Adding an image to a Word document is as easy as dragging and dropping– or clicking Insert > > Picture– and then moving it to the right place. But what if you wish to put your image in a specific place in the file and have the text circulation around it in various ways? Well, here how that works.

What Does the Default Text Wrapping Look Like?

When you insert a things like a picture or shape into a Word document, Word treats that insertion differently depending upon what you insert. For reference, we’re talking here about the illustration items Word lets you place– images, shapes, icons, SmartArt, and so on. We’re not speaking about all the other things on the Insert tab of the Ribbon, like tables, headers, embedded spreadsheets, and the like.

When you insert the majority of those illustration types– photos, icons, SmartArt, charts, and screenshots– that object is put in line with your text by default. For all practical functions, Word deals with that things like simply another character of text. If you add more words to the document, the object walks around just like the remainder of the text. You can choose the item and drag it to another location in your file, however by default, it will constantly walk around with the remainder of the text.

There are 2 illustration types– 3D models and shapes– that don’t work that method. When you place those illustration types, they are positioned in front of text by default, really obscuring the text behind them. You can move them around however you like without affecting your text.

How to Change the Text Wrapping?

No matter what type of illustration you’re working with, you’re not stuck with the default wrapping.

When you choose an illustration item (or right after you very first insert it), you’ll see a little button drifting out to its right. Click that to appear a quick Layout Options menu with a few text wrapping options (which we’ll discuss in the next section). Just click an option to alter the wrapping style.

That’s okay for quick modifications, however you can get a complete set of covering options by selecting the things, changing over to the “Layout” tab on the Ribbon, and after that clicking the “Wrap Text” button.

The same “Wrap Text” button is also readily available on the “Format” tab.

Both open the same menu, which includes all the very same basic text covering alternatives that the smaller fly-out menu does, however also provides access to more design options for fine tuning your text wrapping (which we’ll also talk about a bit later) and for setting a default layout based upon however you have the chosen image set up.

What are the Text Wrapping Options?

So, now that you’ve seen how to access the text wrapping options let’s talk about how they work. You can group these choices into three main types:

Let’s take a more detailed take a look at these.

Square, Tight and Through

These choices all cover the text around the 4 sides of your things. They are all a little different, although it will not be apparent if you’re utilizing a square image like we are here.

The “Square” setting wraps the text around the square (or rectangle-shaped) limit of the item (even if the item itself isn’t square, it does have a square limit), leaving a consistent gap in between the text and the image.

The “Tight” setting attempts to wrap the text as carefully as possible around the object itself, utilizing the shapes of the image instead of the boundary if the things isn’t square. It’s easier to reveal this with a shape than our square geek picture.

The “Through” setting permits the text to flow into the white space of the things if you’ve got a transparent background. Here, you can see that the text covers a lot more securely and follows the shapes of our square object because it’s enabled to cover through our transparent background.

In practice, the Tight and Through settings work similarly. If we were to apply either of those settings to the things in the two preceding images, you ‘d get practically the same outcome. So, you’ll need to have fun with the options a bit to see what works for you.

Top and Bottom

This setting keeps the text above and below the things so that the object never ever disrupts text within a line. You can drag the object around nevertheless you like, always knowing that it will stay by itself line.

Behind Text and In Front of Text

These two options do not change the circulation of the text around the image, but rather, put the image on a various layer than the text. The “Behind text” setting moves the image behind the text, which works for a customized background or a watermark. The “In front of text” setting lets the image show on top of the text, which you can use for overlays.

Editing Your Wrap Points

As soon as you’ve selected your wrapping option, you can customize how the text streams around the item by utilizing the “Edit Wrap Points” choice on that complete “Wrap Text” dropdown menu.

This command adds a brand-new red border to your item that you can move to control how the text flows around it.

Get one of the black corner manages on the image and move it to where you desire the brand-new border to be, and the text will immediately flow around the brand-new boundary.

This lets you develop some cool impacts if your object has a transparent background and you’ve selected the “Through” covering because you can move the black corner manages inside the things, which permits the text to stream through the transparent parts of your image.

Also, the variety of wrap points modifications depending on the object’s shape. In that square image we utilized above, we just got 4 wrap points. This circle shape, on the other hand, offers us numerous more to play with.

Tweak Your Wrapping

Once you’ve chosen your wrapping, you can tweak even further by clicking selecting the “More design choices” options on the “Wrap Text” dropdown menu.

On the “Text Wrapping” tab of the Layout window that opens, you can utilize the “Wrap text” and “Distance from text” areas to get your wrapping the way you desire it.

The “Wrap text” choices let you select which sides to wrap the text around. The default is to cover both sides, but you can likewise pick a single side, which will leave the opposite blank. Here’s an example with “Left just” picked.

The “Distance from text” options let you pick the amount of white area in between the text and image. Use this if you desire a bigger (or smaller) border area around your image.

Keeping Your Object in Place

When you put an item into a paragraph of text, Word instantly anchors the object and paragraph together. You can constantly see which paragraph your item is associated with by choosing the item and searching for the little anchor sign.

(If you can’t see the anchor, then go to File > > Options > Display and ensure “Object anchors” is switched on.)

While the things is anchored to a paragraph, Word will move the object along with the paragraph. This means that if you include a new block of text above your paragraph, the entire paragraph– consisting of the object– moves down the page. If you select an entire paragraph by triple-clicking it, the things is likewise chosen.

You can change this behavior in the “Wrap Text” dropdown by changing from the “Move With Text” setting to the “Fix Position On Page” setting.

This keeps the things in the very same put on the page. The anchor will move with the paragraph that the things is associated with, however the item itself will remain in the same place on the page no matter what other text or images you add.

Changing Your Default Wrapping

When you’ve adjusted your covering the way you desire it for a things, you can also make those wrapping settings the default for when you insert future objects. Just select the item with the settings you want to utilize as the default, and then click the “Set As Default Layout” command on the “Wrap Text” dropdown menu.

From that point on, any things you place will use the very same settings.

When you place those illustration types, they are positioned in front of text by default, actually obscuring the text behind them. These 2 alternatives don’t change the circulation of the text around the image, however instead, put the image on a different layer than the text. The “Behind text” setting moves the image behind the text, which is beneficial for a custom-made background or a watermark. The “Wrap text” alternatives let you select which sides to cover the text around. The “Distance from text” choices let you select the quantity of white space in between the text and image.