Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:
As Graham, Jezebel, and Jay have suggested in their various ways, it would
probably help you to understand what I've written if you would read Word's
Help and familiarize yourself with its terminology. I can also suggest this
MSKB article: "WD2000: General Information About Floating Objects" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=268713. You might also see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/DrwGrphcs/DrawLayer.htm
Indeed, as someone who has used WORD as a word-processing tool since
1994, I'm versed enough to be aware that I cannot understand the
connotations WORD gives to various functions. (I tend to think there's
something to be said for one's being aware of one's own ignorance
..) Every time I have posted over the last dozen + years on a
MVP-associated forum, Ms. Barnhill, believe me, I *have* read the
articles MVPs have referred me to.
As the below and no doubt excellent explanation illustrates, WORD's
more complex functions (for the publishing industry? advertising
industry? which industry, exactly, has always been something of a
mystery to me) rely heavily on a user's ability to understand
connotative language.
Although I have a Master's in English, from a university that doesn't
advertise on matchbooks, my master's is in literature. Perhaps a
master's in technical writing would have enabled me to truly understand
(and profit from) WORD. In any event, thank you very much for the help
this weekend and (under other online pseudonyms) in the past.
In Word 97 and earlier, MS used the term "float[ing] over text" to describe
objects in the drawing layer. When you inserted a picture, say, using Insert
| Picture | From File, the "Float over text" check box was checked by
default, and you had to clear it to insert the picture "inline." A
"floating" picture by default had "square" wrapping; other options were
Tight, Through, None, and Top and Bottom. You also had a choice of wrapping
text to both sides, left, right, or "largest side."
Word 2000 made significant changes in the way inserted/pasted pictures were
handled. The default "wrapping style" became In Line With Text (previously
called "inline"). An inline graphic is treated the same as text, that is,
rather like a large font character. Usually you would want it in a paragraph
by itself, with line spacing set to Auto; users come to grief inserting
pictures into paragraphs with Exact line spacing (so that only a tiny slice
of the bottom of the picture is displayed).
The new inline default confused many veteran Word users, too; previously
able to drag pictures freely around the page, they now found they could move
pictures only where there was already text. In order to solve this problem,
it is necessary to change the wrapping. In Word 2000 and above, when you
click on a graphic, the Picture toolbar is displayed. One of the buttons on
the toolbar is Text Wrapping (dog icon); this opens a menu allowing you to
change the wrapping of the object from In Line With Text to Square, Tight,
Behind Text, In Front of Text, etc.