Word Processing Graphics - Google

Word Processing Graphics

Class Description This class is intended for those who are comfortable with the fundamentals of word processing. It covers the use of various types of graphics to improve or clarify or just beautify the word processing document. The emphasis is on Microsoft Word, but similar functions in Google Docs will also be covered.

Class Length One and one-half (1?) hours

Introduction As the old saying goes: `A picture is worth a thousand words.' The addition of graphics to a document to illustrate a point can frequently save pages of text, especially for readers who are more visually-oriented. It can convey a point more quickly. And, of course, graphics can make a document more visually appealing: line after line and page after page of text without much white space often seems more laborious to a reader.

Objectives

Learn how to insert graphics Learn how to manipulate graphics Have an understanding of different types of text wrapping How to insert lines and shapes Learn the special keys for use with lines and shapes Learn how to use Text Boxes Learn how to use Word Art Learn how to insert a Chart into a document (time permitting) Learn how to insert a screenshot (time permitting) Learn how to insert SmartArt

This manual is a handout for you to keep. Please feel free to use it for taking notes.

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Inserting an Image

If you have copied an image to your clipboard, perhaps from a web page, you can use the word processor's paste function to put it in your document. But sometimes, you want to use an image stored on your computer or `in the cloud' and don't want to have to open it and copy it to your clipboard before pasting it. Both Google Docs and Microsoft Word have ways to do this.

Google Docs

From the menu, click on Insert then Image to open the Insert Image dialog box:

From here, you can use the Upload function one of two ways: (1) drag an image into the large box, usually from your file manager, but some web browsers will permit you to drag an image even from a browser page onto the document; or (2) click on the blue box: `Choose an image to upload' which will open your file manager and allow you to select the image you wish to insert.

The Take a snapshot function requires a camera. (Not covered here.)

The By URL function allows you to supply the location of an image and have it transferred into your document.

The Your albums function allows you to insert images you have posted on your Google+ account. The Google Drive function allows you to insert images you have saved on your Google Drive or have been shared with you. The Search function takes you into Google's Image Search engine.

Tip: Images must be .png or .jpg or .gif format and less than 2 MB. (Google says animated .gif files are not accepted, but they may work; files larger than 2 MB often work also. If in doubt, try it!)

Terminology: In Google Docs you insert an `Image' or `Drawing', whereas in Microsoft Word you insert a `Picture', `Online Picture', `Shapes', `Screenshot', `Text Box', or `WordArt' -- but, no matter what they are labelled, they are all graphics and manipulated in similar ways (even a Text Box).

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Microsoft Word

From the Illustrations group of the INSERT ribbon, click on the Pictures icon. This will open the Insert Picture dialog box:

From here, you can locate the picture you want and either double-click on its icon or name, or single click to highlight (select) it and then click the Insert button.

If you already have your file manager open to the picture you want, you can drag it on to your document, skipping the ribbon and dialog box altogether.

To the right of the Pictures icon is the Online Pictures icon. (It replaces the `Clip Art' in previous versions of Word.) When you click the icon, it opens a dialog box

to insert keywords to send to a Bing Image Search:

Tip: If you are dealing with a very large graphic and plan to reduce its size in your document, consider using a graphics editor to scale the image to the intended size and inserting the smaller graphic. It will reduce the size of your document.

Manipulating Graphics

Once you have any type of graphic inserted into your document, you'll want to be able to manipulate it: resizing, repositioning, and making text `flow' around the image are the most basic, but some word processors can do much more.

Important: The techniques in this section apply to all kinds of graphics. There are slight differences in the way Google Docs manipulates graphics from the way Microsoft Word does it, but once you learn how a

If an image is too large to fit the page, a word processor will automatically scale it to fit the document's margins ? which

word processing application manipulates one type of graphic, it will be the same for other types of graphics.

may still be too large. Both Google Docs and Microsoft Word

place eight controls around a selected image (four corners and four midpoints on each side [see top of next page]).

These controls can be dragged with a mouse to resize the picture. The corner controls affect both sides of the image to

which they are adjacent and will resize the image proportionately. The controls on the sides only affect that side of the

picture and will distort the picture.

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Microsoft Word Google Docs

Even after the image has been resized (see below), only a tiny bit of text displays along one or both sides. And trying to reposition an image, especially in Microsoft Word, can be difficult. This is because, by default, most word processors insert an image in In line. It is necessary to change this so you can more easily manipulate the image.

When a graphic is treated as In Line, it is positioned on the page as if it were a character on the page, no matter its size. If you think of it as one letter in a word in a huge font, it will be easier to understand why the only way to move it is to add or remove characters ahead of it or to drag it to a new location. And just as if one letter in a word were made a much larger font size, the word processor adjusts line spacing to accommodate the space the graphic needs. The solution: wrapping text (around the graphic).

Video provides a powerful way to help you prove your point. When you click Online Video, you can paste in the embed code for the video you want to add. You can also type a keyword to search online for the video that best fits your document. To make your document look professionally produced, Word provides header, footer, cover page, and text box designs that

m complement each other. For exa

ple, you can add a matching cover page,

header, and sidebar. Click Insert and then choose the elements you want from the different galleries. Themes and styles also help keep your document coordinated. When you click Design and choose a new Theme, the pictures, charts, and SmartArt graphics change to match your new theme. When you apply styles, your headings change to match the new theme.

Pretty ugly, isn't it?

That's the way graphics are handled by default!

Save time in Word with new buttons that show up where you need them. To change the way a picture fits in your document, click it and a button for layout options appears next to it. When you work on a table, click where you want to add a row or a column, and then click the plus sign.

Reading is easier, too, in the new Reading view. You can collapse parts of the document and focus on the text you want. If you need to stop reading before you reach the end, Word remembers where you left off - even on another device.

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Microsoft Word

When an image is first inserted into a document in Microsoft Word using the Insert Picture dialog box, Microsoft Word switches to the PICTURE TOOLS ribbon with the image selected. If you have deselected the image (usually by clicking elsewhere in the document) or have used a different method to insert the picture, the PICTURE TOOLS ribbon may not be visible until you select the image. A single click on the image will make the PICTURE TOOLS ribbon visible, but might not switch to it. A double-click on the image should always switch you to the PICTURE TOOLS ribbon.

From the PICTURE TOOLS ribbon there are multiple ways to do this.

In the Arrange group, you can select the Wrap Text icon and choose one of the options shown here...

... or select `More Layout Options' to open the Layout dialog box (next page), or ...

Tip: Once you have text wrapping around a graphic, the `Fix Position on Page' item becomes available. This can be used when you prevent a graphic from moving as you work with text.

... in the Arrange group, you can select the Position icon and choose one of the nine options shown here which will `lock' the graphic to the page and flow the text around it using the `Square' option of wrapping text ...

... or select `More Layout Options' to open the Layout dialog box (next page), or ...

... right-click on an image to open the Context Menu for graphics, then click on `Size and Position...' to open the Layout dialog box (next page) ...

... or click on the tiny arrow icon in the lower-right of the Size group of the PICTURE TOOLS FORMAT ribbon to open the Layout dialog box (next page).

The Layout dialog box (next page) has three tabs: `Position' is the default selection when `More Layout Options' is chosen from the Position icon; `Text Wrapping' is the default selection when `More Layout Options' is chosen from the Wrap Text icon; `Size' is the default selection in response to a click on the tiny arrow in the lower-right corner or when `Size and Position' is chosen from the Context Menu.

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