How to Position Pictures and Wrap Text in Word Without Things Jumping Around

Pictures are the part of a long document most likely to misbehave. You add one line of text on page 2, and a photo on page 7 slides onto the next page or lands on top of a heading. This is not random. Word is following rules about wrapping and anchors, and once you know those rules you can make pictures stay exactly where you put them.

In this tutorial you will lay out the Meet the Volunteers page of the 12-page Tutoring Handbook: one photo beside a paragraph, a grid of tutor photos with captions, and an icon with a text box label. You already know how to insert, resize and wrap a picture from Tutorial 6 of Word Basics. Here you will learn why the layout holds or falls apart.

In line or wrapped: decide on purpose

Every picture in Word is in one of two families. An In Line with Text picture lives inside a paragraph, like a very large letter. It moves when the text moves, and it can never overlap anything. A picture With Text Wrapping floats in a layer above or below the text. You can drag it anywhere, and text flows around it according to the wrap option you choose.

Select a picture and click the Layout Options button beside its top-right corner, or use Layout› then Arrange› then Wrap Text. (The same Arrange group is on the Picture Format tab when a picture is selected.)

A good rule for a long document: use In Line with Text unless you have a reason not to. In-line pictures can't jump, can't hide behind text and always print where the text says. Choose a wrapping option only when you need text beside the picture or need the picture at an exact spot.

Understand the anchor

A wrapped picture still belongs to one paragraph. Word marks that paragraph with an anchor icon in the left margin, which you see when the picture is selected. The anchor is the key to every "jumping" problem: the picture always stays on the same page as its anchor paragraph.

To see anchors all the time, turn on Home› then Paragraph› then Show/Hide ¶, or tick Object anchors in File› then Options› then Display under Always show these formatting marks on the screen.

At the bottom of the Layout Options menu you choose how the picture follows its anchor:

• Move with text: the picture keeps the same distance from its anchor paragraph. Add text above, and both move down together. This is right for a photo that belongs beside a particular paragraph.
• Fix position on page: the picture stays at the same spot on the page, measured from the page or margin. But it still goes to whatever page the anchor paragraph is on. This is right for something that belongs at, say, the top-right corner of a chapter's first page.

When you drag a wrapped picture, Word moves its anchor to the nearest paragraph. That is often the wrong one. To stop this, open Layout› then Arrange› then Position› then More Layout Options, go to the Position tab and tick Lock anchor. The picture can then move around the page, but it stays tied to its paragraph. To move the anchor on purpose, drag the anchor icon itself to another paragraph.

Set an exact position and size

Dragging is fine for a rough layout. When a picture must sit in exactly the same spot on several pages, use the presets or the Layout dialog instead.

Position gallery. Layout› then Arrange› then Position offers nine spots on the page, such as top left, middle center and bottom right. Choosing one turns on Square wrapping and places the picture relative to the margins. It is the fastest way to put a picture neatly in a corner.

Layout dialog. Click More Layout Options at the bottom of the Position or Wrap Text menu, or See more in the Layout Options button. The dialog has three tabs:

For the handbook, a consistent rule makes the pages look planned: every volunteer photo 2 in (5 cm) wide, aligned Right relative to the Margin, with 0.13 in (0.3 cm) of distance from text. Set it once in the dialog and repeat it on the next photo.

Align, select and group objects

Align and Distribute. Select two or more wrapped objects by holding Shift or Ctrl and clicking each one. Then open Layout› then Arrange› then Align. Choose Align Top to put a row of icons on one line, or Distribute Horizontally to make the gaps between them equal. At the bottom of the menu, choose what Word aligns to: Align to Page, Align to Margin or Align Selected Objects. With one object selected, Align Center plus Align to Margin centers it exactly between the margins.

Selection Pane. Open it with Layout› then Arrange› then Selection Pane (or Picture Format› then Arrange› then Selection Pane). It lists the objects on the page, top layer first. Floating objects can be hidden, reordered and multi-selected there. In it you can:

• Select an object that is hard to click, such as a shape behind text.
• Rename it: double-click the name and type something clear, such as Photo - Coordinator, instead of Picture 7.
• Hide it with the eye icon while you work on what is underneath. Hidden objects don't print, so show them again before you finish.
• Reorder layers by dragging names up or down.

Pictures set to In Line with Text are part of the text: they are listed in the Selection Pane, but you can't hide, reorder or multi-select them there, and they can't be aligned or grouped this way.

Group. Select the objects that belong together, for example an icon and the text box that labels it, then choose Layout› then Arrange› then Group› then Group. They now move, resize and wrap as one object with one anchor. Use Ungroup from the same menu to edit them separately again. You can still click into a grouped text box to change its words.

Keep captions with their pictures

A caption typed as a normal paragraph under a floating picture is not connected to it. Move the picture and the caption stays behind. There are two reliable ways to keep them together.

1. A table grid (best for several pictures). Insert a table with one column per picture and two rows: pictures in the top row, captions in the bottom row. Keep every picture In Line with Text inside its cell. Before you insert the pictures, set Layout› then Cell Size› then AutoFit› then Fixed Column Width so a large photo can't push its column wider. Then remove the borders with Table Design› then Borders› then No Border. The result looks like a clean photo layout but behaves like text: nothing floats, so nothing jumps.

2. A grouped text box (best for one floating picture). Draw a text box with Insert› then Text› then Text Box› then Draw Text Box, type the caption, remove its outline, and place it under the picture. Then select both and group them. If you use References› then Captions› then Insert Caption on a floating picture, Word creates the caption in a text box for you, ready to group.

Real captions from References› then Captions› then Insert Caption (such as Figure 3) can be listed and cross-referenced. That is covered in the Intermediate tutorial on tables of contents, captions and cross-references. Both methods here work with them.

Why pictures jump, and how to fix it

When a picture does something strange, find its anchor first (select it, or turn on Ctrl+Shift+8), then match the symptom:

The quickest test for a finished page: add a few blank lines at the top of the chapter and watch. Anything that should move with its paragraph should move; anything fixed should stay. Then press Ctrl+Z to undo the test.

Common mistakes

Practice