Change Fill Color in Drawing Objects: MS Word

When you first draw a shape, it appears empty, with a thin black border. You can add color, shading and fill effects to a selected shape by using the Fill Color button.

Click the Fill Color button to see the menu. Here you can click a color to fill the shape, or click More Fill Colors to get a dialog box offering even more colors.

After you've selected a color, you can add fill effects. Click the Fill Effects button on the Fill Color menu to see the Fill Effects dialog box. On the Gradient tab, you can choose to shade from one color to another. The Texture tab offers a selection of realistic textures you can give to the object, such as paper, marble and wood. Two little-used options are those to apply a colored pattern or picture to fill an object.

To remove the fill, click the Fill Color button and choose No Fill. Line Color, Dash Style and Arrow Style

• First click the object to select it. You can then modify the lines of an object to a different color, thickness or line style.
   
• The choices you get when you click the Line Color button are similar to those for the Fill Color button.
   
• When you click the Line Style button, you see the variety you can apply to the shapes and lines you've drawn.

If you wish, you can change any of these to dotted or dashed lines by clicking the Dash Style button.

While you can change the line color, style and dash style of the lines around shapes as well as straight or curved lines, the Arrow Style button works only on lines, not shapes.

As with fill color, if you want a shape to have no line at all, click the Line Color button and choose No Line. You can combine these effects to good effect.

The currently selected fill color and line color are shown on the Fill Color and Line Color button. If you want to repeat the color on another object, you can simply click the button. You don't have to display the menu to find the color you want.

(c) Carol Bratt, all rights reserved. Used with permission. Duplication is forbidden without express consent of author. Visit Carol's web site to learn more tips like this one!