Desktop Publishing comes in many different flavours, and there are lots of applications to choose from, but did you know that Microsoft Word has many desktop publishing features which allow you to arrange content and layouts with images in different ways. This article summaries the key desktop publishing features available in Word and covers how to arrange text in columns, add images, organize text wrapping round the images as well as some very useful Word formatting features.

Suppose you have several paragraphs of text in a Word document. A quick way to create some example text is to type =RAND() at the start of a new line and press Enter. In Word 2003 you'll see three paragraphs of "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog...." In Word 2007/2010 you'll see three paragraphs of text describing the new ribbon navigator.

Arranging text in columns

To arrange text in columns, for example to use in a news-sheet or leaflet, first select the text and then apply the column formatting. In Word 2003 it's Format, Text, Columns. In Word 2007/2010 choose the Page Layout tab, and in the Page Setup group choose Columns. If you choose two columns, the selected text will now show in two columns.

You can have the entire document in two columns by selecting everything, using CRTL+A rather than selecting specific text. Alternatively you can arrange only the selected text in columns as we've described. If you want the text AFTER the selected text to revert back to single column, then ensure the cursor is located after the columned text, then repeat the column formatting but choose one column. In this way you can arrange different column formatting for different pages, for example, or for different text within the same page.

Adding an image to a Word document

Try inserting an image anywhere in your document. To do this in Word 2003 choose Insert, Picture, From file. In Word 2007/2010 choose the Insert tab, Picture. Then navigate to the required image, or choose one of the sample images available in Word. Once added, the image appears on a new line within a frame. The size of the added image is determined by the original picture size. We can make the picture smaller or larger by hovering over one of the sizing handles. These are the small dark squares arranged round the edge of the frame. If you can't see these squares, ensure the picture is actually selected. Then try reducing the image size by hovering over the dark square at the top right of the frame and then drag the frame in towards its centre, to make the picture relatively small. Then click off the picture to unselect it.

When pictures are first added to Word, the above and below the picture is made to appear in separate lines. You can change the picture alignment by clicking on the left, centre or right align buttons in the upper part of the screen, but other than this you cannot easily drag the image to a new position. To enable you to do this you need to change the text wrapping. So right click on the picture, choose Format Picture, and select the Layout tab where you'll see different wrapping options. Choose Tight and click OK to finish. Now you'll find the text wraps tightly around the picture.

Try dragging the picture around in the text and then click off it. The text will wrap round the text in the new position. Try resizing the picture and more text will wrap around the text. So a key attribute of an inserted picture is its wrapping setting. By default this is set to IN LINE WITH TEXT but changing this to TIGHT gives you the ability to drag the picture anywhere you like in the document, and careful sizing and positioning allows the text to flow around the picture.

Adding a Text box to a Word document

If you add a text box anywhere in a Word document, the default wrapping is different. You can see this if you add a text box, right click over the edge of the box, choose Format Text box and look in the Layout tab. You'll see the default text wrapping is IN LINE WITH TEXT. This makes the text box float over the existing text. If you change this to TIGHT you can again ensure existing text flows around the text box. If you add some example text to the text box, resize it as appropriate and then drag it around the document you'll see the existing text then flows around it in the same way as for an image.

In this way you can a piece of text, such as a summary or brief description and position it anywhere you like. You can change some other text box formatting, for example to hide the line around the box. To do this choose the Format Text box option, select the Colors and Lines tab, and set the Line Color to no color.

In conclusion Microsoft Word has several very useful Desktop Publishing features such as arranging text in columns, adding images and text boxes and setting text to tight wrap around the image or added text. Interested in learning more about Word's many useful features? A really effective way is to attend a training course. This can enable you to gain a lot of additional skills in a relatively short time. That way you can really boost your Word skills.