Wrap Text Around an Irregular Picture on PowerPoint 2010 Slide

From Wendy Russell, former About.com Guide

Related Article - Wrap Text Around Square Images on PowerPoint 2010 Slide

Text Wrapping in PowerPoint - Using Another "Workaround"

At times, I think PowerPoint is set to challenge me.

• Note to self - "Write an article showcasing the many times I have come up with "workarounds" for required tasks that are just not within the scope of the usual PowerPoint presentation."
• Update - Well I went ahead and wrote that article. You may be interested in 8 Workarounds to Solve Problems with PowerPoint

I imagine that these tasks were just not considered as "usual" for users of PowerPoint and so, were not included within the program. However, users of this software have discovered that it is not just a simple business presentation program and use it for many other situations as well. This brings us to the wrapping of text around a picture.

Not all pictures are squares (or rectangles) with nice, straight edges to work with. You may want to get a different look entirely by wrapping the text around the soft edges of the image. Unfortunately, PowerPoint does not have this text wrapping feature, so we must move over to Microsoft Word. What follows is my "MacGyver" method. (For those of you too young to know, the MacGyver TV show was about a genius at improvising in any situation -- usually a bad one).

1. Open Microsoft Word. (I'm assuming that since you have PowerPoint on your computer, you likely have Word too).
2. Write the text content onto the Word document page.
3. Choose Insert > Picture and navigate to that picture on your computer.
4. Drag the picture to the approximate desired position on the page.
5. Right click on the picture and from the shortcut menu that appears, choose Wrap Text > Tight. The text content will wrap itself around the irregular border of the picture. Adjust the position of the picture as desired.
6. Save the Microsoft Word document.

Next - An Example of Text Wrapping in Microsoft Word

Previous

• Text Wrapping in PowerPoint - Using Another "Workaround"
• Example of Text Wrapping Around Picture in Microsoft Word
• Insert a Microsoft Word Document into PowerPoint
• Choose the Microsoft Word Document to Insert into PowerPoint
• Link to Microsoft Word Document in PowerPoint
• Precise Placement of Graphic Object on PowerPoint Slide
• Text Wraps Around Picture on PowerPoint Slide

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