What is clip art & how do I use it?

Holidays are coming and you might want to use clip art or photos to enhance your documents - invitations, holiday letters and more.... First of all ~ always insert graphics into your documents vs. copying them, so they react the way you want or need them to...

Clip art is a picture or graphic that can be inserted into various documents, such as those you might create in word processing, power point, excel or publisher to name a few...
You don’t have to purchase clip art software (as we did years ago) - There are thousands and thousands of different CLIP ART options built into various documentation programs and you can continue to build your own clip art collection from a variety of sources such as Microsoft online or Google images…

When you are in your word document, put your cursor/insertion point to the specific location in your document where you want the clip art, picture or symbol to be “inserted”.

• In Office 2007-2010 Word, Excel, etc.. go to the Insert Tab
  
• In Office 2003 or older versions, go to Insert on the Menu Bar and then to Pictures, Clip Art, etc.

You will now choose what you want to Insert - Picture, ClipArt, Symbol, Text Box, Word Art etc..

For clip art you will now see the gallery and/or the gallery search bar, so that you can search for or choose the image you want – if it is a picture, then open the folder or sub-folder the picture is in and choose the picture – one it is highlighted choose insert.

The image will now be inserted into your document…

When the graphic is on your page, the Picture Formatting Toolbar appears (in older versions of Word 2003 and prior-you can right click on your toolbar and turn this on or off) in Word 2007 & 2010 it appears as a new/additional tab, after the View tab..

When you insert graphics into your document, always go to the Text Wrap Icon (looks like a little dog in a postage stamp) and when the list appears choose Through. This allows you to easily work with both your text and graphics. Later, you can then change your choice of text wrapping – tight, square, behind text, in front of text (choices vary depending on your version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc 2000-2003-2007-2010?)…

Use your sizing handles around your graphic to change the size of your graphic – personally I like to use the sizing handles in the corners so that I change the height and width of my graphic all at once to be sure I don’t distort the graphic making it too tall/short or too wide/narrow…
Use the four headed arrow on the graphic to move the graphic around on your page to where you want it…

If your sizing handles boxes aren’t there or you don’t see the picture formatting toolbar, simply click on your graphic again – you must have the sizing handles around your graphic in order to see the picture formatting toolbar…

Clip Art & other graphics are a great way to enhance your documents - remember: one picture can be worth a thousand words... have fun & enjoy

INSERT DATE & TIME IN A WORD DOCUMENT

Want to save time creating documents... Did you know that you don’t have to type the date and/or time each time you create a new document. Next time you create a document, try INSERTING the date and time vs. typing it. Just select "Insert" then "Date and Time" where you want this information to be in your current document. When the "Date and Time" dialog box appears, just choose/highlight the date or time format you want, then press "OK". NOTE: Another option when you do this – is note on the right column there is an action box which gives you the option of "UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY". If you choose this option (which means checking it off) every time you open and resave the document, the date and/or time are automatically changed to the current date and/or time – so be careful where and when you use this.

Adding Photos or Clip Art to Word Documents

There are so many ways to enhance documents created in Word, Excel and other programs – but one of the most common is to add photo’s we’ve taken or saved to the computer, or to add clip-art.

To “add” a photo or clip art you will go to “INSERT” on your menu bar or ribbon, which will give you the various choices of what you want to “INSERT”. In older versions of Word, you will go to:

• Menu Bar
• Insert
• Pictures
• Now choose File to find the photo you’ve saved in My Pictures OR Clip Art, OR Word Art, OR Symbols
• Once you choose what you want to insert, left click on the photo or clip art, choose OK and it will appear on your document

IMPORTANT TIP:
In order to easily work with your photo, clip art, word art or symbol once it is on your document – immediately go the Text Wrapping Icon (looks like a little dog on a postage stamp) – when you left click on thus icon a list will appear – choose THROUGH – this allows you to now work with (size and or move) your photo, clip art, word art or symbol, where ever and how ever you would like…

If you forget to activate this option – as you move your photo or clip art – you will see your text being “pushed out of the way” and they won’t work together compatibly…

So take control and remember to activate the Text Wrapping Icon…

Word Processing Tips - Insert Lines

There are times when we need to create lines across a page and here are some WORD shortcuts to easily create a variety of horizontal lines by typing the following characters three times, followed by Return or Enter:

• Minus (-) produces a thin line
• Underscore (_) produces a thicker line
• Equal sign (=) produces a double line
• Asterisk (*) produces a thick dotted line
• Tilde (~) produces a zigzag line
• Number (#) produces three lines, a thicker middle line between two thin lines

The lines will be the width of your page, or if you are using columns, the width of your column

In WordPerfect the first three shortcuts work in all versions after and including Version 7.