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About this lesson

Insert decorative text into your publication.

Exercise files

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Text box - Word Art.docx
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Quick reference

Text - WordArt

Insert decorative text as headlines and banners into your publication.

When to use

Headlines and banners can attract attention creatively by using WordArt.  Always stay professional and don’t over-decorate, and you will soon find that WordArt is a valuable feature.

Instructions:

  1. Insert  a WordArt textbox and type some text into it, i.e.: WordArt
  2. Notice the handles around the WordArt box and the small yellow diamond. Click and drag these tools to alter the size and angle of the WordArt.
  3. Use the WordArt Tools ribbon and practice with them to create your own WordArt style.
    Float your mouse over the tools and you will see its name and description.

            

The more you practice, the better you will become at knowing all the fun and creative options within the WordArt toolbar.

Computer Tips:

  • “Ctrl + Scroll” to zoom in is faster than pointing to the bottom right zoom controls. Zoom in or out quickly by holding down CTRL and scroll with your mouse wheel. 
  • To un-do anything, simply press “Ctrl + Z”, or click the un-do button on the Quick Access bar: 
  • 00:04 In order to put text on a publication, you must use a textbox, and
  • 00:08 in this case we're going to use a WordArt text box.
  • 00:12 On the insert ribbon, over on the right hand side, is an entire group called text.
  • 00:16 Within here we have a draw textbox and the WordArt.
  • 00:19 When I activate WordArt, It wants me to pick which style I want.
  • 00:23 I'll go ahead and choose this style.
  • 00:25 And it says, Enter your text here.
  • 00:27 So I'll enter that.
  • 00:28 And you can change the font style, size, bold, or italicize or
  • 00:32 you can change it later as well.
  • 00:34 I'll go ahead and click OK.
  • 00:36 And now I can click and
  • 00:37 drag and move that Word Art off of my other text that's on the screen.
  • 00:42 So this top option is Word Art.
  • 00:44 This is simply a text box with plain text, and then I have Word Art again right here.
  • 00:49 And you can notice difference between plain text and the Word Art.
  • 00:52 This is great for banners, headlines, draw the viewers attention to a certain area,
  • 00:56 keep a color theme throughout a newsletter, it's awesome.
  • 01:00 Now notice it does have handles on it.
  • 01:02 I can resize from a corner.
  • 01:05 I can maybe extend from just this side, one of these squares on the side.
  • 01:09 This round one at the top will tip this.
  • 01:12 And I can Ctrl+Z to put it back and
  • 01:14 watch what this little yellow diamond does when I move it to the left.
  • 01:17 It looks like the winds blowing all my text and
  • 01:20 I can move it to the right as well.
  • 01:21 So you have full control over how it looks after it's in the box.
  • 01:25 Whenever I'm working with word art, I always look for that yellow diamond,
  • 01:28 it's very creative.
  • 01:30 All right, I'm gonna move that over here, and
  • 01:31 we're gonna start to use the new toolbar that's up on top,
  • 01:34 the Word Art tools that says Format.
  • 01:36 Way over here on the left-hand side if I wanna change a text, I would hit that.
  • 01:40 The spacing option is awesome because I can make it very tight,
  • 01:44 I can make it very loose, and so whatever you prefer right there.
  • 01:49 This one is make all the letters same height.
  • 01:52 And if there's any time that you make a change and
  • 01:54 don't like it, Ctrl+Z on your keyboard will undo that change.
  • 01:59 This one will make the text go vertical, and I'll undo that.
  • 02:02 And then of course the next one will align the text within the box itself.
  • 02:06 Now I have the Word Art options and I can just float my mouse here.
  • 02:10 Maybe you wanted a change of style but don't wanna recreate your words.
  • 02:13 You can change it right here.
  • 02:14 You can even change the banner style and
  • 02:17 make those move around or bend whatever way you want.
  • 02:20 Now changing the shape will kind of do the same thing I just did.
  • 02:24 Except it doesn't change the style.
  • 02:26 Just changes the shape in this case.
  • 02:29 And, the shape fill sometimes this will change, yeah, this will change.
  • 02:34 So if I had red and wanted blue, I could just go ahead and alter everything right
  • 02:39 here, and the shape outline, I'll go ahead and put a bright green around this.
  • 02:44 Now it's a little hard to see, so I'm gonna zoom in with my Ctrl+Scroll.
  • 02:49 So you can actually see what just happened there.
  • 02:51 Okay, now the shape effects.
  • 02:53 This is interesting.
  • 02:54 You could put shadows on your Word Art.
  • 02:57 You can put all kinds of shadows within it, like inside or outside the Word Art.
  • 03:01 How much time do you have to get creative?
  • 03:04 That's how much time is possible to spend here.
  • 03:07 Pretty much all your time could be spent on these.
  • 03:10 You don't want it to look unprofessional so
  • 03:12 hold back a little bit, we don't want it to look blurry like one of these.
  • 03:17 So anyway, we have beveled, we have all kinds of great and creative things, but
  • 03:21 again, keep in mind you always wanna look professional.
  • 03:25 All right, so that is basically the lesson on Word Art.
  • 03:28 It's great fun to work with.
  • 03:29 I hope you have fun with it.
  • 03:31 And well, I'll see you in the next lesson about text boxes.
  • 03:34 Thank you.

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