Formatting Shadows and 3-D Effects

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In addition to adding textures and colors, you can apply shadow and three-dimensional (3-D) effects to lines, arrows, shapes, AutoShapes, backgrounds, and freeform shapes. Generally, you'll want to use shadow and 3-D effects when you want to create a sense of depth in your drawing. Both the shadow and the 3-D effects are accessible from the Drawing toolbar.

Note 

You can apply either a shadow or a 3-D effect to an object—but you can't apply both. This means that if you apply a 3-D effect to a drawing object that has a shadow, the shadow will disappear. Likewise, if you add a shadow effect to a 3-D object, the 3-D formatting will be removed.

Adding and Controlling Shadows

You can instantly add depth to drawing objects in Word by adding a shadow to the edge of an object. The Shadow Style effects in Word enable you to add various shadow styles to objects, adjust shadow position, and change shadow color. Figure 12-21 shows a few flowchart objects formatted using the Shadow Style effects.

Figure 12-21: You can add shadows to basic objects, as shown in this flowchart structure.

Creating Shadows

You can add a 50 percent gray shadow to any selected object by using a preset shadow style in Word. To do so, you use the Shadow Style menu on the Drawing toolbar, shown in Figure 12-22.

Figure 12-22: Word provides 20 preset styles in the Shadow Style menu.

To add a preset shadow style to an object, select the object you want to add a shadow to, click Shadow Style on the Drawing toolbar, and choose a shadow style from the Shadow Style menu. To remove a shadow, select the object, and click No Shadow in the Shadow Style menu.

Changing the Position of Shadows

After you apply a shadow, you can manually adjust the shadow's position relative to the object. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select the object that has the shadow you want to adjust.

2. Click the Shadow Style button on the Drawing toolbar, and choose Shadow Settings from the menu. The Shadow Settings toolbar appears.

   The buttons on the Shadow Settings toolbar are described in Table 12-2.

3. Click the appropriate buttons to reposition the shadow. Each time you click a nudge button, the shadow moves 1 point in the specified direction.

Table 12-2: Shadow Settings Toolbar Buttons

Button	Name	Description
	Shadow On/Off	Adds or removes an object's shadow
	Nudge Shadow Up	Moves an object's shadow up by 1 point
	Nudge Shadow Down	Moves an object's shadow down by 1 point
	Nudge Shadow Left	Moves an object's shadow left by 1 point
	Nudge Shadow Right	Moves an object's shadow right by 1 point
	Shadow Color	Displays a color palette that you can use to color a shadow (the default color is 50 percent gray)

Tip 

To nudge a shadow 6 points instead of 1 point, press Shift while you click the appropriate nudge button on the Shadow Settings toolbar.

Coloring Shadows

In addition to adjusting a shadow's position, you can also color a shadow. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select the drawing object that contains the shadow you want to change.

2. Click the Shadow button on the Drawing toolbar, and choose Shadow Settings from the menu. The Shadow Settings toolbar appears.

3. On the Shadow Settings toolbar, click the Shadow Color arrow, and choose the color you want to apply to the shadow from the menu.

If you don't see the color you want in the Shadow Color menu, click More Shadow Colors to access the Standard and Custom tabs in the Colors dialog box (as discussed in "Specifying Line and Fill Colors,"). The Shadow Color menu also includes a Semitransparent Shadow option. This option is selected by default; it creates a lighter shadow that you can see text through. Clear the Semitransparent Shadow selection if you want to make your shadow darker and to ensure that text is not visible through the shadow.

Inside Out: Redrawing borders previously removed by embossed or engraved shadows

If you apply an embossed or engraved shadow to an object (Shadow Style 17 or Shadow Style 18 in the Shadow Style menu), Word hides the object's borders by default. If you later apply a different shadow effect to the object, you might have to redraw the object's borders (especially if the object is the same color as the background). To do so, select the object, and choose a line color from the Line Color menu on the Drawing toolbar.

Applying and Customizing 3-D Effects

By using 3-D effects, you can format and customize simple 3-D objects. To add a 3-D effect to an object, Word adjusts the two-dimensional object by expanding (or extruding) the object's edges and rotating the object to appear at an angle. In Word, you can control the depth of a 3-D object's extrusion as well as the object's angle. In addition, you can specify how light and shadow reflect off the shape, and you can specify how the object's surface should be formatted by choosing the Wire Frame, Matte, Plastic, or Metal option.

Adding 3-D Effects

To create a 3-D effect, you use the 3-D Style menu, shown in Figure 12-23.

Figure 12-23: Word provides 20 preset styles in the 3-D Style menu.

To format a 3-D object, follow these steps:

1. Select the object you want to modify.

2. On the Drawing toolbar, click the 3-D Style button, and then click a 3-D setting in the 3-D Style menu.

After you create a 3-D object, you can remove a 3-D effect by choosing No 3-D from the 3-D Style menu. You can also change which 3-D setting is applied by selecting the 3-D object and choosing a different setting from the 3-D Style menu.

Tip 

To add the same 3-D effect to several objects at one time (including applying the same lighting effects and other settings), select or group the objects before you apply the 3-D settings.

Controlling Light, Color, Angle, and Other Settings

After you apply a 3-D style to an object, you can change the 3-D style's appearance, including its color, rotation, depth, lighting, and surface texture. To modify an object's 3-D effects, you select the object, click 3-D on the Drawing toolbar, and then click 3-D Settings in the 3-D Style menu to display the 3-D Settings toolbar. Table 12-3 describes the buttons available on the 3-D Settings toolbar.

Table 12-3: 3-D Settings Toolbar Buttons

Button	Name	Description
	3-D On/Off	Adds or removes a 3-D effect.
	Tilt Down	Tilts the object down by 5 degrees. Press Shift while clicking to move the object in 45-degree increments. Press Ctrl while clicking to move the object in 1-degree increments.
	Tilt Up	Tilts the object up by 5 degrees. Press Shift while clicking to move the object in 45-degree increments. Press Ctrl while clicking to move the object in 1-degree increments.
	Tilt Left	Tilts the object 5 degrees to the left. Press Shift while clicking to move the object in 45-degree increments. Press Ctrl while clicking to move the object in 1-degree increments.
	Tilt Right	Tilts the object 5 degrees to the right. Press Shift while clicking to move the object in 45-degree increments. Press Ctrl while clicking to move the object in 1-degree increments.
	Depth	Displays a menu that enables you to change the size of the object's extrusion.
	Direction	Displays a menu that enables you to control the direction of the object's extrusion. You can choose from nine preset values as well as specify a diminishing perspective (Perspective) or a flat-plane perspective (Parallel).
	Lighting	Displays a menu that enables you to choose a light direction. You can choose from nine preset values as well as Bright, Normal, or Dim.
	Surface	Displays a menu containing four surface options you can assign to the selected object: Wire Frame, Matte, Plastic, and Metal.
	3-D Color	Displays a color palette that you can use to control the color of the 3-D object's extrusion.

To use any of the 3-D Settings toolbar buttons, select the 3-D object and then click the appropriate toolbar button. Like the procedure for applying color settings to other objects, the 3-D Color menu enables you to create custom colors (in this case, for a 3-D object's extrusion) by choosing More 3-D Colors to display the Colors dialog box. (The Colors dialog box was shown previously in Figures 12-13 and 12-14.)

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