Word Shapes - A Logo
In this section you'll learn all about Shapes. You'll use them to produce the following logo:
Start a new document for this, and save it with an appropriate name. Give yourself some space on the page by holding down the enter key on your keyboard. Let go when about half way down the page. This will make it easier to drag things around.
Now let's get started. We'll do the T first.
The Shapes are all on the Insert tab on the Word ribbon, so click this to select it. Now locate the Illustrations panel and the Shapes item:
Click the Shapes item to see the following list of shapes:
The one we want is the rectangle, which is under the Basic Shapes heading, the second one along. (In Word 2010 there is a separate Rectangles section.) Click the rectangle shape to select it. Now move your mouse pointer to your blank page. The pointer should change to a large cross. Hold your left mouse button down. Keep it held down and drag outwards. Let go when you have a rectangle.
You should notice a new tab appear in the Word ribbon, the Format tab. As its name suggests, this tab is used for formatting your shapes.
You can change the size of your rectangle via the Size item on the Format panel. It only has two items, Height and Width:
Click the small arrows on the Height and Width and change them both to 3 cm. (Use 1.18 if your sizes are in inches.) Your shape should then look like this in Word 2007:
In Word 2010, however, the shape will look like this:
Notice the sizing handles around the shape in both versions. (If you can't see them, click your shape to select it.) The square ones change the height and width, while the round ones scale the shape. The green round circle at the top is used to rotate the shape.
You can change the colour of a shape by using a Fill. To do that, locate the Shape Styles panel on the Format tab. Now click the Shape Fill item to reveal a list of colours:
Select black for the fill colour and your shape will look like this:
In Word 2010, if you have a blue border around your rectangle, click the Shape Outline item to reveal a colour menu. Change it to black. You may also need to change the weight of the outside lines, because the default is set to 2. This gives you slightly rounded corners. To change the weight, again click on Shape Outline, then the Weight item. Change it to 1 pt:
Logo Continued
To add the T to the black background we created in the previous lesson, we need two more rectangles joined together.
With your rectangle selected, locate the Insert Shapes panel on the Format tab:
Click on rectangle to select it. Now draw out a narrow rectangle just below your black square. Change the height of your new rectangle to 0.6 cm and the width to 2.3 cm. (In inches 0.24 and 0.9.) In Word 2010, if you have a blue rectangle, change the fill colour to white and the outline to black. Again, change the weight to 1.
We now need the white rectangle on top of the black square. Before moving it, though, click the View tab on the Word ribbon. From the Show/Hide panel select theGridlines item. This will allow us to align the shapes with precision:
Click back on the Format tab and your page will then look like this:
To move your white rectangle onto the black square, click the rectangle to select it. Now hold your left mouse button down on the rectangle. Keep it held down and drag the rectangle onto the black square.
For a more precise alignment, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard. Keep it held down and press the UP, DOWN, LEFT, or RIGHT arrows. In the image below, we've not only moved the white rectangle into position but also moved the black square down a bit. (To move the black square, click on it select just the square. Now use the CTRL and arrows keys.)
To do the rest of the T, draw out another rectangle on your page. This time, make the Height 1.4 cm and the Width 0.8. (In inches 0.55 and 0.315.)
Move the new rectangle into position so that it looks like this:
Notice that the new rectangle has a black outline. To get rid of this, make sure the rectangle is selected. Now locate the Shape Styles panel on the Format menu. Click the Shape Outline item. From the list of colours, select white:
Now do the same with the first white rectangle: select it and change the Shape Outline to white. Reposition your shapes if needed and you should have something like this:
You have used three AutoShapes to create a letter T on a black background. However, all three shapes are separate. You can group them together to make one shape.
To do that, you need to select each shape. So, hold the CTRL key down on your keyboard. Keep it held down and click the black square with your left mouse button. With your CTRL key still held down, left click on the first white rectangle, then on the second one. If you've done it correctly, your shapes should look like this:
With all three shapes selected, locate the Arrange panel on the Format tab, and theGroup item:
Click the Group item to see a menu appear. From the menu, select Group.
If your shapes are not aligned correctly, you can click Ungroup instead. This will turn them into three individual shapes again.
When you click Group, all three shapes become one shape. You can test this out by moving the new shape around the page. If one of the three gets left behind it means you haven't selected them correctly.
Now that you have one letter done, try this exercise.
Exercise
Draw four rectangles and your blank page and create a letter E. Use the following sizes for the rectangles: height and width of the larger rectangle, 2.0 cm by 0.7 cm; height and width of the smaller rectangles: 0.5 cm by 0.8 cm.
(If you're using inches, the sizes are 0.787 x 0.275, then 0.197 x 0.315 for the three smaller rectangles.)
When you have your letter E like the one above, group the four shapes. Then change the fill colour to black. Move your E next to the T and you page should look like this:
Word Art
In the previous two lessons, you created the letters T and E using Word Shapes. For this lesson, we'll use Word Art for the letter X.
Click on the Insert tab again. From the Insert tab, locate the Text panel and theWord Art item:
Click on Word Art to reveal the following list in Word 2007:
In Word 2010, the list looks like this:
With Word Art you can type some text and turn it into any of the styles you see above, such as curved text (Word 2007 only), 3D text, etc.
We only want the letter X, and in a plain style. So click on the first one on the top row, if you have Word 2007.
When you click an item on the Word Art list you'll see the following dialogue box appear (Word 2007 users):
Type the letter X in the Text area, and then change the Font to Arial Black. Set the Size to 48 so it's nice and big. Then click OK. Your X should look like this on the page:
Change the height and width of your letter X to 2 cm for each one. Set the Fill colour to black.
Word 2010 users only
For Word 2010 users, click the first item on your menu (top left). You'll then see this appear on your page:
On the WordArt Styles panel set the Text Fill to black:
Now click on the Home tab and set the font to Arial Black size 48. Delete the default text of "Your text here" and type a letter X. Your Word Art will then look like this:
If you look closely, however, you'll see the letter X has a drop shadow. To get rid of it, select your letter X. Then locate the Text Effects item on the WordArt Stylespanel. Set the Shadow to "No Shadow":
Your letter X should now look like this:
Use the Size panel to change the height and width of your letter X to 2 cm for each one. To remove any blue outline around your letter X use the Text Outline menu just above the Text Effects item on the WordArt Styles pane. Set the Outline to black.
Word 2007 and Word 2010 users
So that you can move your letter X around the page, click the Text Wrapping option on the Arrange panel (Format tab). From the menu that appears, select the Squareitem:
You should now be able to move your letter X to the right of your letter E. Your page should now look like this (if your letter X is too small, change the font size):
Completing the Logo
For the other letter T, we can copy and paste the first one. So click on your letter T to select it. Now hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard. Keep it held down and press the letter C to copy followed by the letter V to paste. You should then see two letter Ts:
Hold your mouse down on the second letter T. Keep it held down and drag it into position:
We can now add the lines to the top and bottom. Select any of your letters to bring up the Format tab again, if it's not already there. Now select the diagonal line from the Insert Shapes panel:
Move your cursor across to your page. Hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard. Keep it held down and draw out a line across the top of your letters. (Holding down the CTRL key ensures you get a straight line.)
If your line is too long or too short, keep the CTRL key held down. Hold down your left mouse button on one of the green circles on the end of your line. Then drag to get the correct size.
With your new line selected, copy and paste it. Move the second line down to the bottom. (You can use CTRL and the arrow keys to move the line into position.) When you're done, you'll have something like this:
Now select all of your shapes by holding down the CTRL key and left clicking each one: (The lines are quite tricky to select so you may need to zoom in.)
With your shapes all selected, group them together to make one shape. Move the new shape around the page to make sure everything is there. Your final logo should look like this:
Add a Shadow Effect
You can spice up the shapes you create by adding a shadow to it. Select your Text logo then click on the Format tab. From the Format tab, locate the Shadow Effectspanel:
Click on the Shadow Effects item to see the following menu:
Move your mouse over each one, but don't left click. Look at your logo and you'll see a preview of what the effect looks like.
Select one that you like. In the image below, we've gone for Style 4, under Drop Shadow:
You can use the arrows next to Shadow Effects to increase or decrease the shadow area:
Play around with the Shadow Effects, and the other items on the Format menu.
And that's it for this section. In the next section you'll learn about letterheads, and templates.
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