Can't Make Line Shape Longer

[kmlillis]

I am using the drawing feature of Word 2007. I draw a horizontal line by
holding down the Shift key while drawing.

Later, if I want to make the line longer, I select it, hold down the Shift
key and drag one of the ends of the line. This is supposed to let me make the
line longer without changing the orientation of the line. What it does
instead is make the length of the line extend clear off the end of the
document, to what seems like infinity. At that point there is no way to make
the line shorter again since I can no longer see its end.

Is there a fix or a work-around for this problem?

 

[Mary Sauer]

Does your line have green ends you can use to resize without using the shift
key? I can resize a line without the help of the shift key. When I do use the
shift I get your results.

Right-click the line, format autoshape, size tab.

 

[kmlillis]

Yes, whenever the line is selected the green ends appear.

When I resize the line using the green ends without the Shift everything
seems to work fine. The problem only occurs when I resize the line using the
green ends while holding down the Shift key.

Unfortunately my hand isn't steady enough for me to resize the line without
holding down the Shift key. When I do so I always end up moving the end of
the line in a direction I do not want changed.

I have used the format autoshape, size tab to type in the line length
manually. As my figures become more elaborate this technique becomes a bit
time consuming. Thus my post.

-Kevin

 

[Mary Sauer]

Might turn on the grid and snap to it.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Once you have drawn the line using the Shift key to make its angle exactly
0, 45, 90 of whatever degrees, the line will stay snapped at that angle. So
if you simply click on the line and then pull one of the green blobs, it
should stay at that angle quite easily unless you are deliberately wild with
the mouse.

An alternative is to right-click, select Format AutoShape, Size tab and
change the length from there. You can use the arrow keys or the jog command
to move the line accurately.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

IIRC, this is a bug in Office 2007 (at least, it's been reported in PPT).

 

[Terry Farrell]

Suzanne

Yes It is a reported bug but I am not sure if it isn't by design as in my
experience, once you have created a line holding the Shift key to set a
desired angle, the line holds those attributes in that if you grab the green
blob and drag the line to lengthen or shorten, the line stays 'snapped' as
though the shift key is still pressed. It makes it easy to control without
need to use the shift key again.

Terry

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

So you're saying that if you don't press Shift, the problem doesn't occur?

 

[Terry Farrell]

Correct. To clarify, use the shift key to create the line. Don't use the
shift key to extend or shorten the line.

Terry

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Right, that's what I meant.