The Drawing toolbar appears at the bottom of the Word window by default.
Click the AutoShapes button to display a menu with categories of AutoShapes.
Point to a category, and then click the desired shape in the submenu that appears.
INTRODUCTION
Sometimes you don't need a complex image in your document ”just something simple, such as an arrow or a box. Word's AutoShapes feature enables you to quickly draw all manner of arrows, rectangles, ovals, and so on. After you have inserted a shape, you can use the methods described in these last two tasks to move and resize it, crop it, and modify its borders. In this task, you add a shape to a document and then change its fill color .
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Creating a Perfect Shape
If you are using the rectangle shape and want to draw a perfect square, hold down the Shift key as you drag. This also works with the oval shape to get a perfect circle, the star shape to get a perfectly proportioned star, and so on.
Point with the crosshair mouse pointer to the upper-left corner of the area where you want to draw the shape, and drag diagonally down and to the right.
Release the mouse button to finish drawing the shape.
Keeping the shape selected, click the down arrow to the right of the Fill Color button in the Drawing toolbar, and click a color.
The shape takes on the fill color you chose. (Deselect the shape to see it more clearly.)
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Turning Off the Drawing Canvas
By default, Word inserts a drawing canvas for drawing shapes. This is not necessary, however, for simple drawings such as the ones described here. To turn the drawing canvas off, open the Tools menu and choose Options , click the General tab, clear the Automatically create drawing canvas when inserting AutoShapes check box, and click OK . This task assumes that the drawing canvas is turned off.
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Deleting a Shape
If you don't like a shape that you drew, just click it to select it and press the Delete key on your keyboard.
