Graphics and Text Wrapping

This article covers Microsoft Word. PowerPoint and Excel do not use text wrapping in the same way.

Apart from layering your shapes, you can also tell Word how you want the text to appear in relation to the shape.

Text wrapping options are as follows:

• In line with text. Text on the page appears above and below the shape, but does not appear to the left or right. The first line of text may appear to the bottom right of the graphic, treating the graphic as just another character in the paragraph.
  
• Square. Round or curved shapes are given an invisible square (or rectangle) frame and text wraps to the frame.
  
• Tight. Text follows the shape but without overlapping it. The text is an equal distance from the edges of the graphic.
  
• Behind text. No matter what fill colour or effect is used, text is visible through the shape. The exception, of course, would be a fill colour that exactly matched the text colour.
  
• In front of text. The shape appears on top of the text. The text is not visible unless there is no fill, or the fill is set to semitransparent.

When your draw an AutoShape, wrapping style defaults to In Front Of Text.

For the Square and Tight options, there is a gap between the object and the text. The size of this gap can be adjusted.

Distance from text

Word has a default value for the distance text will appear from an object. Try this exercise for an example of how to adjust this distance.

1. Open Word.
   
2. On the first page, draw a square.
   
3. Select the square and click on Format – Autoshape.
   
4. Choose the Layout tab and click on the Advanced button.
   
5. Choose the Text Wrapping tab.
   

   

6. Choose a wrapping style of Square.
   
7. The dialogue box now allows you to modify distance from text (top, bottom, left and right). Enter some values for these distances.
   
8. Click on OK, and OK.
   
9. Enter some dummy text into the document. Check the results.
   
10. Move the square around the screen and notice the effect on the text.

Also note that this dialogue box has some other options for text wrapping – Both sides, Left only, Right only and Largest only. I find the Largest Only setting useful if my shape is to the far right of the page and a single word appears on the right side. The same thing may apply to objects at the far left of the page.

Two circles. The first uses Tight. The second uses Tight, Largest Only.

Edit wrap points

Text wraps around a graphic based on its Wrap Points. These (usually) invisible points appear around the outside of a shape or graphic. Think of it as join-the-dots. Words are not displayed past the lines that connect the dots.

As well as indicating a measurement, you can manually work with these points. You can for example, have text partially overlap an object. Or conversely have text appear a long way from the object at one point, and close up at another. You can add or delete points, or move them to a new position.

1. Select the shape.
2. Click on Draw – Text Wrapping – Edit Wrap Points. A red line appears around the outside of the shape, and it gets some extra handles. Remember that any text follows the red line, not necessarily the actual shape.
   
   
   
3. This is a good time to zoom in, so you have more control over what you are doing.
   
4. What you can do here is click and drag the wrap points to a new location. If you have some text wrapping around the object, you can see the effects straight away.
   
5. To add an extra wrap point, just click between two existing wrap points and drag. Or hold down Ctrl and click.
   
6. To delete a wrap point, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the point. Note that the cursor changes to a small cross.
   
7. Click away from the shape when done.

Next time I will cover text inside a shape, grids and guides.