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adding shapes is a great way to make
your documents more interesting word
gives you a lot of different shapes to
choose from and they can be customized
to suit your needs using your own color
palette preferences and more to get
started go to the insert tab click the
shapes command then take a look at the
menu and see if there's anything you
like in this example we're going to
start with the ribbon shape here to draw
your shape click and drag your mouse
roughly where you want it to go
the shape will appear with your default
color scheme we're going to talk more
about how to change that in a minute
right now I'd like to add one more shape
before we move on the great thing about
shapes is that they can be combined and
customized to create your own unique
graphics mastering this element can take
time but with a little practice and a
little creativity you can create almost
anything with these tools when you're
working with multiple shapes you may
reach a point where you want to change
the order so the correct shape is in
front or on top this comes up a lot in
word so it's a good technique to know
just right-click one of your shapes then
go to bring to front and send to back
you may need to experiment with these
options to make sure your shapes are
arranged the way you want in this
example I've selected the heart shape
and I want to move it behind the ribbon
shape so I'm going to choose send to
back then send backward and that will do
it now we can make some adjustments to
our shapes the first thing I'm going to
do is make the ribbon shape a little
smaller using the sizing handles here
these can be found on the sides and the
corners of any shape or object in word
every shape also has a rotation handle
that you can drag in any direction
if your shape has any yellow handles
like the ones you see here you can use
those to make other adjustments in this
case they change the proportions of the
ribbon but it just depends some shapes
don't have this option at all next let's
take a look at the format tab which
appears anytime you have a shape
selected from here you can change the
fill color outline basically anything
related to the shapes appearance the
fastest way to change the look of your
shape is to use one of the predefined
shape styles these options depend on the
colors and shape effects that are part
of your current theme just mouse over
each one for a preview and see if
there's anything you like
you can also use the commands on the
right to choose your own formatting
options in this example I'm going to
change the outline color and then use
the shape effects command to apply
shadow
I'd also like to customize the heart
shape just a little more
I'm going to change the fill color
remove the outline
and finally I'm going to add a bevel
from the shape effects menu
you can even change the shape itself if
you want to try something different
this option is good if you've already
applied some formatting like this and
you don't want to lose it by starting
over from scratch just select the shape
you want to change that's the ribbon
shape in this example then click the
Edit shape command on the far left of
the format tab you can then choose a new
shape from the menu
I'm going to go with the slightly
different ribbon shape here
there we go
and I'll just make a few tweaks to get
this shape the way I want it now let's
add some text for the finishing touch
to add text to a shape all you have to
do is select the one you want then start
typing this instantly turns the shape
into a text box you can even format the
text using the options on the Home tab
here it is with the different font there
are a lot of things you can do with
shapes in Word this graphic is just one
example so give it a try and see what
you can come up with you can use just
one shape at a time or you can try
combining them to create something new