The drawing canvas, useful or not?

[Aardvark]

Your views are invited as to the usefulness (or otherwise) of the drawing
canvas in Office XP. I am hoping to find someone to convince me why it is a
good thing

Thanks,

Danny

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Danny

I find that it's a Very Good Thing if I want to create a drawing that
consists of several elements. An example on one of the Office websites
at the moment is typical: it's a floorplan for an office, with elements
showing several items of furniture. A canvas groups the items together.
It lets you move the whole canvas around as one unit. You can make the
whole canvas in-line or floating, and format it as a whole in various
ways. It's very useful.

But it's a Very Annoying Thing if all you want to do is draw one
textbox.

So my current way of working is to turn off the option to create a
canvas automatically. And I customized the Insert menu by adding the
Insert Drawing command (which creates a canvas). Now, I can create a
text box without the canvas appearing. And, if I want a canvas, I can
create one by choosing Insert > Insert Drawing.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
Melbourne, Australia

 

[David J.]

Hi, Shauna,
Good suggestions. One question for you, though: how do you customize the
drop-down Insert menu? I know how to customize toolbars; but I didn't know
that you could customize the drop-down menus. Thanks.
Dave

 

[Greg Maxey]

Shauna and David,

You don't need to do any customization with either Word2002 or 2003. The
command is already available at Insert>Picture>New Drawing.

David, if you want "New Drawing" to display directly under Insert instead of
under Insert>Picture then right click in a bland area of the menu bar and
click customize. Open the Insert>Picture menu, select New Drawing, drag and
drop it directly on the Insert drop down.


--
Greg Maxey
A peer in "peer to peer" support
Rockledge, FL
E-mail for additional help, within reason, if you like. I may not
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[David J.]

Thanks, Greg! I forgot that. Since I use 2002, I don't feel the need to have
another entry on the menu.
Dave

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

To add to what Shauna has said, you can't use connectors unless the drawing
canvas is enabled.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
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