What else can I do with Word?
As you have seen so far from the previous section, entering text is not all that terribly enthralling. Entering text into a document is only useful when you need to use Word to communicate certain ideas in written form. But we all know a picture says a thousand words. And anyway, pictures help to summarise what you wish to say verbally through words. Pictures can also cross language barriers. And pictures can make your document look more professional.
How do I insert pictures?
To insert a picture (not one created by Microsoft) into your Word document, go under the Insert menu command, highlight Picture, and choose from the sub-menu From File...
You will see a window appear not unlike the following:
A tick in the box that says "Preview Picture" means you can see what the graphic file looks like before inserting the picture into your Word document. For large graphic files, Microsoft Word can work hard to show a preview. If you think the preview might take too long, remove the tick from this box.
The "Link to File" box means you can keep your Word document file small and compact and yet still show the picture when the document is opened. The only difference is that Microsoft Word will store a link to the file so that the picture will be displayed on the screen when the document is opened but will not embed and store the picture directly into the Word document file. This feature is particularly useful if the picture is likely to change regularly and you just want to see the latest picture without going into the trouble of constantly inserting a fresh new picture via the Insert menu command. The only disadvantage is that you have to include the graphic file and the Word document if you want to send the document to someone else. If that is too messy, consider embedding the picture without linking to create a single, complete Word document.
Now you have essentially two options for inserting a picture into your Word document. The first option is to place the picture in the spot where you cursor is. This means if the cursor is in between some text, the picture can break apart the text such that some text will appear at the top left-hand side of the picture and the text will continue to appear in the lower right-hand side of the picture.
You can minimise this messy look by either placing the picture in between paragraphs. Or you can choose the second option of inserting the picture. The second option involves placing a tick in the box that says "Float over Text" just like the following:
What this does is make the picture hover over the text so you can do some really fancy things like wrapping text around the picture. Want to try this out? Okay. Once you have inserted the picture into your Word document with "Float over Text" option selected, click once on the inserted graphic to show the eight white anchor boxes around the picture. This means the picture is selected and you can move or scale the picture using the anchor boxes.
However we want to wrap text around the picture. So choose Picture... from the Format menu command.
And click the tab that says "Wrapping" in the Format Picture window. This will show you a range of options for getting text to behave in a certain way with the picture.
If you click on the picture that says "Tight", you will have the text wrapped tightly around the picture as soon as you press the OK button. If you don't want the text to go right around the picture, further options are available below it. Just click the picture you would like to see your text behave.