Microsoft Word: Pictures & Text Wrapping

For Microsoft Office Word 2003 and earlier versions

You've got a great picture to illustrate your text, and you know exactly where you want it to be positioned. When you insert the picture, however, it can not be moved or floats off the page or seems to be cut off, which is not what you had in mind.

When a picture is inserted into your Word document, its default placement is In Line With Text. That is, Word inserts the picture where your cursor is, even though it may not be aligned properly with the text around it. Many times, however, you will want to change the way that text wraps around your image.

If you want to reposition your picture choose from these options:

• Text Wrapping-Picture Toolbar
• Format > Picture Menu

Picture Toolbar-Text Wrapping

When a graphic is selected, the Picture toolbar should display. If it doesn't automatically appear, choose View > Toolbars > Picture. In the toolbar, click once on the dog icon to display your text wrapping options. See below for an explanation of your choices. With most of these text wrapping choices, you can drag the graphic into position or more specifically control the placement of the image with the Format > Picture command.

Format Picture

Choose the Format > Picture menu to control the layout of your graphic and text.

1. Select the picture.
2. Choose Format > Picture, and then click the Layout tab. Choose a text wrapping style or for more specific formatting, click the Advanced button.
3. On the Text Wrapping tab, click the wrapping style of your choice.
4. If you want to specify the picture's Distance from text, specify the distance in the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right boxes. Some elements on the tab may be dimmed, depending on the selections you make.
5. Click the Picture Position tab to select the picture's horizontal and vertical placement, as well as other options. Some elements on the tab may be dimmed, depending on the selections you make.
6. To close the Advanced Layout dialog box and save your selections, click OK.
7. To close the Format Picture dialog box and reposition your picture, click OK.

Wrapping Styles

Nice graphic, but that gap of white space to the right isn't what you want. Don't worry, you can further refine the layout of the graphic and text. Using the text wrapping styles in Microsoft Word, you can create documents with just the look you want.

 

Wrapping Style	Result
The In Line With Text style insets the graphic in the text at the location of the insertion point. The graphic moves as you add or delete text. The text does not wrap around the graphic; white space extends to the margins on either side of the graphic.
The Square style wraps the text around all sides of a square bounding the graphic. The graphic moves as you add or delete text.
The Tight style wraps the text around the graphic in an irregular shape bounding the actual image. The graphic moves as you add or delete text.
The Behind Text style has no border around the graphic. The graphic floats on its own layer behind the text.
The In Front of Text style has no border around the graphic. The graphic floats on its own layer in front of the text.
The Top and Bottom style has no border around the graphic. The graphic is positioned horizontally between text which sits at the top and bottom of the graphic.

Change the default text wrapping options in Microsoft Word.

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