Using the Drawing Tools

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint share a collection of tools that allow you to draw objects such as lines, arrows, boxes, and circles to your documents files. With the common drawing tools in these programs, you can also format and edit the shapes and objects you draw.

Displaying the Drawing Toolbar

Before you can begin drawing, you need to add the Drawing toolbar to the Office program's window. In Word and Excel, you can do this by clicking the Drawing button. In PowerPoint, you choose View | Toolbars | Drawing. Once you do this, the Office program adds the Drawing toolbar to the bottom of the program window, as shown in Figure 3-13.

NOTE: To subsequently remove the Drawing toolbar in Word or Excel, you click the Drawing toolbar button again. To subsequently remove the Drawing toolbar in PowerPoint, you choose View | Toolbars | Drawing again.

(2)Reviewing the Drawing Toolbar's Tools

The Drawing toolbar provides the same set of tools no matter which program you use it with. Table 3-2 shows the toolbar buttons and provides brief descriptions of each tool.

Button	Description
Draw	Displays the Draw menu of commands.
Select Objects	Tells the Office program that it should select the next object you click or the next group of objects that you drag across.
Free Rotate	Allows you to spin the selected object by dragging its rotation handles.
AutoShapes	Displays the AutoShapes menu of commands.
Line	Draws a line from the point that you press the left mouse button to the point you release the mouse button.
Arrow	Draws an arrow from the point you press the left mouse button to the point where you release the mouse button. (The Office program places the arrow head at the ending point.)
Rectangle	Draws a rectangle. (You identify where you want the rectangle by dragging the mouse between the rectangle's opposite corners.)
Oval	Draws an oval. (You identify where you want the oval by dragging the mouse between the two opposite points on the oval.)
Text Box	Draws a text box so you can later fill it with text. (You identify where you want the text box by dragging the mouse between the box's opposite corners.)
Insert Word Art	Starts the WordArt add-in, which lets you turn text into colorful graphic images.
Insert Clip Art	Opens the Insert ClipArt dialog box from which you can select pictures, sounds, and motion clips to insert in a document.
Fill Color	Colors the interior of the selected object with the color shown on the face of the button. (If you click the arrow next to the button, the Office program displays a drop-down list of colors you can use for your fill color.)
Line Color	Colors the border of the selected object with the color shown on the face of the button. (If you click the arrow next to the button, the Office program displays a drop-down list of colors you can use for your border color.)
Font Color	Colors the selected text with the color shown on the face of the button. (If you click the arrow next to the button, the Office program displays a drop-down list of colors you can use for your text.)
Line Style	Displays a drop-down list box of line styles so you can choose a line style (really a line thickness) for the border of the selected object.
Dash Style	Displays a drop-down list box of dashed lines so you can choose a dashed-line style for the border of the selected object.
Arrow Style	Displays a drop-down list box of arrows so you can choose an arrow style for the selected line or arrow.
Shadow	Adds a shadow to the selected object.
3-D	Adds a third dimension to the selected object.

Table 1: Drawing Toolbar Buttons