How do I circle part of a picture in a Word document?

[Fact Hunter]

I have placed a picture of a map onto a page in Word. How do I circle a
point an intersection on that map?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Assuming that the map is In Line With Text, you can draw a circular
AutoShape on top of it (press Shift to constrain the Oval tool to a circle,
Ctrl to draw the circle out from the point you want to circle). The wrapping
on the AutoShape will probably be Square by default, which will make your
map do something wonky, but don't panic! Just double-click on the AutoShape
to open the Format AutoShape dialog and, on the Layout tab, change the
wrapping to In Front of Text. The AutoShape will also, by default, have a
white fill, so on the Colors and Lines tab, choose No Fill. You can also
adjust the line weight and color as desired.

 

[JR Hester]

I am accustomed to using this feature in Word 2000, however XP is driving me
up the wall. I normally include screen shots within my documantation the
place a circle with no fill over an area to point it out.
With XP, my drawing shape does not remain in the location I place it. I have
verified that the object I am placing the drawiong object onto is formatted
as inline with text, to no avail.
IS there another toggle in XP that I need to change. Again it works fine in
my 2000 version.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Make sure that the position of the circle is defined as relative to the
paragraph your inline object is in (rather than the page or some other
paragraph).

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In addition, if you are doing this frequently, you really should invest
(just a little!) in SnagIt (www.techsmith.com). It is terrific for screen
captures of all sorts and also permits you to add shapes, arrows, text, and
other effects to the captures. For one example see Figure 2 in
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/AnchorToHeader.htm.

 

[JR Hester]

I certainly aree that SnagIt would be a better way to go, but I have not been
able to convince the organization to go this route. I tried it over two years
ago aand use it regularly on my personal system.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It's so reasonable, you could probably buy it with your own money and
persuade them to install it; given the time and hassle it would save you, it
would be worth your investment.