When it comes to placing drawing objects in just the right spot, eyeballing it may seem like your only option. As you know, this can produce less-than-desirable results. Instead of relying on such shaky methods, why not display non-printing gridlines behind your drawing objects?

To create a grid in your document:

1. Select Draw | Grid from the Drawing toolbar.
2. In the Drawing Grid dialog box, select the Display Gridlines On Screen check box and click OK, as shown in Figure A.

Customize your gridlines
You can choose how far apart to space your gridlines, and you can choose to remove the vertical lines if you’d like.

To adjust your gridline spacing:

1. Select Draw | Grid from the Drawing toolbar.
2. In the Grid Settings area, increase or decrease the numbers in the Horizontal Spacing and Vertical Spacing spin boxes. Smaller numbers create closely spaced gridlines, and larger numbers widen the gaps between gridlines.

To remove the vertical gridlines:

1. Select Draw | Grid from the Drawing toolbar.
2. Deselect the Vertical Every check box in the Grid Origin area of the Drawing Grid dialog box. Click OK.

Unless you’re using Word 2003, you’ll notice a major irritation with these gridlines. The problem is that when you enable gridlines in one document, they automatically appear in all of the other Word documents you have open. This can create some frustration if you’re typing in another document and the gridlines obscure your text.

Adapt for Word 2007
Change your grid settings by going to the Page Layout tab in Word 2007. In the Arrange group, click the Align button and choose Grid Settings from the resulting dropdown list. This choice opens the Drawing Grid dialog box. You can also quickly hide/show your gridlines by selecting or deselecting View Gridlines from the same dropdown list.

Filed under: Microsoft Office Tutor