Cannot align objects in a drawing canvas

Anonymous
2010-07-08T15:31:05+00:00

I have several clipart objects in a drawing canvas and I want to align them with each other and within the canvas. The alignment options are all greyed out regardless of whether I have "align to page" or "align to canvas" selected.

This happens in Word 2010 on both Windows 7 and Windows Vista

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2010-09-02T09:38:03+00:00

Summarising:

1 - Inside the canvas you cannot align objects

2 - You have to move object outside the canvas in order to align them, BUT:

3 - Outside the canvas you cannot use connectors...

A bit frustrating for people who work every single day with word...

Was this answer helpful?

30+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

88 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2011-04-16T00:35:04+00:00

    This solution worked for me too!  It does look like the drawing tools change a bit, I'm sure some features are lost - but I'll drop the "new cool" features any time to have my good old features working.

    Thanks Spyros!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2011-05-03T08:09:20+00:00

    It works but it will defeat the purpose of using word 2011 because the version 2011 supposed to be the updated and more users friendly.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2011-06-04T04:32:27+00:00

    Come on Microsoft! 

    Fix this bug..

    It has been around since the beta.. what? more than a year now!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2011-07-06T16:11:26+00:00

    First, I'd just like to add my vote and say this regression is a serious problem.  Interestingly at least one person noticed this bug during the Office 2010 beta

    http://www.techtalkz.com/ms-office-help/39289-aligning-objects-inside-canvas.html

     

    Secondly, I mistakenly marked the above comment as a potential solution to this problem. :-)    Finding a bug in the first 10 minutes of using my shiny new copy of Office 2010 + too much coffee made my mouse-ing hand a little twitchy.

     

    To Microsoft Office developers: Please please please, fix this bug.  And please don't wait for a service pack! 

    To err is human, to fix bugs in a timely matter is to have customers in the future.

    Unfortunately, my experience with reporting bugs to MS about Office is that at best they get acknowledged and rarely get fixed.

    Here's hoping I'm wrong.

    YES!  MICROSOFT PLEASE FIX. 

    To repeat:  You cannot align objects/shapes inside a canvas in Word 2010.

    So why use a canvas at all? 

    One reason is that without a canvas, you cannot use the "lasso" or "select area" tool to select multiple objects at once.  You can use the selection pane, but even there you have to hold "ctrl" and click EVERY.  SINGLE.  OBJECT.  This all adds up to a real PITA for anyone who tries to use MS Word to create a drawing with more than a few objects.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments