[Tutorial] How To Apply Standard Text Effects in Microsoft Word

[Lunix I]

Before we start adding our own text effect, let's briefly take a look what Word offers us in the Text Effect and Typography drop-down menu on the Home tab on the ribbon. There are 15 pre-defined text effects with different outlines, fills, and shadow effects, and some of the presets also include 3D effects. The colors of those presets always reflect the selected color theme.

You can jump to the Design tab and select a different color scheme from the Colors drop-down menu. Jump back to the Home tab, open the Text Effects and Typography drop-down menu, and it should look a bit different.

This is nice, but unfortunately there's no way to adjust those presets. The items in this list cannot be edited or deleted, and you cannot add new presets. Those 15 presets can be helpful if you need a nice looking header and you only have two minutes of your time, but you will learn nothing new about the text effects just by using them.

Body Text vs. a Text Box

The text can be placed in a document in two different ways. The usual way is to create a new document and start typing. We can call this type of text "body text". While the text effects can be added to this body text quite easily, they are limited, and thus using body text is not a preferred option.

The second way is to use a Text Box object and write into this text box. To insert a new Text Box, select Insert > Shapes > Text Box, and draw a new text box the same way you draw for example a rectangle.

The text placed inside a text box has several advantages. It can be moved around the document freely without any restrictions (even off the document or over the margins), and it can be rotated. Moreover, some additional text effects like the 3D rotate options are available.

If you do not like the default appearance of the text box—especially the white fill and the black outline—both can be easily set to none on the Format tab. Use the Shape Fill and the Shape Outline drop-down menus.