Create a text box "callout"

Dan Holme

October 30, 2007

1 Min Read
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Desktop publishers often use callouts to draw attention to particular content. You can see an example of a callout in the figure below.

Callouts are achieved in Word using text boxes. Text boxes are like mini-documents that you can position on a page and fill with just about anything you would put in a Word document: text, graphics, tables, etc.

To create a text box:

  1. Click the Text Box button on the Drawing toolbar

    or

    Choose Insert → Text Box.

  2. Press Escape when the drawing canvas appears to remove the drawing canvas.

    When you select any drawing tool, including Text Box, Word creates a drawing canvas unless you have turned off the automatic drawing canvas (Tools ? Options ? General). If you are creating a simple, stand-alone text box as a callout, with no additional shapes in the drawing, you will probably want to remove the drawing canvas.

  3. Drag a rectangle to indicate the size of the desired text box.

You can then:

  • Enter text in the text box.

  • Use Format buttons on the Formatting and Drawing toolbars to format the text box and its content.

  • Use the Format ? Text Box command to format the text box. The Layout tab allows you to manage the text wrapping style for the text box.

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