Guide to Inserting Text Boxes in Microsoft Word
Note: When utilizing this feature, a rectangular frame (Drawing Canvas) often appears, which can be quite cumbersome. Therefore, it's advisable to disable it beforehand to comfortably utilize drawing tools like Text Boxes.
1. Inserting text boxes in Word.
1.1. For Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021.
1.2. For Word 2003.
2. Customizing text boxes in Word.
2.1. Resizing Text Boxes.
2.2. Changing Text Box Shapes.
2.3. Changing Colors.
2.4. Modifying Borders.
2.5. Altering Styles.
2.6. Applying Shadow Effects.
1. How to Insert Text Boxes in Word
1.1. Utilizing Text Boxes in Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Word versions 2021, 2019, 2016, and 2013 share similar interfaces, allowing you to apply the following method across these versions. In this Mytour tutorial, Word 2013 is utilized.
Step 1: On the Ribbon toolbar, click the Insert tab and select Text Box in the Text command group.
Step 2: A dropdown menu appears, where you can choose from available Text Box templates. Immediately, the selected template will appear on the Word screen, and your next task is to insert the desired content into that Text Box accordingly.
However, if the provided templates don't suit your needs, you can click on the Draw Text Box option to design your preferred custom templates.
Step 3: Click, hold, and drag to create a text box.
Step 4: The insertion point will appear inside the Text box, and you can type to create text within the text box.
Step 5: If desired, you can double-click the text and then change the font, color, and size using the commands on the toolbar that appears afterward.
Step 6: Finally, click anywhere outside the text box to return to your main text section.
How to Insert Text Box in Word 2010 (Download and Install Word 2010)
First, open the Word file where you want to insert a Text Box, switch to the Insert tab, and select Text Box.
After selecting the Text Box, a dialog box will appear, allowing you to choose from preformatted Text Box styles such as Simple Text Box, Alphabet Quote, Alphabet Sidebar, etc. If there's no suitable Word preformatted style for your work content, you can choose Draw Text Box to create a custom-shaped box. Here, Mytour draws a rectangle using Simple Text Box:
Disabling Frame Feature in Word.
To disable the frame feature, click on the Office Button at the top left corner and select Word Options. Then, choose the Advanced tab on the left pane. In the Editing Options section, uncheck the option Automatically Create Drawing Canvas When Inserting AutoShapes and click OK.
How to Insert Text Box in Word 2007
To insert a text box, go to the Insert menu, select Textbox, then choose the Draw Text Box tool as shown below.
To format the text box, click on it and then go to the Format tab. Click on the small triangle next to the Shape Outline icon and choose the parameters as required.
1.2. How to Insert Textbox in Word 2003 (Download and Install Office 2003)
To disable the frame feature, go to Tools and select Options.
When the Options window appears, choose the General tab, then uncheck the box next to Automatically Create Drawing Canvas When Inserting AutoShapes and press OK to confirm.
Now, to insert a text box, simply select its icon on the Drawing toolbar (display this toolbar if not already shown by selecting View/ Toolbars/ Drawing) and proceed to draw, then fill in the content.
To format the text box, click to select it and right-click to choose Format Text Box…
At this point, the Format Text Box window appears.
In the Format Text Box window, you can choose colors, display styles, etc., for the text box according to your purpose. Click OK to finish.
2. Changing Text Box
2.1. Resizing Text Box
To adjust the size of the Text Box, select the text box and then drag the mouse pointer to the circular corners and resize it.
2.2. Altering Text Box Shape
To change the shape of the Text Box, follow these steps:
Step 1: Click on the Text Box then on the toolbar, go to the Format tab => Select Edit Shape under Format.
Step 2: Choose Change Shape then select the desired shape from the dropdown menu.
- Result:
2.3. Changing Text Box Color
Select the text box you want to change color => In the Format section, choose Shape Fill and you can select colors from there.
You can choose More Fill Colors... to select your desired color.
If you want to use a different color style, select Gradient or Texture from the dropdown menu. You can also choose No Fill to make it transparent.
2.4. Altering Border
To change the border in the Text Box, select the box you want to modify. In the Format tab => Choose Shape Outline => Now, a color palette will appear, and you can select as in the Text Box color change section.
2.5. Changing Style
Now you can choose your preferred template.
2.6. Changing Shadow Effect
To adjust the size, distance, and some details of the effect you selected Shadow Options, and modify the information in the Format Shape pane.
Above, we've guided you on how to use Text boxes, insert Text boxes into Word documents. With this method, you can easily create charts, diagrams, etc., to illustrate your document. Additionally, in Word's default mode, when you insert a Text box, a border will appear around that Text box, which may be unnecessary for your needs. To remove the border around a Text box in Word, you can follow the steps outlined in the article removing border around Text box in Word that we shared earlier.
In addition to inserting Text Boxes into Word, you can also create borders for covers in Word. If you are working on projects, lesson plans, learning How to create cover page borders is essential to help you make professional lesson plans, projects, which will be highly appreciated by everyone.