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Technology Tip of the Week - April 3, 2007

Some Fancy Word Action

Microsoft Word is a powerful program and the more you use it, the more appreciate its flexibility. For this week's tip, I'm actually going to cover three different formatting techniques: adding a border around the edges of a page, inserting a text box so you can move the text around on a page, and changing horizontal text to vertical.

Adding a Page Border

  1. Open a Word document
  2. From the menu bar at the top of the window, click on Format then Borders and Shading... (note that you may have to click on the double-arrows at the bottom of the list to see all the choices)
  3. Select the Page Border tab
  4. Click on either Box, Shadow, or 3D selections on the left (you'll see a preview of how this will look on the right side of the window)
  5. Select a line style from the choices in the middle of the window and click OK.

Insert a Text Box

Many of you may be familiar with using a text box on a PowerPoint slide in order to position text exactly where you want it. Well, you can do the same thing in Word.

To use a text box in Word:

  1. Open a Word document
  2. Position the cursor where you want to insert the text
  3. From the menu bar at the top of the window, click Insert and Text box (Note that if you have the Drawing toolbar open you can also use the text box icon which looks like a white box with a capital A and lines)
  4. Your cursor will turn to a cross-hair. Click and drag a box. Don't worry about the size as this can be changed later
  5. Type your text in the box
  6. Adjust the size of your text box as needed
  7. Click on the line tool (the paint brush in the Drawing toolbar) and select either No line or a line style
  8. Click off of the text box to see what it looks like

Change the Direction of your Text

Ever wish you could flip some text vertically on a page? Well you can! This tip will work on either text in a text box (see above) or text in a table cell.

  1. Follow the directions listed above for creating a text box or click on the text in a table cell
  2. Select the text you wish to flip by dragging over it with your cursor
  3. From the menu bar at the top of the window click on Format and then Text Direction
  4. Choose the direction you like and click OK

Pretty impressive!

For more help with these features, please contact one of the IT Instructional Support team (Norm Grant, Gene Grande or Linda Beith) or faculty mentors Tony Basilico or Kathy Beauchene.

Website of the Week

Create Your Own Google Tour

Google Earth puts together satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings along with their powerful search capability to allow users to virtually explore the world. Go to http://earth.google.com/ to "fly" over your house, search for hotels and restaurants, or tilt and rotate a few buildings. This interactive and visual interface can be used to build your own "tours" for your students.  Go to http://www.googletouring.com/  to see tours that others have already done and get some ideas. Then, when you're ready to create your first virtual "roadtrip" go to: http://www.googletouring.com/create.php for directions. Enjoy!

Feel free to post your thoughts or opinions of this site in the Teaching Forum message board.

These tips are provided by the Department of Information Technology instructional support team. If you have any questions on these tips, or wish to offer your own, please feel free to contact Linda Beith at lbeith@ccri.edu. View an archive of past technology tips at http://it.ccri.edu/Training/Tips/tip_week.shtml.
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