Which button on the Drawing Tools Format tab would you click to change the color weight or style?

You can add shapes to your document to illustrate your ideas. By using the Shapes menu, you can choose from dozens of different types of shapes.

Insert a Shape

1. Click the Insert tab.
2. Click the Shapes button in the Illustrations group.

The Shapes menu displays all the types of shapes available, organized into groups.

3. Select a shape.

The mouse cursor changes to a crosshair.

4. Insert the shape in one of two ways:
   

• Click anywhere on the page to insert the shape there.
• Click and drag anywhere on the page to place the shape while also controlling its size.

Some shapes have prominent features that can be adjusted; these shapes will have a yellow adjustment handle.

Shape Styles

Once you’ve added a shape, you can change its style, fill, outline color, and effects.

1. Select a shape.

When you select a shape, the Format tab in the Drawing Tools ribbon group becomes available. Double-click a shape to automatically switch to the Format tab.

2. Use the Shape Styles options on the Format tab to change the style, fill color, outline, or shape effects.
• Select a style from the Shape Styles gallery or click the gallery’s More button to see all available styles.
• Select a shape fill color to change the color of the selected shape. You can also fill it with a gradient, picture, or texture pattern.
• Select a shape outline color, weight, or dash pattern.
• Apply various shape effects such as shadow, reflection, glow, bevel, and 3D rotation.

You can first apply a preset style from the gallery and then adjust the fill, outline, and effects to customize it.

Add Text

You can also add text to shapes. Banners and callouts are best suited for text, but any shape can have text added to it.

1. Select a shape.
2. Type some text.
   

The text appears inside the shape and can be formatted just like any other text.

Apply basic font formatting by using the Font and Paragraph groups on the Home tab or apply WordArt styles using the Format tab in the Drawing Tools ribbon group.

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I love all things related to Fall and Thanksgiving is definitely part of that love affair. Since I was little, I was always the one in charge of making name cards for each person for Thanksgiving. Every year, I tried to be as creative as I could and do something different than the previous year.

As I got older, I also started making the Thanksgiving menu. I started by drawing it with markers on paper. Now, I make it using Word. I thought I would share my process to make a menu. You can use one of the pre-formatted templates (which I will share with you at the end of the blog post).

However, I wanted to walk you through how to create one from a blank document so that you would be able to completely customize your document to suite your own creative style. So, launch your Microsoft Word application and let’s get started!

Initial Document Setup

You want to start from a New document. If you open Microsoft Word, you will chose the Blank document. See Figure 1.

Figure 1

Next, we need to pick the color scheme that will work for Thanksgiving colors. I think of browns and oranges, but you can really choose what colors you like best. Click on the Design tab and go over towards the right half of the ribbon. Click on the Colors button and choose the “Orange” color scheme from the list. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

Since we want the menu to be vertical, we will keep it as a portrait orientation. (NOTE: If you decide that you want to flip the menu to be more horizontal, click on the Page Layout tab and choose the Orientation button. Select Landscape to switch the menu to be 11 x 8.5 inches instead of 8.5 x 11 inches.)

Background Design

The background design can be any color or design that you would like. For my menu this year, I’m going to do an orange one with white small polka dots. Go to the Design tab and click on the Page Color button. From the list, select “Fill Effects”. See Figure 3.

Figure 3

On the Fill Effects dialog box, you want to click on the Patterns tab. Choose the top left polka dot pattern. Then, click the Foreground drop-down list to choose the color “White, Background 1” for the dots. After that, click the Background drop-down list to choose “Orange, Accent 1” as your background. See Figure 4.

Figure 4

Main Text Box

To create the main text box for the menu, click the Insert tab, choose the Text Box button and select the Simple Text Box. (It is the first one in the list.) See Figure 5.

Figure 5

The Simple Text Box will appear near the top center of the document. Don’t worry about the location or size. We will be changing that next. The text will be deleted, too, so it is fine to leave it as is. See Figure 6.

Figure 6

To change the size of the text box, make sure that the text box is selected. Click on the Drawing Tools Format tab at the top. On the very right of that ribbon are the height and width text boxes. Change the height to 6 inches and the width to 5 inches. See Figure 7.

Figure 7

To position the text box, click the Position button on the Drawing Tools Format tab. Choose the bottom center option, which will say “Position in Bottom Center with Square Text Wrapping” in the screen tip when you point to it. See Figure 8.

Figure 8

Pumpkin Picture

In the top area of the menu, we want to add a Thanksgiving picture and WordArt. Before you insert the picture, make sure that you click in the top area of the document to deselect the text box. To insert the picture, you can click on the Insert tab and choose the Online Pictures button. In the Office.com search box, type in “pumpkin”. If you don’t want a pumpkin, you can pick any keyword that you would prefer, like “Thanksgiving”.

(Note: If you cannot find the picture that is included on our example, the file is at the bottom of the blog post for you to be able to save and insert. If you save the file to your computer, you can just click on the Insert tab and the Pictures button. Then, navigate to and select that file from your computer.)

Once you pick your pumpkin image, you can change the size to approximately 2 inches by 2 inches. With the image selected, click on the Picture Tools Format tab. On the very right are the height and width boxes. Usually, if you change one to 2 inches, the other will automatically adjust.

Also on the Picture Tools Format tab you will want to change the text wrapping. Click on the Wrap Text button and choose the “Tight” option. See Figure 9.

Figure 9

“Thanksgiving Menu” WordArt

Click in the document over towards the right side to deselect the pumpkin. Next, click on the Insert tab and WordArt button. Choose the “Fill – Brown, Accent 3, Sharp Bevel” style. See Figure 10.

Figure 10

The WordArt may be placed on top of your pumpkin picture, but we will move it soon. For now, go ahead and type in the text “Thanksgiving Menu” Click right before the “M” in Menu and hit the enter key to make the text “Thanksgiving” above the text “Menu”.

With the text still selected, click on the Home tab and change the font. Most script fonts work well for this title. I chose the font called “Curlz MT”. I also change the font size to 64. You can type in the exact size by clicking inside the font size box instead of clicking the down arrow to choose from the sizes. After you click in the box, type 64 and hit enter.

To move the WordArt over to the right, place your mouse over the line border. Your mouse pointer will look like a four-pointed arrow. Click and drag the Thanksgiving WordArt over to the right of the pumpkin picture. See Figure 11.

Figure 11

To customize the WordArt, make sure that it is still selected. Click on the Drawing Tools Format tab. Choose the Text Effects button to see all of the ways you can customize the WordArt. The choices include shadow, reflection, glow, bevel, 3-D rotation, and transform. I picked Shadow and selected the perspective shadow called “Perspective Diagonal Upper Right”. See Figure 12.

Figure 12

Menu Text

Next up is the text for our menu items. I have used a very traditional menu, but you can enter your own items. In the main text box, click on the text and delete it. We are ready to add our own.

You can type in your list of items, hitting enter after each one. Then, select the whole list and click to center align the text (button is on the Home tab in the Paragraph group) and increase the font. To add space between the text items, click on the Page Layout tab and increase the amount in the “Spacing After” box. I increased mine to 18, but your number may vary since your list may have a different number of items than mine. See Figure 13.

Figure 13

You can change the font and add a bold or italics style, if you would like. For this example, I changed the font to match the WordArt, which was Curlz MT. I was able to increase the size of my text box a little so that I could make the font size 24. I also changed the font color to a dark orange, but that was just to make it match the WordArt color more closely. You may need to experiment a little at this point to find the right size box and text style to fit all of your dinner choices.

Another thing you might want to customize is the text box background. By default the color is usually white. You can make the white go away and use the orange polka dot background. Click in the box and then on the Drawing Tools Format tab. Select the Shape Fill button and choose “No Fill”. See Figure 14. To get rid of the line border around the box, click the Shape Outline button (located right below to the Shape Fill button) and choose “No Outline”.

Figure 14

Finished Menu

See Figure 15 for my finished product. This is not a super fancy menu, but sometimes simplicity works well and doesn’t over shine the actual meal. I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Figure 15

Files from this Menu project and additional templates that you might want to check out:

Pumpkin Picture

Thanksgiving Menu 2-side Template

Thanksgiving Recipe Card Template

Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kthread/

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