Move and Resize AutoShapes with the Mouse: MS Word

The buttons on the Drawing toolbar have useful tools for drawing objects, such as shapes and lines. Not only can you make simple squares, circles, ovals, and lines, but Word provides AutoShapes, a gallery of typical shapes such as stars, pentagons, block arrows, and so forth.

Word 2002 (and later) comes with a wealth of AutoShapes that you can use to build flow charts, room plans, and banners for your letterheads. These AutoShapes come with sizing handles that appear when you select the object.

By manipulating the sizing handles with the mouse, you can change the size, shape and position of an AutoShape to build your own custom drawings.

To change the size of an AutoShape:

1. Click the object to make the handles visible.
    
2. Next, click and drag one of the sizing handles to the desired size. Depending upon which handle you select, you may end up distorting the image when you try to enlarge or reduce it.
    
3. To resize an object without changing its proportions, press [Shift] while dragging a sizing handle. To resize without changing the object's position, press [CRTL] while dragging a sizing handle.
    
4. To change the shape of an AutoShape object, drag the yellow, diamond-shaped reshaping handle (e.g., dragging the yellow handle can change the length of an arrow head). Drag the green, round rotation handle to rotate the object.

You can also use the mouse to move or copy an object.

To move an object:

1. Place the mouse pointer anywhere over the object but not over a handle.
    
2. When the pointer displays cross-arrows, click and drag the object to the desired position, or you can simply select the object and press the arrow keys to move it to the desired position.

To copy an AutoShape:

1. Place the mouse pointer anywhere over the object but not over a handle.
    
2. When the pointer displays cross-arrows, press [CTRL] and drag the copy of the object to the desired location.

Now that you've learned how to use AutoShapes, have some fun and use your imagination to put your knowledge to use!

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