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"A little to the left, now up a bit, oops that's too far..." Positioning graphics in a document may seem challenging, but Microsoft Word has several features to help you put your graphics exactly where you want them.

You can drag around and arrange objects on a drawing canvas, you can align them by their edges, or you can space them evenly apart.

For example, say you want to create a layout of your living room so you can visualize different furniture arrangements. You can use features in Word to place the furniture right where you want it. And unlike moving your sofa, you don't have to worry about scuffing the floor.

Positioning multiple objects

The drawing canvas provides a frame-like boundary between your drawing and the rest of your document.

Using the canvas is especially helpful if your drawing consists of several shapes. This enables you to easily size and move your drawing object. It also prevents a page break from separating parts of your drawing, if your drawing is placed near the end of a page.

By default, the drawing canvas has no border or background, but you can apply formatting to the drawing canvas as you would any drawing object.

You can shrink the drawing canvas so that it tightly fits around your drawing objects. You can also expand the drawing object and drawing canvas at the same time, or you can expand the drawing independently of the drawing canvas.

If you want to add a picture to your drawing, you can set the picture's wrapping style to floating, and then drag the picture onto the drawing canvas.

If you do not want to use the drawing canvas, you can drag the drawing object off the drawing canvas, select the drawing canvas, and then delete it.

Creating a drawing

1. Click in your document where you want to create the drawing.
2. On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click New Drawing. A drawing canvas is inserted into your document.
3. Add any shapes or pictures that you want.

Tip  You can format the drawing canvas by selecting the canvas, and then clicking Drawing Canvas on the Format menu.

Aligning drawing objects

When you align graphics, you line them up vertically or horizontally by their centers or their edges.

For example, if you were aligning images of furniture, you might want to align them to each other. Although you can drag them to their locations, it could be time-consuming to try to line them up precisely. The alignment feature in Word can automatically align them quickly.

Objects not aligned	Objects aligned to the center	Objects aligned to the left

Aligning drawing objects to each other

1. If the Drawing toolbar is not already displayed, point to Toolbars on the View menu, and then click Drawing.

2. Select the objects you want to align. Hold down CTRL to select multiple objects.

3. On the Drawing toolbar, click Draw.

4. Point to Align or Distribute, and then do one of the following:

   • To align the objects to the edge of the page or drawing canvas, select Relative to Page or Relative to Canvas.

   • To align objects to each other, but not to the edge of the page or canvas, verify that neither Relative to Page nor Relative to Canvas is selected.

5. If the menu is no longer displayed, click Draw again, and then point to Align or Distribute.

6. Select the alignment you want.

Note  To align objects to the edge of the page or drawing canvas, select Relative to Page or Relative to Canvas on the Align or Distribute submenu, and then select the alignment you want.

Distributing drawing objects

When you distribute drawing objects, you place equal amounts of space in between them. You can also distribute them relative to the page or to drawing canvas, so that they're equal distances apart, and are evenly placed across the page or canvas.

Distributing drawing objects equal distances apart

Objects not distributed	Objects distributed horizontally across canvas

Unless you arrange the objects in relation to the page or to drawing canvas, you must select three or more objects.

1. If the Drawing toolbar is not already displayed, then point to Toolbars on the View menu, and then click Drawing.

2. Select the objects you want to align. Hold down CTRL to select multiple objects.

3. On the Drawing toolbar, click Draw.

4. Point to Align or Distribute, and then do one of the following:

   • To distribute the objects equal distances from each other and from the edges of the page of canvas, select Relative to Page or Relative to Canvas.

   • To distribute the objects equal distances from each other, without changing their distance from the edge of the page or drawing canvas, verify that neither Relative to Page nor Relative to Canvas is selected.

5. If the menu is no longer displayed, click Draw again, and then point to Align or Distribute.

6. Select the alignment you want.