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Suzanne S. Barnhill
 
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Default Drawing a Half-Circle and Half-Ellipse (Word 2003)?

I was using a vertical line. Start your arc at the line. When you finish the
arc, the other end will not be on the line (that is the "free" end). The arc
you create is by definition one quarter of an ellipse (or a circle if you're
pressing Shift when you draw it). You cannot make more than a quarter circle
no matter how far you drag it (you just make a larger arc). To make it into
a semicircle, you have to grab the diamond on the free end and drag it to
the line. If you want a horizontal semicircle, then you can use a horizontal
line, but you will be dragging up (or down) instead of right or left as I
was.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
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"W. Watson" wrote in message
nk.net...
Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:
The arc is the way to go. To help you draw an exact half, draw a

straight
line first. Start at the line and draw an arc (which is one-quarter of

an
ellipse or, pressing Shift, circle), then drag the "free" yellow diamond

to
the line. You don't need to use the white circles to size the object or

the
green one to rotate; the size and rotation can be entered directly on

the
Size tab of the Format AutoShape dialog.

I drew a horizontal line about 2" long. I then used Shift-Arc and placed

the
crosshair on the left end of the line, and moved across to the right

end,
where I released it. That drew a slopping arc rising upward to the right.

It
looks like it's about 1/4 of something close to an arc of a circle, but

not
really a circle. I then dragged the left yellow diamond down to the left

end
of the line and released the cursor. That caused the arc to be similar but
about 2/3rds the length as before. I then tried this again, and brought

the
left diamond to the right end of the line, and got a large ellipse.

Isn't either end of the arc free?