TutorialsSoftwareMicrosoft WordMS Word 2007 – ClipArt Basics – part 1

MS Word 2007 – ClipArt Basics – part 1

Written by Marc Roberge | 10 January 2010

New to Microsoft Word 2007? Are you having difficulty finding familiar tools in the new ribbon menu?

In this tutorial, I will show you the basics of inserting MS ClipArt images in your MS Word 2007 documents. Now, this is in no way a complete tutorial, but it does provide the essential first steps to getting you started using Clip Art in your Word documents which will allow you to jazz things up a little.

Let's get started!

Launch MS Word 2007.
From the ribbon menu, select (1)Insert and click on the (2)Clip Art button.
The Clip Art panel will appear on the right of your document page. In the "Search for:" field, type in a keyword for matching images. In this example, we will perform a search for (1)"Christmas" and press the Enter key or the (2)"Go" button. In the thumbnails section, we get quite a few results. Different keywords will give varying results. Scroll down the thumbnails section using the (3)scroll bar on the right. To insert a particular MS ClipArt image into your document, simply (4)click on its thumbnail image. The image appears in your document instantly.

Now, if your image is already selected within your document, it will have a (1)thin blue or black border as well as (2)adjustment handles mid-way on each border side as well as on the (3)four corners. Additionally, you will see a short handle extending from the border topped by a green circle - this is your (4)free rotation tool. If your MS ClipArt image isn't already selected, simply click on it once to select it. One last thing you need to know is that while your image is selected, the ribbon menu at the top of your Window will show an additional menu option titled (5)"Picture Tools: Format" showing a host of neat tools to format, and add effects to, your image. This is what is called a contextual menu. A contextual menu appears while you are doing specific things within a Word document and offers tools geared towards the tasks you wish to complete.
In this next step, we will look at Text Wrapping options. Text Wrapping allows us to specify how our image will interact with the text on our page. Even if you have no text on your page, you will likely want to select a Text Wrapping option in order to allow you to freely move the image within your document. To see your Text Wrapping options, select (1)"Picture Tools: Format" from your ribbon menu. Click on the (2)Text Wrapping button in the "Arrange" section of your menu. If you do not see the words "Text Wrapping", it is likely because your window isn't maximized. However, the Text Wrapping button can be identified by the small profile of a dog.

What each option does:
(3)In Line With Text: splits your text block or paragraph creating white space behind your image. Will also jog text around the border of your image depending on where your cursor is located in your text block.
(4)Square: text will meet your image borders on all sides.
(5)Tight: text will meet your image outline. For example, if you if you have an image of a ball, your text will meet up with the shape of the ball rather than the square or rectangular borders of your image.
(6)Behind or In Front of Text: places your image behind or in front of the text block.
(7)Top and Bottom: splits your text block or paragraph creating white space behind your image without jogging.
(8)Through: similar to Tight.
For this tutorial, we will choose "Behind Text". This will allow us to free move our image around our document. To move your image, simply bring your mouse pointer to the center of your image, click and keep the left mouse button pressed, and drag the image with your mouse. Release your mouse button to drop the image in its new location on the page. Scaling or resizing your image is easy. Simply click and keep the left mouse button pressed on one of the adjustment handles and move your mouse. You will note that if you (1)re-size your image using the square handles on the edges, this will distort your image by either stretching or compressing it. If you wish to preserve your image proportions, use the (2)round handles in the corners instead.
If are inserting more than one MS ClipArt image, you will find that the last one added may (1)cover the first. If you want to change the depth order of your images, simply right-click on one of the images and choose the (2)(3)"Bring to Front" or "Send to Back" option from the pop-up menu.