copy, and modify all items at once.

You can also group objects to ensure that certain elements stay together no matter what. Grouping also comes in handy when you want to make sure that layered objects don’t inadvertently become incorrectly layered. You can ungroup grouped items at any time, which means that you can edit any part of a grouped object whenever necessary.

To group objects, begin by arranging the objects where you want them to appear in the document. Then select the objects you want to group (press Shift and click each object you want to include). Next, click Group in the Arrange group in the Drawing Tools. The multiple handles that surrounded each item now disappear, and one set of handles appears for the entire group. You can move, copy, and resize the group as needed.

If you want to make a change to any object within the group, you’ll need to ungroup it before you can work with it. To ungroup objects, select the group and click Ungroup in the Arrange group on the Ribbon.

When you create a drawing that contains many objects, you’ll need to control which objects are layered in front of and behind other objects. Paying attention to how objects are layered can save you from inadvertently hiding parts of your drawings that should be visible.

Put your objects in the right order on the page by selecting an object and clicking either Bring To Front or Send To Back in the Arrange group. Clicking the selection itself performs the action—in other words, when you click Bring To Front, the selected object moves to the front of any other objects at that point on the page.

Both the Bring To Front and Send To Back tools have their own sets of options. Click the arrow to the left of each selection to see how you can further qualify the selection. Depending on the number of objects you have layered in your drawing, you might want to move the object in front of text, bring it forward one level, or send it backward behind another object. Experiment with these choices to get a feel for them. You will use these tools often if you do a lot of drawing in Word.

Depending on how many pictures, drawings, and objects you will be using on your pages, you might want some kind of method of positioning your object that doesn’t require clicking and dragging or aligning and distributing. With the Position tool in the Arrange group you can select the position on the page where you want your image(s) to appear, with text automatically flowing around it. Here’s how to easily position an image in your document:

Now as you add headlines, text, and other objects to the page, the image will be placed in the position you indicated. If you want to fine-tune your selection of the image position, click More Layout Options at the bottom of the Position gallery to display the Advanced Layout dialog box. From there, you can specify your choices related to the horizontal alignment, vertical alignment, and position of the object, as well as the way in which it relates to surrounding text.

If the Position tool helps you determine how the image relates to the entire page (and it does), the Text Wrapping tool determines the relationship between your art and your text. When you choose a Text Wrapping option, you are telling Word how you want the text to flow around (or through or behind) the image you have added. This is a simple and flexible feature that gives you a number of creative ways to create and enhance the layout of your page. Here’s how to do it: