Goodwill Community Foundation creating
opportunities for a better life
sometimes you want to add text at a
specific location on the page but your
layout won't let you putting the text
inside a text box will give you the
freedom to move it wherever you want you
can also format it using different shape
styles and WordArt to create a text box
go to the insert tab then click the text
box command
there are several built-in styles to
choose from but you can always go with a
plain text box and add formatting
yourself to do this click draw text box
then click hold and drag roughly where
you want the text box to go now you can
type whatever you want you can even
format the text using the options on the
Home tab and the format tab in this
example I'm going to make several
different changes we'll start by
selecting the edge of the text box then
aligning the text to the middle next
we're going to go to the Home tab and
increase the font size to make it easier
to read you can also change the font
itself if you want something other than
the default finally I'm going to align
the text to the center of the text box
to give it a nice clean appearance I'm
also going to remove the paragraph
spacing because that can have an effect
on your vertical alignment it helps to
think of text boxes as just another type
of shape in word that means you can
easily give them a new look by changing
the fill color removing the outline or
adding an effect just go back to the
format tab then look to all the options
in the shape Styles group
you can also
of the textbox using the edit shape
command here word gives you all the
usual shapes to choose from why don't we
try a circle instead of the default
square to resize a textbox click and
drag the sizing handles on the sides or
the corners of the shape to move it just
place your cursor on the edge and drag
it wherever you want another great thing
about text boxes is the fact that you
can format the text inside using a
special feature called word art you'll
find everything you need in the word art
styles group you can use the commands on
the right to adjust your formatting
manually including the text fill outline
and special effects or you can try one
of the built-in word art styles also
known as quick styles I don't think I
like the way these look with the orange
background so I'm going to leave the
text the way it is what I'd really like
to do is add an effect where it says
annual clearance but because this is
regular text we need to convert it
before we can do anything else first
select the text you want to format then
go to the insert tab from here you're
able to convert the text to a regular
text box or you can convert it straight
to word art this has the added benefit
of giving the text box a transparent
background remember you can customize
your word art using the commands on the
format tab in this example I'm going to
check out the options under text effects
these are pretty much the same effects
that you can add to shapes in word
including drop shadow 3d rotation and
more but if you look to the bottom of
the menu you'll find an extra option
called transform this effect will
actually change the shape of your text
just mouse over the options for a
preview and be careful not to choose one
that makes your text unreadable
I think this will
pretty good once you've added a
transform effect the text will stretch
to fit the text box
anytime you resize it you probably don't
want to use word art in more serious
documents like a resume or an academic
paper but if you're working on something
casual like this flyer it can really be
a lot of fun
you