So, I’m trying to do a page layout for an article to be published in an academic journal. I have to do this in MS Word 2003-- other applications like InDesign, Quark, Pagemaker, etc. are not options. It’s a two column format with a lot of figures. It seems like it should be simple enough-- and it would be in those other programs, but in Word, when I start placing pictures, MS Word often moves them around randomly, and apparently without any sort of logic. If I want to move one picture, for example, suddenly 2-3 other pictures that I already placed will move, sometimes to different pages, hardly ever in an aesthetically desirable place. Other times, I do a page design and it looks fine, and save it, but when I open it again, the pictures have shifted around, sometimes on TOP OF EACH OTHER! WTF! It’s incredibly frustrating.
Is there a way I can tell Word to back off, and let me do the design myself without it trying to “help” me? I want it to leave pictures EXACTLY where I place them, without it trying to interfere and move them to where it thinks they should be. It seems so like it should be such a simple request! How do I do it?
Have you tried adjusting the wrapping to “square” or “tight”? That does it for me. Otherwise, you could try setting the wrapping to “in front of text” or “behind text,” although then it gets messy when trying to format the text around the pictures.
Yeah, that’s what I do, and it doesn’t work. Word still messes stuff up-- which I don’t understand at all. You’d think that “square” and “tight” are supposed to prevent pictures and other things from overlapping, but Word still moves stuff around and often places pictures on top of other pictures!
If there’s a way to prevent Word from doing unpredictable things with images, I’d love to hear about it also. I’m not aware of any quick and easy way to get Word to leave images where you put them.
My situation is more basic than yours but here’s what I do.
Insert a table and set it one column width wide and with two rows. Set the parameters for the table the way you like. I set the column width but not the height and I set the table so rows are kept together. I usually center everything. Insert the image in the top row and the title for the image in the second row. Word seems stable when it comes to tables and this keeps the images where they belong most of the time. Make certain the styles inside the table are something unique (I use a style called “image row” and another called “title row”) and set styles so that all don’t update when you change one of them. Once you have one table set up the way you like, put a copy somewhere so you can copy it into other document locations.
I normally don’t do much with word wrapping and the like so that may be an issue.
Cagey Drifter … It’s a two column format with a lot of figures.
The problem is particularly tricky with two columns because each column had its own margins and something can fit in one column well, but not in the other. Word also wants to maintain certain distances between the figures and the margins. So one thing you can try is to shrink some of your figures to fit less snugly inside the columns. And be sure that your figures are all picture objects, and I like to use the “square” option when choosing the layout format. But without a doubt, it can be very frustrating.
Short answer: Word is not really made for layouts this complex. Change your layout or your program. I find it odd that anyone who works in such a layout would insist that you submit files in Word–it is famously bad for this sort of thing.
You might try using OpenOffice, and doing the same layout, and just saving it into a Word format. …It would be high comedy if you can do it properly in OpenOffice and save it, but when you open it in Word, Word screws it up. …-And yet somehow, I would not be real surprised…
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I don’t know about in Word (my philosophy is that Microsoft doesn’t get my money on anything if I can help it), but in Open Office I double click the image and set it to anchor to page instead of to paragraph. Then it stays exactly on that spot on that page and does not move (of course if the text it is supposed to go with moves to another page I have to go and cut and paste the image to the new page). Leaving it at anchor to paragraph would just be insane, as it moves willy nilly all over the place on its own.
Word probably (though I wouldn’t bet my life on it) has that option somewhere too, but I wouldn’t know where.
Right click on your image. Go to “Format Picture”. Go to the Layout tab. Click the “Advanced” button. Set Text Wrapping to “Through”.
Insert a Continous break before and after the text you want to stay in columns.
Let me know if that’s not clear, but that should solve your problem.
And I know you said that other design software is not an option, but by any chance to you have access to Publisher? (Please don’t shoot me for asking a question you’ve already answered. Please!)
I have found it is so much easier to insert the picture into a text box and then fiddle with the properties of the text box than to work with the picture alone. Once you have positioned the text box, you can set the fill color to none and format the text box so that it has no line.
Most academic journals (at least the kind I’d submit to), require you to submit text and figures separately. The text should be single-column double-spaced. The figures each come separately on their own page. They’ll do the layout on their own. There might be an option to submit electronically, the the requirements are pretty much the same: text in one file and figures in separate individual files. Check your submission requirements.
This seems like a poor work-around rather than a solution. Also, it makes it a hassle if I have to move the pictures around later, or if the layout needs to change for some reason.
I didn’t make this clear, but actually, I do use text boxes. And MS still messes with them.
Yeah, I noticed they mentioned something vague about this in their submission notes, but then how would they know where to put the figures?
yeah, i just opened it for the first time, and it seems like this might be able to address the problem-- possibly. it does allow me to save in .doc format, at the very least. thanks for the suggestion, will check it out, and let you guys know what happens.
Also, you should be able to cut and paste stuff from Publisher into Word. I find that Publisher will let you do stuff that Word won’t. Plus there’s the handy templates. Just be careful that if you’re sending your stuff electronically that you cut into Word or make sure your recipient has Publisher.
Tip: If you cut and paste into Word, make sure to Group all your objects so they all transfer over exactly how you placed them. “Group Objects” in the Help (snort… as if) section will tell you how to do this.
Actually, no. If I understand you correctly, you want to put a picture or image in with your columned text and have the text seemlessly flow around it, no? And also when you insert a pic, you don’t want it to mess up your text? I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but I’ve found that setting the wrapping to “Through” as opposed to “Tight” or “Square” does what you actually think “Tight” or “Square” should do. Also, if you have your pictures formatted this way, then you can simply cut and paste them into a new spot without it messing up your text formatting all over again. Also, putting in Continuous breaks sends a signal to Word that the formatting in that section is independent from the rest of the doc and the other sections.
They’ll put them whereever there’s space. You really should check with the journal before you go through all the trouble. If not the journal, then someone who’s submitted to them before.
I realize this is an ancient topic, but it has stymied me for years. I have read suggestions on the web about setting the options for a text-box to “Lock anchor” and deselect “Move Object with text”. The problem is that this doesn’t work. Text boxes and figures still jump around unpredictably or disappear altogether. For manuscripts where figures are attached separately, this is not a problem. But for documents with embedded figures Word is just horrible.
As a Mac user I have had Pages (part of the iLife suite) on my computer for years but had only rarely used it. I recently fired up Pages '09 and found out that it handles figures beautifully. There is an easy to find option to have text flow around figures and they stay put!. Furthermore the text flows nicely around the images if you resize them. In 10 minutes I was able to convert a 40 page grant application from Word to Pages. I had just spent 2-hours battling Word trying to get the Figures to stay put.
Word still has nice features (like a document map) that makes it nice for forms. But never again will I use it for manuscripts with multiple embedded figures.