Words are not always the clearest way to show something - sometimes a picture or a table does the job far better. By the end of this page you will be able to insert and resize a picture, control how text sits around it, and build a simple table.
Pictures and tables both live on the Insert tab, and both drop into your document at wherever your cursor was last sitting. A picture is useful for a photograph, a logo or a diagram, while a table is the right choice whenever information naturally sits in rows and columns, such as a price list or a schedule.
Once a picture is in the document, clicking it once reveals small square or circular handles around its edges. Dragging a corner handle makes the picture bigger or smaller while keeping its shape correct; dragging an edge handle, by contrast, can stretch it out of shape, so the corners are the ones to use.
- Insert a photo or diagram
- Insert a grid of rows and columns
Try it yourself: pictures
Click where you want the picture, go to Insert, click Pictures, and choose This Device to browse to an image on your computer.
This places the picture at your cursor's position, ready to be resized and positioned.
Click the picture once, then drag a corner handle inward.
Dragging a corner shrinks the picture while keeping its proportions, so it does not end up stretched or squashed.
With the picture still selected, click Wrap Text on the Picture Format tab and choose Square.
This lets your ordinary paragraph text flow around the picture instead of the picture simply sitting in its own separate block.
Drag the picture to a new spot on the page.
With text wrapping switched on, the picture can be moved freely and the surrounding text reflows around it automatically.
For a table, go to Insert and click Table, then either drag across the small grid to choose how many rows and columns you want, or click Insert Table to type exact numbers. Word creates an evenly spaced grid of boxes ready for you to type into, much like a small version of an Excel sheet embedded in your document.
Try it yourself: tables
Go to Insert, click Table, and drag across to select a 3 by 3 grid.
This creates a table with three columns and three rows, ready for typing straight away.
Click into the first box and type a heading, then press Tab to move along.
Tab moves you to the next box to the right, which is the quickest way to fill a table across each row without reaching for the mouse.
Press Tab repeatedly until you reach the very last box in the table, then press Tab once more.
Pressing Tab in the final box of a table automatically adds a brand new row underneath, letting the table grow as you need more space.
Words people use
Pictures and tables both take a little practice to place exactly where you want them, but once you know to use corner handles for resizing, Wrap Text for flow, and Tab for moving through a table, both become quick and predictable tools rather than fiddly ones.
Check yourself
If you can say yes to each of these, you are ready for the next lesson.
- I can insert a picture and resize it using a corner handle
- I can change how text wraps around a picture
- I can insert a table with a chosen number of rows and columns
- I can add a new row to a table by pressing Tab in the last cell