Circling objects in word

Simple shapes can have a lot of uses in a Word document, so it’s entirely possible that you might need to use one.

Whether you want to use the circle on its own, or as part of another document option, knowing how to draw a circle in Word can be beneficial for a number of reasons.

1. Open your document.
2. Click where you want the circle.
3. Select the Insert tab.
4. Click the Shapes button, then select the Oval shape.
5. Click in the document then drag your mouse to draw the circle.

Our article continues below with additional information on how to draw a circle in Word 2010, including pictures of these steps.

If you would like to know how to insert a circle or another shape in a Google Slide presentation, then click here to find out how.

While Microsoft Word is primarily thought of as a document editor for text, it has a variety of different drawing tools that allow you to insert custom shapes into the document.

You can even use shape fill options and format shape settings to further customize an object that you draw. Our steps below will walk you through how to draw a circle in Microsoft Word 2010 using these tools and settings.

There are a lot of different types of files and objects that you can insert into Microsoft Word 2010 documents, and some of them are simpler and more useful than you might expect.

We have previously described how to take a screenshot in Microsoft Word 2010, but not everything that you add to a Word document needs to be an image or an external type of media.

For example, you can also create objects and shapes entirely from scratch. Therefore, if you need to create a circle and insert it into your document, you can use the Shapes option on the Insert menu to do so.

Fortunately, the Shapes tool in Microsoft Word is quite versatile, and you can use it and the other various drawing tools to create some useful shapes and designs.

Our article below will show you how to draw a circle (or draw an oval) in Microsoft Word if your document would be improved with the addition of that shape.

Our 1 inch margins in CM Word guide can show you how to change the unit of measurement when you are using Microsoft Word.

Inserting a Circle into Word 2010 (Guide with Pictures)

While the tool that you are going to be using is technically for inserting ovals, you can manually adjust the size of the oval so that it is perfectly proportioned and, therefore, a circle. Continue reading below to learn about the steps that you need to take to draw your circle in a Word document.

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Step 1: Launch Microsoft Word 2010, or double-click the Word file in which you want to draw a circle.

Step 2: Browse to the location in which you want to insert the circle.

Step 3: Click the Insert tab at the top of the window.

Step 4: Click the Shapes drop-down menu in the Illustrations section of the ribbon at the top of the window, then click the Oval icon in the Basic Shapes section of the menu.

Step 5: Click your mouse at the desired location in your document, then drag your mouse until the oval is at the desired shape.

Now that you know how to draw a circle in Word you might have all of the steps that you need. But if you need a perfect circle, then you will need to take a couple more steps.

**The following steps are only necessary if you need a perfect circle**

How to Draw a Perfect Circle in Word 2010

This section continues from the steps in the previous section.

Step 6: If it is not currently selected, click the Drawing Tools – Format tab at the top of the window.

Note that the circle will need to be selected for this menu to be visible.

Step 7: Click inside the Shape Height field in the Size section of the ribbon at the top of the window, then enter your desired circle height.

Step 8: Click inside the Shape Width field under the Shape Height field, then enter the same value that you entered in Step 7. Your shape should now be a perfect circle.

If you want to change the appearance of the circle, you can modify the settings for the shape using the assorted menus in the Drawing Tools-Format tab of the ribbon.

Additional Information on How to Use the Circle Shape Tool in Microsoft Word

If you want to use any of the additional drawing tools, such as the “Shape Fill” option, which allows you to color in your circle, then you will need to select the circle first.

The Insert tab in Word is also where you will need to go if you want to add an image to your document, or other custom objects like a table or a text box.

If you are adding a circle to your document because you want to use it in conjunction with another object, such as a text box that will display text on top of the circle, then you will probably need to adjust the “layers” of those objects. You can find these on the Layout tab in the Arrange section.

Another way that you can add a perfect circle to your document is by holding the Shift key after you have chosen to draw an oval. To accomplish this you would click the Insert tab, click Shapes, choose the Oval from the drop down menu, then hold down the Shift key as you draw a circle in your document.

Additional Sources

• How to insert a check mark in Microsoft Word
• How to do small caps in Microsoft Word
• How to center text in Microsoft Word
• How to merge cells in Microsoft Word tables
• How to insert a square root symbol in Microsoft Word

When Des writes paper notes, she often puts squares around certain letters or numbers and circles around others. This is her own «code» that allows her to key in on information she needs to pay attention to. Des can relatively easily put squares around letters or numbers in a Word document (using borders), but she hasn’t found a way to add circles.

There are actually a few ways you can go about this. One way, of course, is to use the graphics capabilities built into Word to create a shape (a circle) that can be placed around any letters or numbers you desire. A quick way to do this is to customize the Quick Access Toolbar so it includes the Oval tool. (How you customize the QAT has been covered in other WordTips. The Oval tool is found by listing All Commands during the configuration process.)

Once the Oval tool is in place, click on it and you can then use the mouse pointer to draw the circle. Just hold down the Shift key as you click and drag, and you are guaranteed of a perfect circle. Of course, the circle is filled in with a color, but all you need to do is use the Fill tool (on the Format tab, visible immediately after drawing the circle) to choose No Fill. You can even right-click the circle and choose Set As Default. This assures that the next use of the Oval tool results in a no-fill shape. (You’ll still need to hold down Shift, however, to ensure you create a circle.)

The benefit to this approach is that you can make the circle any size you want and any color you want. The drawback is that it adds graphic shapes to your document—they can sometimes be difficult to position and they increase the size of your document file.

Another approach is to «enclose» your characters. This is achieved through a different command you can add to the Quick Access Toolbar. When configuring, again display All Commands and look for one named Enclose Character. When you’ve added it to the QAT, use it by selecting some text (either one or two characters, no more) and then clicking the tool. You then see the Enclose Character dialog box displayed. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Enclose Character dialog box.

Here you can select how you want the text affected (shrunk or enlarged) and what type of shape you want to use to enclose the text (circle, square, triangle, etc.). When you click on OK, the text is adjusted through the use of an EQ field. You’ll need to play with this approach a bit to determine if it works just the way you want.

A third way you can tackle this problem is to use a font that already has characters enclosed within circles. This is actually built into Word 2007, Word 2010, and Word 2013. Follow these steps:

1. Position the insertion point where you want the circled text.
2. Display the Insert tab of the ribbon.
3. In the Symbols group, click the Symbol tool and then choose More Symbols. Word displays the Symbol dialog box.
4. Using the Font drop-down list, choose Arial Unicode MS.
5. Make sure that the From drop-down list is set to Unicode (Hex).
6. Using the Subset drop-down list, choose Enclosed Alphanumerics. (You will need to scroll through the drop-down options a ways to find this.) (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. The Symbol dialog box.

7. Select the symbol you want to use. (If you scroll down a bit you’ll also find circled uppercase letters and circled lowercase letters.)
8. Click Insert.
9. Close the Symbol dialog box.

The drawback to this approach is that it works only for the numbers 1 through 20 and for single letters (uppercase or lowercase). These steps also won’t work in Word 2016 because—for some inexplicable reason—Microsoft removed the Arial Unicode MS font, and it seems that none of the installed fonts has the Enclosed Alphanumerics subset included. You could, of course, search the Web for a downloadable font that would include circled characters.

Author Bio

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…

Even if you’ve been a Microsoft Word user for a long time, there are certain formatting options or objects that you need, but might not know where to find. For example, you might need to know how to curve text in Word if you’re designing a document that would benefit from having that effect.

A traditional Microsoft Word document, such as one that you might create for school or your job, is rarely more than plain text and maybe a picture or graph. But there are a lot of other elements that can be included in a Word document, including curved words.

You can curve text in Microsoft Word selecting the text, clicking the Insert tab, clicking the WordArt button and choosing an option from the drop down menu. You can then select the Format tab > Text Effects > Transform > then choose a curved path.

Whether you’re designing a flyer or a newsletter, or anything else that needs to be visually appealing, there are many cases where you might find yourself needing to curve a Word in your document. Our guide below will show you how to use the tools in Microsoft Word to achieve your curved text.

How to Arch Microsoft Word Text

The steps in this article were performed in Microsoft Word for Office 365, but will also work in most other versions of Word.

This first part of this section provides a brief overview of how to curve text.

If you would like to see the full tutorial with pictures, simply keep scrolling, or click this link to jump to that section. We also discuss how to curve text without WordArt further down in this article.

1. Open the Word document.
2. Choose where to add the curved text, then type it.
3. Select the text.
4. Click the Insert tab.
5. Choose the WordArt button, then select a style.
6. Click the Drawing Tools – Format tab.
7. Select Text Effects, then Transform, then a curved text style.
8. Adjust the WordArt text box as needed.

Our guide continues below with additional information on how to curve text in Word, including pictures of these steps.

Would you like to include the number of pages next to your page numbers? Our page 1 of 2 in Word tutorial can show you how to set that up.

Full Tutorial – How to Curve Text in Microsoft Word

As mentioned above, this section provides additional information on curving text in Microsoft Word, including pictures.

Note that this method uses WordArt. However, you can also curve text without WordArt. That method is discussed in the section below this one.

Step 1: Open your document in Word.

Step 2: Click at the point where you want to place the curved text, then type it.

Step 3: Use your mouse to select the text that you wish to curve.

Step 4: Select the Insert tab at the top of the window.

Step 5: Click the Word Art button, then choose the desired style for your curved text.

Step 6: Select the Drawing Tools Format tab at the top of the window.

Step 7: Choose the Text Effects option, select Transform, then click the desired curve type under Follow Path.

Step 8: Adjust the layout options for your curved text by clicking the white anchors to change the size of the text box, clicking and dragging the orange anchor to adjust the curvature, or clicking on the arrow to rotate the text.

The next section provides an alternate method for curving text.

If you’re adding math equations or other similar text to your document, then this how to do fraction on Word guide can show you a useful tool in the application.

How to Curve Text in Microsoft Word Without WordArt

Sometimes you will want to avoid using certain types of objects in Microsoft Word, including WordArt. Therefore you might want to try this method of curving text instead.

Step 1: Click the Insert tab.

Step 2: Click the Text Box button and choose your text box type.

Step 3: Enter the text into the text box.

Step 4: Right-click the text box and choose Format Shape.

Note that you need to right-click on the text box border, not inside the text box.

Step 5: Select No Fill and No Line from the column at the right side of the window.

Step 6: Click the Text Effects button, select Transform, then click one of the curved text options under Follow Path.

Depending on the version of Word that you are using you may or may not see a preview of the curved text after you select the shape transformation. Otherwise, you will need to click outside of the text box.

You can edit the text in the text box and adjust its formatting until it looks the way that you want it to look. You can also adjust the size of the text box or rotate it using the controls that surround the text box when it’s selected.

Our tutorial continues below with additional discussion about ways of adding curves to text in Word.

If you see a lot of weird symbols in your document that you can’t remove, then read this how to remove paragraph symbols in Word 2013 article to stop showing all of those different marks.

Frequently Asked Questions About How to Bend Words in Word

More Information on Curving Text to a Custom Shape in Word

There are a lot of WordArt styles that you can pick from when you are using the Word Art option to create the curved text effect. Plus, you can always go back and choose a different WordArt option or WordArt style after you use the transform option if you don’t like the result.

The placeholder text in a text box can be selected and deleted.

One of the benefits of using a text box to create curved text is that you can move a text box almost anywhere in the Word window, which gives you far more placement options than you have when you use WordArt text.

If you format your curved text and find that you made a mistake, you can undo curved text by pressing the Ctrl + Z keyboard shortcut.

Do you need your curved text to be a specific size? Find out how to show the ruler in Microsoft Word so that you can tell how large part of your document will be when you print it.