Text in text boxes: vertical centre

[Oz Springs]

Is there any way other than using paragraph marks or ³space before² in
paragraph formatting to vertically centre text? This is possible in
PowerPoint text boxes, but it does not seem to be the case for Word¹s.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Is there any way other than using paragraph marks or ³space before² in
paragraph formatting to vertically centre text? This is possible in
PowerPoint text boxes, but it does not seem to be the case for Word¹s.

It's not. Two workarounds:

1) Set the paragraph spacing "Space before" setting to give you extra
vertical room.

2) Insert a one-cell borderless table into the textbox and use the Cell
Alignment to center the text.

 

[John McGhie]

No: Because of the difference in the fundamental concept of a document
versus a "presentation".

A "presentation" is a kind of "picture". Pictures are built on a "canvas"
so when you look at a "blank" area in a picture, what you are looking at is
the "canvas". There is "something there" onto which you can place objects.

In Word, when you look at a blank space, there is "nothing there". It's
"empty". So there is no "canvas" to prop other things on.

A Text Box in Word is exactly the same thing and behaves exactly the same
way as it does in PowerPoint, it sits on a canvas in the drawing layer and
you can centre it vertically or horizontally on the page by adjusting its
properties. (The only difference is that in Word, the concept of the
drawing canvas is hidden from the user.)

Hit the Help and read up on Graphics. This is one time I will tell people
to use the Contents tab in the Help rather than the Search tab: open the
Contents and navigate to the Graphics section.

Read every topic.

The graphics abilities in Word, PowerPoint and Excel are actually exactly
the same : it's an external application that is common to all three. It is
quite surprisingly powerful and capable, but you need to learn all about it.

Increasingly in business I see that corporations are no longer supplying a
graphics program to their desktop computers, because they know there is
normally no need for it. It's built-in to Microsoft Office.

Time spent really getting to know the capabilities of Microsoft Office Draw
(which is no longer offered as a product in its own right) is well worth it.
Sure, you can fire up Illustrator or whatever and do wonderful things if you
have the time and money at your disposal. But for a few quick lines and
boxes to make a point in PowerPoint, nothing beats it.

Hopefully one of the things you will see in the Help is a suggestion that
you display the Drawing toolbar. When you do, a whole new world opens up


Hope this helps

Is there any way other than using paragraph marks or ³space before² in
paragraph formatting to vertically centre text? This is possible in
PowerPoint text boxes, but it does not seem to be the case for Word¹s.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Oz Springs]

Hi John

Thank you for this detailed comment. I have no problem with vertically
centring the text box itself on a page or wherever. The problem is centring
the text within it.

In PowerPoint all you need to do is select the text box, right click and
select ³Format AutoShape...², click on ³Text Box² tab then choose ³Middle²
or ³Middle Centered² from the pull-down menu called ³Text anchor Point².

There is no equivalent in Word.

A Text Box in Word is exactly the same thing and behaves exactly the same
way as it does in PowerPoint, it sits on a canvas in the drawing layer and
you can centre it vertically or horizontally on the page by adjusting its
properties. (The only difference is that in Word, the concept of the
drawing canvas is hidden from the user.)

My main gripe with drawing objects in Word is that they are anchored to a
paragraph mark. Text boxes and their contents are totally invisible if the
document is opened in galley or normal view and can be deleted without any
warning whatsoever by deleting the paragraph mark(s) to which they are
anchored.

Irrespective of whether text boxes and other graphic objects are in a hidden
graphics layer or not, they should not be anchored to the text area in such
a fragile way.

Kind regards



Oz

PS I guess I¹ll be using workaround 2) suggested by JE McGimpsey. A table
field within the vertically inflexible text box. Now why didn¹t I think of
that?

 

[Oz Springs]

Thank you very much. I did think of doing a ³Space before² paragraph within
the text box itself, but this might prove difficult because users might have
more than one line of text to insert.

The text box is located in the template so that it fits into a preprinted
area and should preferably be centred within it. Easy to do in PowerPoint,
Illustrator, Freehand, Quark, InDesign, etc. etc. ­ but not Word.

The second workaround is great. A table field. Now why didn¹t I think of
that? I shall adjust my create Text box macro in the template immediately!

Many thanks



Oz