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: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2011-03-02T22:20:10+00:00

    All we can do is express our collective need for a fix for this obvious design error.

    Count me in.

    I was simply trying to do a "simple" Word drawing within an existing drawing, but now it seems I "should" have just done a Visio drawing instead.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2011-02-05T00:30:48+00:00

    I just installed Word 2010 last week on advice that it would overcome some of the issues that I was having with Word 2007 as part of a beta test to provide feedback to the IT department of my company -- now I have even worse issues.  

    I draft legal patent document daily and I must have the ability to do complex professional line drawings very quickly.  I am another one who has been singing the praises of the original drawing canvas for many years to everyone in my office and beyond.  Now, with the latest and greatest version, I cannot do the most basic functions like aligning and distributing objects.  I cannot afford to be constantly flipping in and out of the drawing canvas just to align items - besides, it seems to be impossible in my case since I draw flow charts all the time (which must be aligned and distributed) using connectors that cannot be used outside the drawing canvas.  

    A further fatal flaw is the Distribute functionality - does not work in the drawing canvas at all, and when you move the items outside the canvas to make the option available, the items automatically get aligned (WTF???) and distributed across the extent of the page rather than between the two outside objects.  WTF is that all about???!!!!???  TOTALLY USELESS!!! and no way that I can see of a work-around.

    These bugs (they are certainly not features!) are FATAL!!!

    The loss of this basic functionality means that Word now becomes useless for my daily needs, and I cannot recommend it for further take-up until this is resolved.  

    I'm going back to Word 2003 until this is sorted!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2011-01-24T13:16:36+00:00

    Hi every one,

    Any feedback about this bug !?


    En espérant avoir pu rendre service (MehdiH)

    Retrouvez moi sur **Office Users**

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2011-01-20T21:04:22+00:00

    I'm in the same situation as Gary W (above).  Per his advice, I called MS tech support (Thanks for the numbers, Gary).  I told 'em this was a pretty bad oversight, and that after using MS products on PCs for over 20 years, I am actually thinking of switching to a Mac.  Grrr...

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments