Hi XP,
Prior to Office 2007 when in Word the autorouting/shape connectors only worked inside of a canvas. In Word 2007 graphics are
handled differently, effectively with a canvas behavior, but without a visible canvas.
It is a successor to similar tools from earlier versions in that it allows you to work with multiple shapes/pictures within a
framework which you can then treat a set of elements as a single object in a document, without having to actually 'group' (lock)
together individual elements into a set manually and then being able to apply separate background coloring or borders, fill, shadow
and 3d effects to either the elements in the canvas or the canvas itself. (Applying opposite 3d effects to the canvas and the
elements in the canvas for example can produce some interesting renderings). It was a default prior to Office 2007 for several
reasons, including (1) some folks found it difficult to find the steps necessary to keep related objects together in their document
and still be able to work on them when needed and (2) make it a bit more visible that graphic items in Word can't cross page
boundaries.
A canvas is somewhat Word's equivalent of having a powerpoint slide work area within a Word document (without all of the animation
and other 'spiffy' features though <g>).
If you have turned off the drawing canvas as a default it's still available through Insert=>Picture=>From File
It's a tool, that like other tools in Word has its uses and its limitations
=============
Using Office 2003 and Windows XP;
I prefer to turn off the drawing canvas when drawing images on the page and
it doesn't seem to make any difference in the drawing; what is the purpose of
the drawing canvas and what are the advantages/disadvantages to using it?
Does using it or not using it matter in terms of making files more/less
prone to corruption?
Thanks in advance for your assistance.>>
--
Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP
*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
