Connectors in Drawing toolbar grayed out

[HONYAKUKA]

Office Professional 2003

In Word, the Connectors sub-menu in the AutoShapes menu of the Drawing toolbar
shows the connectors, but they are grayed out and thus unusable. This is the
only set of objects that is grayed out. Any ideas as to what is causing this
and how to fix it?

In Excel, the Connectors are available and work fine. I can create and
copy/paste a Connector from Excel to Word if necessary (although for some
reason it first appears in a huge drawing box, from which it has to be
disassociated).

Thanks.

Jay

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

To use the connectors in Word 2002 and 2003, you have to enable the drawing
canvas.

 

[HONYAKUKA]

Suzanne:

Thanks.

Actually, I had to UNCHECK the "Automatically create drawing canvas when
inserting AutoShapes" checkbox (Tools > Options > General tab) to enable the
Connectors. (Maybe this is what you meant.)

I wish Help were better cross-referenced. The topics concerning Connectors
make no mention of this canvas matter.

Jay

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No, that is *not* what I meant. Connectors are supposed to be available only
when you are using the drawing canvas. You don't have to have the automatic
feature enabled, however; you can still use Insert | Picture | New Drawing
to insert a drawing canvas.

 

[HONYAKUKA]

Suzanne:

Oh. I get it now, I think. This seems rather awkward. To draw an arrow or a
rectangle, you don't need the extra contrivance of the canvas cluttering up
your page, but for Connectors, you evidently do?? To draw an arrow, you select
an arrow from the Draw toolbar (one step). To draw a Connector, you point to
Insert > Picture > Autoshapes, then use the Draw toolbar (two steps). What's
the point of this distinction? (Actually, four steps: To make the Connector
independent of the canvas, you have to move it outside the canvas, then delete
the canvas.)

Although I came upon it merely by chance, it seems easier to uncheck
"Automatically create drawing canvas"; this makes inserting a Connector into a
one-step process, just like drawing an ordinary arrow.

Jay



Subject: Re: Connectors in Drawing toolbar grayed out
From: "Suzanne S. Barnhill" (e-mail address removed)
Date: 9/8/2004 10:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id: <[email protected]>

No, that is *not* what I meant. Connectors are supposed to be available only
when you are using the drawing canvas. You don't have to have the automatic
feature enabled, however; you can still use Insert | Picture | New Drawing
to insert a drawing canvas.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

AFAIK you can't insert the connectors without the canvas--or rather, they
won't behave like connectors.