Rotating Graphics Around a Different Center Point

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 20, 2021)

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...

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