I am not an expert in most Microsoft applications but had to share this tip after getting a query from a colleague of mine and also for those upgrading to MS 2007. In Microsoft Word 2003 and previous versions, you could place a number of graphical elements on a page and manipulate them in various ways. For one thing, you could select several items, right-click, and choose Grouping | Group. That melded the separate graphical elements into a single whole that you could move, size, or even rotate together. You could also adjust which overlapping images would display on top of others. But, indeed, with Word 2007 you can't even select two graphical elements at once, so you can't group them. The Bring to front and Send to back options are also unavailable. What gives?
It turns out there's one very simple but important difference in the way Word 2007 treats these graphical elements. In Word 2003, if you just dropped a graphical element into the document, Word would automatically create a "drawing canvas" to hold the object. Word 2007 will let you insert a graphical object without the drawing canvas, which may be fine for a single object. But if you want full power to manipulate multiple images, you need to insert the drawing canvas yourself.
It's easy enough: Click the Insert ribbon, click the Shape button, and select New Drawing Canvas at the very bottom. Now place your pictures and shapes into the canvas. You'll be able to move them freely within the canvas, group or ungroup them, and so on.
I am not an expert in most Microsoft applications but had to share this tip after getting a query from a colleague of mine and also for those upgrading to MS 2007. In Microsoft Word 2003 and previous versions, you could place a number of graphical elements on a page and manipulate them in various ways. For one thing, you could select several items, right-click, and choose Grouping | Group. That melded the separate graphical elements into a single whole that you could move, size, or even rotate together. You could also adjust which overlapping images would display on top of others. But, indeed, with Word 2007 you can't even select two graphical elements at once, so you can't group them. The Bring to front and Send to back options are also unavailable. What gives?
It turns out there's one very simple but important difference in the way Word 2007 treats these graphical elements. In Word 2003, if you just dropped a graphical element into the document, Word would automatically create a "drawing canvas" to hold the object. Word 2007 will let you insert a graphical object without the drawing canvas, which may be fine for a single object. But if you want full power to manipulate multiple images, you need to insert the drawing canvas yourself.
It's easy enough: Click the Insert ribbon, click the Shape button, and select New Drawing Canvas at the very bottom. Now place your pictures and shapes into the canvas. You'll be able to move them freely within the canvas, group or ungroup them, and so on.
It turns out there's one very simple but important difference in the way Word 2007 treats these graphical elements. In Word 2003, if you just dropped a graphical element into the document, Word would automatically create a "drawing canvas" to hold the object. Word 2007 will let you insert a graphical object without the drawing canvas, which may be fine for a single object. But if you want full power to manipulate multiple images, you need to insert the drawing canvas yourself.
It's easy enough: Click the Insert ribbon, click the Shape button, and select New Drawing Canvas at the very bottom. Now place your pictures and shapes into the canvas. You'll be able to move them freely within the canvas, group or ungroup them, and so on.
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