Graphics in tables - Word 2002

[Bruce]

I created a table some time ago in Word 97 as a layout for
business cards . Each table cell represents one card.
Each card (table cell) contains graphics (two small
inserted pictures) and text.
Now I have attempted to migrate the file to a friend's new
computer with Word 2002. Much about 2002 seems to be an
improvement over 97 and 2000 (which I use at work). Of
special interest is the ease of working with styles.
People are much more apt to work with styles when they can
change style formatting with fewer than the minimum of
eight mouse clicks needed (I think) in 2000.
Graphics also show improvement. The green rotation handle
is very nice. However, aligning graphics escapes me. The
options on the Drawing toolbar > Draw > Align or
Distribute are grayed out for aligning multiple objects.
I believe from my attempts to research this that the
drawing canvas might be involved. I think I sort of
understand the purpose of the drawing canvas, but I do not
know if it is present in the situation I am describing
here. Can I just turn it off at Tools > General or
something like that? (I am not at that computer now, or I
would just try that.)
If there is something I should know about the drawing
canvas or any other major changes in how graphics are
handled in Word 2002, I would welcome any available tips,
pointers, cautions, etc.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Even with a drawing canvas, I found that some of the drawing controls are
not available in table cells, so that might be part of the problem.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Bruce,

The
options on the Drawing toolbar > Draw > Align or
Distribute are grayed out for aligning multiple objects.

If the graphics have been inserted in-line with the text
(as your description implies) then they can't be aligned.
Alignment only works for graphics formatted with text wrap
("float over text").

Note, too, that you do have to SELECT multiple graphics
(Shift+click) in order to use the alignment feature.

All that being said, yes, the alignment tools don't work if
graphics are ANCHORED in a table. Just the same as the text
vertical alignment doesn't work if a graphic is anchored in
a table cell. I've never discussed this with Microsoft, but
I suspect it may have something to do with how Word has to
lay out tables on the page. This process is already rather
slow in Word 2002/2003; having to deal with vertically
aligning things in a table range might make this totally
inviable, I'm guessing.

So, what you'd need to do is drag all the objects' anchors
to a paragraph mark outside (just below) the table and LOCK
them there.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update
Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Bruce]

I almost invariably change graphics to In Front of or
Behind text, or sometimes to wrapping. If I could change
the default to something other that In Line I would.
While I'm at it, I would like to change a great many
defaults, including table cell margins. At least I have
learned how to turn off most of the automation that makes
Word such a turkey out of the box. OK, I'm done now.
In my case the graphics are in front of text, and I had
selected multiple items. However, I am sure they are
anchored to text within the table cell, so I will change
that (and lock it, as you mentioned). I expect that a
great many of the demons that have haunted my use of
graphics in tables could be exorcised by locking the
graphics to paragraphs outside of the table.
My problem with Microsoft in such cases is that they do
not readily acknowledge that such behavior could be
troublesome. If there is information at all about it, it
is no doubt described as a "feature" in some dark corner
of Help.
Thanks so much for your help. I remember reading in past
postings about locking graphics outside of tables, but I
had forgotten about that.

 

[Bruce]

Thanks for your prompt reply. I have been away from this
newsgroup for a while (busy with Access), but I am glad to
see you are still a frequent contributor, as your
suggestions have provided many solutions over the past
year or so. In the current case Cindy Meister has offered
a suggestion that I am going to try.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Is this is truly Word 2002, you *can* control how graphics are inserted. See
the control on the Edit tab of Tools | Options.

 

[Bruce]

Thanks, I will look for that. It is definitely Word
2002. I guess I have seen too many versions of Word roll
by with significant ongoing problems not addressed that I
don't expect that some of the problems will ever change.
Then again, the styles window or whatever it is in 2002 is
definitely a huge improvement. Now if only I could set
table defaults in Word 2000.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In Word 2000, you can select a default Table AutoFormat; unfortunately, you
can't create a new table format and set it as the default.