How to Freely Move Pictures in Word

Whenever you insert a graphic into a document, it is inserted “in line with text” by default. This treats the object as if it were text, moving it around the page as text is inserted. You can enable text wrapping on an object to move it around freely, forcing the text to move around to accommodate it.

Word Header Logo

RAYMOND OGLESBY @RaymondOglesby2
August 24, 2021

Whenever you insert a graphic into a document, it is inserted “in line with text” by default. This treats the object as if it were text, moving it around the page as text is inserted. You can enable text wrapping on an object to move it around freely, forcing the text to move around to accommodate it. Let’s explore this feature.

This is for devices running Word

Dilbert and Budget
Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS

Make Single Picture Moveable

First, open Microsoft Word on your Windows or Mac computer. On Word’s first screen, select Blank document to create a new document. Refer to below image:

Word 1
Open a blank Word document

Now, in Word’s editing window, click the Insert tab at the top. See below image:

Word 2
Click the Insert tab

Next, under the Illustrations section, click

Pictures > This Device

This lets you add a picture from your computer. See following image:

Word 3
Click This Device to locate a picture on your computer

Now, using your File Explorer, navigate to your picture. Double-click the picture to add it to your Word document. Refer to below image:

Word 4
Find a picture on File Explorer

Next, on Word’s editing screen, right-click the image that you just added and select

Wrap Text > In Front of Text

from the menu. See below image:

Word 5
Locate picture in Front of Text

Your picture is now freely movable. Drag and drop it anywhere you want in your document. See following image:

Word 6
The final result

Make All Pictures Moveable

If you would like to make all of your future pictures freely move in your Word documents, you can modify an option in Word’s Settings menu.

First, launch Microsoft Word on your Windows or Mac computer. Now, on Word’s main screen in the lower-left corner, click Options.

Note! If you are on Word’s document editing screen, instead, click File at the top to see Options.

Refer to below image:

Word 7
Select Options

Next, select Advanced in the sidebar on the left. See below image:

Word 8
Select Advanced

Now, scroll down the right pane to the Cut, copy, and paste section. Locate the Insert/paste picture as option and click the drop-down menu next to it. See following image:

Word 9
Locate drop down menu

Next, select In front of text option in the drop-down menu. Refer to below image:

Word 10
Select In front of text option

Now, click OK at the bottom of the Options window to save your changes and close the window. See below image:

Word 11
Save your changes and exit

From now on, Word will allow you to freely move pictures on top of text in your documents.

You might be thinking about spacing around your text. As is, with the picture being in front of your text, your text is hidden. One way to fix this is using the option Through or Top and bottom of the picture instead of choosing In front of text.

Quote For the Day

Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.

Ray Bradbury

You are finished on making pictures moveable in Word. Please feel free to share this post! One way to share is via Twitter.

Just click the Tweet icon below. This will launch Twitter where you click its icon to post the Tweet.

Checkout TechSavvy.Life for blog posts on smartphones, PCs, and Macs! You may email us at contact@techsavvy.life for comments or questions.

I Would Like to Hear From You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Just send an email to contact@techsavvy.life. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help us out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath
Advertisement

Author: Raymond

I am Raymond Oglesby, an Information Technology (IT) specialist with 30 years in the field. I have taught Microsoft Applications and troubleshot computers in 15 countries and many States. My career was focused on mainframes and desktops from application development to implementation. I have written hundreds of programs for various architectures. I decided to start a blog to share my knowledge and experiences with you. I plan on updating this blog at least twice a week about smart phone apps to Windows. Please feel free to leave a Comment or Tweet. I would love to hear from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: