Obnoxious Formatting Problems in Word -- an Introductory Primer Created in Ancile uPerform

As promised from my last blog post, this blog shall feature a tutorial I created from a software simulation I made in Ancile uPerform.

This looks...bad in a blog. I fully acknowledge it.

This is also much too long to be useful to anyone, so I might break this material up into some discrete learning "chunks" and re-publish individual sections piecemeal on this blog--though there's no way to re-number the steps, so I won't be able to make each individual "section" re-start with number 1. Also, it will be so annoying to retype all the instructional text that...okay, maybe I won't republish it. 

Anyway, here's the whole thing, just to give you an idea of what Ancile uPerform sims look like. 

You will be able to see what I was talking about in regards to the teeny little numbered arrows that uPerform generates. I blew these pictures up to be as big as Blogger would allow, but rest assured that when they appear in Word docs they are miniature. 

Also: when uPerform generates a Word doc, it automatically publishes the instruction text below the screenshot image. This annoys me, so I'm going to publish my own instruction text above the screenshot image. I know that designers tend to be on the fence about the above/below question–really, proximity is probably more important than positioning–but above is my preference, so that's how I'm gonna do it. 

I think I like it to be above the text because the way I usually write my instructions dictates that it makes more sense for the user to read the text and then look at the image. 

edit: I realized that the real reason why Ancile uPerform's default bothers me so much is because not only does it publish the captions below the text, it actually publishes them in closer proximity to the following image, which makes it look like the caption belongs to the image below it. Either way, I am editing my blog to feature the captions above the image, because that's the way I prefer it, the end, harrumph. 

For the record, my template in Ancile uPeform was set up so that my screenshots began on step 2. Step 1 is introductory text. 

Also for the record, the issue with the indents in the numbered list annoys me, but Blogger limits your ability to make a list with hanging indent without using html, which I am far too lazy to do for this exercise. 

Here we go: 

1.   Working with a Microsoft Word document that includes pictures, shapes, text, and other elements can be very frustrating if you don't know how to use the different formatting functions. 

2.   In this example, I was trying to group together the background image with the red box I had placed over the image. Grouping two objects enables you to move them or resize them together as one unit, instead of needing to manipulate both objects separately.

3.     To group the two objects, first you must select them both at the same time. You can tell an object is selected when white dots appear in the corners after you click on the object. You should be able to select more than one object by holding down the "Shift" key when you click on an additional object. But in this case, Word would not allow me to select them both, and I couldn't immediately figure out why.

4.      The secret of why I could not select both objects at the same time was revealed when I looked at the Text Wrapping. To find out what text wrap settings are applied to your object, right-click the object, then click on the text wrap icon that appears beside the image.

5.         My image had In Line with Text selected, which meant it was not a "floating" object. To make it a "floating" object, I changed the Text Wrap setting to "Behind Text."

6.      Uh-oh. Because there were other objects in my document with who-knows-what kinds of formatting applied to them, this was the result I got when I changed the text wrap setting on my image.

7.      Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to fix a mess like this is by trial-and-error. The best way to ensure that the formatting in your document won't get messed up like this is to format each image correctly immediately after you insert it into your document. Of course, for anyone who works with documents that were created by multiple authors, this is not at all a realistic solution.

8.      Rather than fumbling around with the formatting on each affected object, in this case I elected to click the Undo button and try something else on my original object.

9.      This time, when I changed the text wrapping I decided to try Top and Bottom to see if I'd get a better result.

10.    ...and this is what I got. Not too bad, except that now my red box is behind my screen image. There's an easy way to fix that.

11.       With the red box selected, I navigate to Shape Format in the ribbon. Note that this option is only visible when you have a Shape selected in your document. 

12.       In the Shape Format group, I can bring my object forward. First, I click the drop-down arrow on Bring Forward.

13.       I select Bring to Front. 

14.       My red box is now in front of my screen image, where I want it.

15.       By holding down the Shift key while I select, I can select both the screen image and the red box at the same time.

16.       To group the objects together, I click on Picture Format with both objects selected. Note that the Picture Format menu is not visible unless I have a picture selected.

17.       It may not be immediately apparent, but the button with two conjoined squares is to Group objects together.

18.       You have to click the drop-down arrow on the icon to actually see the word Group. 

19.       My objects are now grouped together. As you can see, after grouping the objects, my formatting is also all messed up again.

20.       Click Top and Bottom. 

21.       I had to fiddle around with the formatting on the overlapping objects to resolve the issue. As I said before, soemtimes the only way to solve these problems is by trial-and-error.

22.       Once I resolved the overlapping images issue, I decided to move my image so that the text appeared above the image instead of below it. I did this by simply dragging the image, and the text automatically moved above the document, because I have "top and bottom" formatting applied. If I had chosen "tight," the text may have appeared alongside the image instead of above it. Note that you cannot drag the object if it is not formatted to be a "floating" object.

23.       Now that I have my text where I want it in relation to my image, I want to be sure it stays "anchored" to the image in case I add more stuff to the document and the pagination gets messed up. In other words, I want to make sure this text stays on the same page as this image.

24.       The first thing I want to do is make sure my "anchors" are visible. To do this, first go to the File tab.

25.       From the File menu, select Options. 

26.       Click Display. 

7.       Make sure your Object anchors box is selected. 

28.       Click OK.

29.       When the object is selected, you should see an anchor icon appearing alongside the image. If you don't see the anchor, there is one more thing you should check.

30.       Make sure the text wrap option is set so that your object is "floating."

31.       If the object is set to be In Line with Text, just select any text wrap option to transform the object to a "floating" object.

32.       Top and Bottom or Tight are my preferred options for images that have to coexist with text.

33.       The Anchor icon now appears alongside the image.

34.       To anchor the image to a particular block of text, first drag the anchor icon from the image to the text.

35.       Next, right-click on the image and select More Layout Options from the pop-out menu that appears.

36.       Under the Position tab on the Layout menu, check the box next to Lock anchor.

37.       Click OK. 

38.       The Anchor now appears with a Lock icon.

39.       Now, if you attempt to place a hard return between the text and the image, the cursor will instead reappear below the image when you hit the Return key.

40.       Likewise, if you attempt to insert a page break between the text and the image, Word will force the Page Break to appear after the image, instead of between the text and image. The text is "locked" to the image, and they cannot be separated unless you "unlock" them, via the same layout menu I visited earlier.

41.       This can be handy in a document with a lot of images that may have all kinds of formatting applied; depending on the text wrap settings, images sometimes jump all over the document, or otherwise behave erratically. Knowing how to use text wrap and anchors can prevent a lot of frustrating work and re-work.