Drawing arc of a circle

[AlS]

Wordperfect has a great drawing tool for circular arcs ("Draw a section of a
circle"), which I require all the time for physics drawings. You click once
where you want the section to start, pull to where you want it to end and
release the click, and then draw out perpendicularly to the above line to
"stretch" the radius of the arc to whatever you want it and click to finish.

I can't find anything equivalent to this in Word 2003. "AutoShapes/Basic
Shapes/Arc" is close if you piece two "arcs" together, but does not give a
circular arc. It bends too much near the ends.

"AutoShapes/Lines/Curve" tool can give a reasonable approximation to a
circular arc but only if you make several tries and take an unreasonable
amount of time.

Either of these is a frustrating substitution for the WordPerfect tool. Any
suggestions for an alternative approach, or would Microsoft consider creating
a WordPerfect equivalent?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The AutoShapes/Basic Shapes/Arc is what you want. Press Shift while
inserting it to contrain it to a circular arc. You can then drag on the
yellow diamond at either end to make the arc greater or less (more or fewer
degrees of arc). Drag on a corner handle of the bounding box to make the arc
larger or smaller.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Jay Freedman]

The AutoShapes/Basic Shapes/Arc tool will do everything you want, if
you use it properly.

To make sure you get a circular arc rather than a section of an oval,
hold the Shift key while dragging the bounding rectangle. (This also
works with other shapes to force the bounding rectangle to be square.)

After you get an arc with the proper radius, drag the yellow
diamond-shaped handles along the arc to adjust its length and
orientation. There's no need to piece two arcs together.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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