Work Wonders with Word Images Word-Wise Tricks for Editing, Layering, and Applying Artwork Helen Bradley
Wed 3/20/02 -- A word processor is not an image editor, but buried just beneath the surface of Microsoft Word are tools and tricks you can use to create wonderful graphical effects in your documents. Most are not difficult to use, but they can be difficult to find. So in this column I'll show you how to unearth and achieve the best image effects, from framing images in circle or star shapes (or a myriad of other shapes) to salvaging some clip art you'd like to use if only it was a different color.
You're the star. You can make regular images appear in a range of shapes or funky frames using the AutoShapes tool on the Drawing toolbar. Choose a shape and add it to your document -- you can also use a FreeForm line or a scribble from the AutoShapes: Lines collection, as long as you close the shape by joining the two ends of the line.
You then place an image into the shape by right-clicking the latter and choosing Format/AutoShape and the Colors and Lines tab. From the "Fill Color:" list, pick Fill Effects, the Picture tab, and Select Picture and locate the picture on your disk. Click Insert, then OK twice to return to your document.
Getting the right image. When you want to achieve an effect like the above that requires an image on disk, and your image is in your Clip Art collection, copy it into your favorite graphics program and save it to disk. At this stage, you can also crop the image to suit -- images to be placed in shapes such as circles or stars, for example, are best saved as square. If you'll be making an oval or banner, save the image in a rectangular form.
Recoloring and reworking images. Got a clip art image you like, but it's the wrong color for the job? You'll find most WMF format images can be recolored from within Word.
Simply add the image to your Word document and set its Wrapping option to In Front of Text. With the image selected, right-click it and choose Grouping, Ungroup. You'll see a warning message telling you the imported object isn't a group and asking if you want to turn it into a Microsoft Drawing object; answer Yes to this. The image will be broken into its component pieces, all of which you'll see selected.
Click (select) a piece of the image and recolor it using the Fill Color button on the Drawing toolbar. Use Edit/Undo if you choose the wrong piece; you can select multiple pieces by pressing the Shift key as you click each in turn. You can also use custom Fill Effects such as patterns, gradient fills, and even images to recolor your art, or remove unwanted parts from the image by selecting them and pressing the Delete key. When you're done, select all the pieces by dragging a selection around the entire image, right click and choose Grouping, Group.
Layering images. You can layer images collage-style by placing them on top of one another (after making sure that image wrapping is set to In Front of tText). To make foreground or top-of-stack images more transparent, turn them into Microsoft Drawing objects by ungrouping them (as detailed above) and then immediately choosing Grouping/Group. Now right-click and choose Format Object and the Colors and Lines tab, and you'll find the Transparency slider is enabled, letting you adjust the image's see-through status.
Adding pictures to envelopes. Want to add a company logo or promotional image to your envelopes? Word has two special AutoText entries, EnvelopeExtra1 and EnvelopeExtra2, that let you place text and/or images on envelopes.
Start by creating an envelope with the images and text in place. Select one image or block of text and choose Insert/AutoText/New; type EnvelopeExtra1 as the name; and click OK. Repeat with the other image or text (if required). Now, whenever you create an envelope using Tools (Letters and Mailings), Envelopes and Labels, the AutoText entries will appear automatically on the envelope.
Turn plain paper into stationery. Office XP's new Word 2002 has a tool for creating watermarks within documents. Choose Format/Background/Printed Watermark, and choose either Picture Watermark or Text Watermark (or No Watermark to remove an existing mark). Choose the image to use or type some text (or select an existing option from the list), and choose Apply. You can now see the watermark on the page; the dialog remains open so you can make adjustments to it. Click OK when you're done.
If you're using Word 2000 or 97, you can add a watermark by first inserting the image onto the page and sizing it as required. Right-click the image, choose Format/Picture, the Layout tab, and Behind Text (in Word 97 choose the Wrapping tab and Wrapping: None), so text scrolls through the image. Use the Image Control tool on the Picture toolbar to set the image as a watermark image.
When you're done, right-click the image and choose Order/Send Behind Text to move the image under your page text. To include the watermark on all pages of the document, put it in the Header and Footer layer instead of the page itself.
