Adding a picture as a background on Microsoft Works Word Processor

[Undesired Walrus]

I am trying to add a picture of Dante's Divine Comedy to the background of a page I am writing, with the writing over the image rather than above or below. However, If I add a text box it simply wipes part of the image clear, leaving a white space for me to write in. That's not what I want, I want the words clearly written over the image.

How do I do so?

[LibraryLady]

Go to the drawing toolbar and click on "draw." Choose "order" and "send to back."

[Undesired Walrus]

Thanks, but I don't have a drawing toolbar. Just File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools and Table.

[jsiv]

Is there not a "text wrapping" option somewhere when you have the picture selected? Maybe in a Format/Layout menu or if you right-click it? In Word, the type of wrapping you want is called "behind text".

[Undesired Walrus]

Ok, I found a box in format that says 'Send to back', however, it is non-activated (It won't allow me to activate it by being black) and it will not activate even if I click on the image.

P.S, No, I got it to activate, but clicking 'send to back' does nothing. I drag the image over the text but they all scuttle out of the way.

[jsiv]

Yeah, you can only send objects forward/backwards (at least with Word). Text isn't an object unless it's inside a text box.

What you are looking for is text wrapping, which controls the flow of text around objects (like pictures).

[Undesired Walrus]

Ya mean this?

[jsiv]

That sucks. Maybe Works doesn't have the option.

In Word it looks like this:




Not an ideal solution, but what if you put your text inside a text box and just place that over the image?

[Undesired Walrus]

That does suck. What version do you have?

[jsiv]

This is Word 2007. I guess maybe it's one of the things they took out to make Works cheaper.

If you don't need 100% Office-compatibility, you could always give OpenOffice Writer a try. It's a lot cheaper than Word.

[pingnak]

Microsoft Works is Bundleware GARBAGE. Microsoft provides it as a way for computer manufacturers to bundle something 'free' (or nearly so) that sort-of looks like they gave you useful tools.

Try OpenOffice.org. It is the real deal, and it it free.

You will still need Works temporarily, as virtually no other Office Suite, not even Microsoft Office will import a MS Works document. You are THAT boned. You will need to copy/paste the contents of a Works document to an OpenOffice document.

In Works :
Press Control+A (Select All)
Press Control+C (Copy to clipboard)

Now go to OpenOffice (or MS Office or WordPad):
Press Control+V (Paste from clipboard)

OpenOffice will let you set a background image trivially. It also has a drawing program that will let you free-form mix images and text.

[Undesired Walrus]

Thanks man.

[jsiv]

Office handles Works files fine.

But yeah, OpenOffice is pretty decent (and presumably you don't have to deal with advanced Office files where compatibility is somewhat lacking anyway, or you'd already have Office?)

The text box thing should work though, as a quick workaround.

[Mahatma Kane Jeeves]

You want to Format the Text Box and change the Transparency to 100%. This is separate from Text Wrapping.

[Dancing David]

Originally Posted by Undesired Walrus

I am trying to add a picture of Dante's Divine Comedy to the background of a page I am writing, with the writing over the image rather than above or below. However, If I add a text box it simply wipes part of the image clear, leaving a white space for me to write in. That's not what I want, I want the words clearly written over the image.

How do I do so?

Hello,

As i can see , the patchwork nature of MS has already been mentioned. I would start by clicking the HELP function and seeing what it says there. But if you go to the 'search on the web' option for HELP make sure that you are getting information about the MS product and version that you are using. (Like MS Word 2003, vs MS Word 2007)


There are so many strange glitches in MS as well, there are tiimes a function will not work and times that they will, sometimes it is best to save the text in a seperate file. Shut down the program and try again, sometimes it even helps if you restart the whole computer. Strange but true, MS gets settings and stuff goobered up all the time. Functionality of features often gets hung up and a restart of the program or the machine will often help.