Drawing shapes in Word for Word 2003
Nuffield Free-Standing Mathematics Activity ‘Drawing shapes in Word 2003’ Student sheets Copiable page 1 of 5
© Nuffield Foundation 2011 ● downloaded from www.fsmq.org
You can use Word to draw tiling patterns, scale diagrams and all sorts of
other illustrations. This activity and others will show you how to do this.
Information sheet
A How to draw basic shapes
Open a new Word document.
Look for the Drawing Toolbar on your screen.
If it is not there, left click on the Drawing button
(or View then Toolbars then Drawing)
to make it appear.
To draw a rectangle
Left click on the rectangle on the Drawing Toolbar,
then move the mouse until you see the cursor shown as a
cross on the page.
Move the cursor to the centre of the page, then left click
again and at the same time drag the mouse so that a
rectangle appears. When you lift your finger from the
mouse the rectangle will be fixed in size.
To draw a square
Left click on the rectangle
Hold down the SHIFT key as you left click and drag the mouse.
To draw an oval
Left click on the oval on the Drawing Toolbar.
Left click again and drag the mouse so that an oval shape appears.
Remove your finger from the mouse when it is the size you want.
To draw a circle
Left click on the oval
Hold down the SHIFT key as you left click and drag the mouse.
This gives a circle.
Think about…
In general, what does the SHIFT key do when you draw a shape?
Think about…
What difference does
holding down the SHIFT
key make?
Nuffield Free-Standing Mathematics Activity ‘Drawing shapes in Word 2003’ Student sheets Copiable page 2 of 5
© Nuffield Foundation 2011 ● downloaded from www.fsmq.org
B How to move a shape
Left click on the shape to select it and at the same time drag it to the place
where you want it to be. Try this now on some of your shapes.
C Quick ways to change the size of a shape
Left click on your rectangle.
Handles like these will appear around the edges.
Left click on one of the side handles and drag the mouse.
Try other side handles.
Think about…
What happens to the shape when you drag a side handle?
Left click on one of the corner handles and drag the mouse.
Think about…
What happens to the shape when you drag one of the corner handles?
In what way is this different from dragging the side handles?
Click on other shapes and use the handles to change their sizes.
D How to fill a shape with colour
Left click on your rectangle.
Left click on the arrow beside the Fill Colour button on the
Drawing Toolbar – this will give you a selection of colours.
Left click on one of the colours
- your rectangle should be shaded in this colour.
Try other colours.
Then investigate More Fill Colours and Fill Effects
- you need to left click OK after making a selection.
E How to change the colour of the perimeter
Left click on your rectangle.
Left click on the arrow beside the Line Colour button on the Drawing
Toolbar – again this gives a variety of colours and other options.
Try different colours and patterned lines.
side handle
corner handle
Fill Colour button
Line Colour button
Nuffield Free-Standing Mathematics Activity ‘Drawing shapes in Word 2003’ Student sheets Copiable page 3 of 5
© Nuffield Foundation 2011 ● downloaded from www.fsmq.org
Think about…
Do you remember how to:
•
move a shape
•
change the size of a shape
•
shade a shape
•
change the colour of a line round a shape.
Try this
Spend some time changing the appearance of your other shapes.
Design a colourful pattern using rectangles, squares and circles.
F How to label shapes
Left click on the text box on the Drawing Toolbar, then move the
cursor onto the page.
Left click again and drag the mouse – a text box will appear.
You will see a cursor flashing inside the text box. Left click on this cursor and
type ‘oval’. The word ‘oval’ will appear in your text box.
To remove the line around the text box, left click on the
arrow beside the Line Colour button on the Drawing Toolbar.
Choose No Line.
To remove any colour from the text box, left click on the arrow beside the
Fill Colour button on the Drawing Toolbar. Choose No Colour (the text box
may not look any different if the original colour was white).
Move the label to lie near to or on top of your oval shape.
Label each of your other shapes.
Try this
Make and save a revision sheet of shape names.
Some of the most important ones are given on the next page.
To find the shapes you need, left click on Autoshapes
on the Drawing Toolbar, then Basic Shapes.
(Word sometimes uses different names, but those on the
next page are the ones you need to know.)
Remember to hold down SHIFT to get a regular shape.
A-----
--------
--------
--------
--------
-------
oval
Nuffield Free-Standing Mathematics Activity ‘Drawing shapes in Word 2003’ Student sheets Copiable page 4 of 5
© Nuffield Foundation 2011 ● downloaded from www.fsmq.org
2D Shapes
3D Shapes
Reflect on your work
Check that you remember how to do each of the following:
•
draw a shape (with equal sides when needed)
•
move a shape
•
change the size of a shape
•
change the colour of a shape and the line around it.
cylinder
cuboid
cube
parallelogram
trapezium
rhombus
octagon
right-
angled
triangle
pentagon
hexagon
isosceles
triangle
equilateral
triangle
rectangle
square
circle
Nuffield Free-Standing Mathematics Activity ‘Drawing shapes in Word 2003’ Student sheets Copiable page 5 of 5
© Nuffield Foundation 2011 ● downloaded from www.fsmq.org
Alternative methods
There are other ways of doing some things.
Another way to colour a shape
Left double click on your circle.
A Format Autoshape menu like this should appear.
Left click on the Fill Colour arrow
– this gives colours to choose from.
Left click on one of the colours, then OK
– your circle should reappear shaded in this colour.
Another way to change the line around a shape
Left double click on your circle again, then left click on the Line Colour
arrow. Left click on the colour you want, then OK.
You can also use one of the Line Weight arrows to change the thickness of
the line.
– the top arrow increases the thickness of the line
and the bottom arrow decreases the thickness.
To make your line dashed click on the Line Dashed arrow
- this gives a variety of patterns to choose from.
Also investigate the options given by the Line Style arrow.
Click OK to apply your choices.
Another way to change the size of a shape
Left double click on your rectangle, then click Size.
The current size of your rectangle will be shown.
Use the Height and Width arrows to change the size of
your rectangle. (Or click on the measurements and
type in particular lengths if you wish.)
You can also enlarge the rectangle using the Scale Height
and Width arrows or by typing in particular percentages.
Click on Lock aspect ratio to enlarge the rectangle by
the same % in each direction.
Try this
Compare the different ways of changing shapes and decide which you
prefer.
