If you've ever thought of making a special Valentine's Day card for that special someone, your word processing program and your browser offer you some formidable creativity tools. Lots of ready-made clipart is available online, including all kinds of hearts, flowers, and Cupid drawings. Just type free valentine clipart into Google, click Images, and hundreds of colorful choices will be displayed in miniature. Clicking on one will display the artwork full-size, along with its Web page and additional clipart choices.
Right-clicking an image and choosing Save Picture As... will copy it into your My Pictures folder. However, you can also drag the image directly onto your Desktop or into a different folder of your choosing. Better yet, an image can be dragged directly onto an open word processing page and can be manipulated in many ways to fit in with the text of your Valentine message.
The editing tools available in various versions of different word processing programs are way too many to list in this article, but here are some examples: In any program, an inserted image can be resized by simply clicking it and dragging any of its handles (tiny black squares) on its edges or corners. If you pull, say, the left handle clear past the right handle an image will be horizontally flipped.
A photo can likewise be dragged from My Pictures (or any folder) into an MSWord page, whereupon double-clicking it will display a Photo Editing toolbar with a number of options, such as changing its contrast and/or brightness levels. A cropping tool will let you eliminate excess background material and leave the main subject intact.
In most word processing programs a picture will conform to a line of text and move left or right as text is added or removed. However, MSWord (and others) will allow independent movement of an image by placing it inside a Text Box. You can create one by clicking Insert>Text Box. Next, insert a picture by clicking inside it and choosing Insert>Picture, whereupon the picture-bearing box can be moved to anywhere you want.
Additional tools for flowing text around, in front of, or behind a boxed picture will appear when you double-click the box.
In Word 2007 even more picture editing tools are available. For instance, you can freely rotate a picture to any angle you like. When you double-click an image the editing toolbar that appears has many additional options, including choosing a fancy frame for a picture or automatically cropping it to conform to a particular shape, including a heart.
In all versions of MSWord or MSWorks you can use WordArt to dress up a special line of text, such as I Love You or Be My Valentine. Click on View>Toolbars>WordArt to display a collection of sample layouts and color combinations for your special text. Choose one, and all kinds of special shape-editing and color-combination options will appear. WordPerfect has a similar feature called TextArt. You are really limited only by your imagination.
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