Shapes and drawings in documents

You can draw simple pictures in Word itself, without Paint. Open the Shapes list on the Insert tab. It holds lines, rectangles, basic shapes, block arrows, equation shapes, flowchart elements, stars and banners, and callouts. After you choose a shape the pointer turns into a “+”; hold the left button and drag, and the shape is drawn. Holding Shift gives a circle, a square or a straight line (Ctrl draws from the centre). When a shape is selected the Shape Format tab appears. With it you can fill the inside with colour, a picture, a gradient or a texture, choose the colour, thickness and dash style of the outline, and add effects such as shadow or bevel. You can also type text inside a shape. The rotation handle on top turns the shape and the Rotate button flips it. To build a drawing such as a house or a robot from several shapes, select them with Shift and press Group; then the drawing can be copied and resized as a single object.