Rotating Graphics Around a Different Center Point

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 20, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2002 and 2003

You already know that in Word 2002 and 2003 you can use the rotation handle to rotate a drawing object. (See Figure 1.) All you need to do is select the object by clicking it once, and the green rotation handle appears at the top of the object. If you click on the rotation handle and drag it left or right, the drawing object rotates around its center point.

Figure 1. A rotation handle.

Notice, though, that there are additional handles around the drawing object. These are normally used for sizing. If you hold down the Ctrl key while you click and drag the rotation handle, the object no longer rotates around its center point. Instead, the object rotates around the center point at the bottom of the object, as marked by the bottom center handle. The upshot is that Word provides two ways to rotate the object, depending on whether you have the Ctrl key depressed or not.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (337) applies to Microsoft Word 2002 and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Hanging When Opening a Workbook

If you are opening a workbook and Excel seems to hang without ever fully loading, it could be due to a number of ...

Discover More

Creating a Photo Catalog from a Folder of Photos

Excel is great for collecting all sorts of information. You might even use it to create a catalog of your photos. Working ...

Discover More

Incrementing Months in Dates

Excel can easily store dates. If you want to increment a date by one month, there are a number of ways you can accomplish ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Problems Pasting Large Pictures

If you insert a large picture in your document and your text jumps all around and the picture seems to disappear, don't ...

Discover More

Creating a Drawing Object

Word documents can contain more than just words. They can also contain drawing objects such as lines and simple shapes. ...

Discover More

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Nothing beats a screen shot when you are trying to convey information about using the computer. With just a couple of ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 7 - 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.