It’s common to include images in Word documents, whether for logos, charts, or project diagrams. However, getting text and images to play nice together can be tricky. When you insert an image, Word treats it like another character in the line of text, which can lead to awkward spacing and make it difficult to position your image where you want it. Also, the image moves around as you add or remove text around it.
To make your documents look professional and well-organized, you’ll want to learn how to wrap text around images. Word provides a bunch of text wrapping options to help you control how your images and other objects interact with the text. Let’s explore how to do it.
First, you’ll need to insert an image into your Word document before you can use any of the text wrapping options. You can insert various types of objects, including pictures, icons, SmartArt, charts, and screenshots. Word treats all of these objects in the same way, so once you know how to wrap text around a picture, you’ll know how to wrap text around any object.
There are two ways to insert an image. You can either insert from a file on your computer or insert an online image. Here’s how:
Place your cursor where you want to insert the image.
Next, go to the ‘Insert’ tab on the Ribbon and click the ‘Pictures’ option in the ‘Illustrations’ group.
In the ‘Insert Picture’ dialog box, navigate to the folder where your image is located. Select the image and click ‘Insert’.
The image is now in your document.
Insert an Online Picture
If you’d rather use an online image, click on the ‘Online Pictures’ option instead of ‘Pictures’ on the ribbon.
The ‘Online Pictures’ window will appear. You can choose an image from your OneDrive or search for one using Bing.
Search for an image in Bing, select it, and then click ‘Insert’ to place it in your document.
Wrapping Text Around an Image in Word
By default, inserted images will either appear in line with text, with text above and below the image, or simply move the text around to make space for it. This can make your document look unprofessional. To control how text interacts with your image, you’ll need to use text wrapping.
Text wrapping makes text flow around, next to, or over the image. Here’s how to do it.
You can wrap text in three different ways. Let’s explore the most effective method first:
Method 1: Using the Format Tab
- Select the image you want to wrap text around. This will cause a ‘Format’ tab to appear under the ‘Picture Tools’ on the Ribbon. This tab has tools to insert and manage your pictures.
- In the ‘Format’ tab, click the ‘Wrap Text’ button in the ‘Arrange’ group. Select your desired option from the dropdown.
As you hover over each option, you’ll see a preview of how the text will wrap around your image. Click on an option to apply it to your document.
Method 2: Layout Options Button
When you select an image, a floating ‘Layout Options’ button will appear next to it. Click on this button to access the text wrapping options.
Method 3: Right-Click Context Menu
Right-click the image. From the context menu, select ‘Text Wrap’, then choose an option from the submenu.
Let’s explore the different text wrapping options:
Inserting Image In Line with Text
This is the default setting when you insert an image. Word treats the image like a large character in the text and places it on the same line. Text doesn’t flow around the image using this option.
When you select the image, you’ll see sizing handles and a rotation control, which you can use to resize the image.
Wrap Text Squared Around the Image’s Frame
The ‘Square’ option wraps text around the rectangular border of the image. Text will flow above, below, left, and right. You can drag the image, and the text will adjust.
Wrap Text Around the Shape of the Image
The ‘Tight’ option wraps text around the actual shape of the image. It’s best for images with irregular shapes and transparent backgrounds. However, if the image has a background, the text will wrap around its frame, just like the Square option.
Another Example:
For oddly shaped images with transparent backgrounds, ‘Tight’ wrapping option is ideal for wrapping text. For example:
With the ‘Tight’ option, you can see that the text flows around the shape of the image.
To get the same effect on images with background, you’ll first need to remove their background, then adjust wrap points.
Wrap Text Through the Empty Spaces in Images
The ‘Through’ option works similarly to the ‘Tight’ option, but it also fills in any white spaces inside the image.
You can use the ‘Edit Wrap Points’ control in the same menu to change how text flows within the image. We’ll explore this option more later.
Wrap Text Around Top and Bottom of the Image
The ‘Top and Bottom’ option places the text above and below the image. It’s best for wide images where you don’t want text on the sides.
Overlay Text over Image
Choose the ‘Behind Text’ option to place text on top of an image, like a watermark. However, this can make the text difficult to read.
To fix this, you can adjust the colors of your image using options in the ‘Adjust’ group under the ‘Format’ tab.
Click the ‘Artistic Effects’ button to choose from different effects.
Use the ‘Corrections’ button to adjust brightness, contrast, and sharpness. This will make the text more visible.
Or select the ‘Color’ button to change color saturation, tone, or recolor the image. For example, here we’re using the ‘Washout’ option in the ‘Recolor’ menu.
Now, the colors are faded and the text is much more visible with the picture in the background.
This can be a very interesting effect in some cases.
Overlay Image over Text
The ‘In Front of Text’ option places the image over the text, obscuring the text behind it.
While not commonly used, this can be useful for adding arrows or highlighting specific text.
If you want to make the current text wrapping settings as the default for new images, charts, or SmartArt graphics, click the ‘Set as Default Layout’ button.
Editing Wrap Points
You can customize how close text can come to the image by editing its wrap points, especially when using ‘Tight’ or ‘Through’ text wrapping settings.
By default, wrap points are around the outer frame of an image. They form a rectangular shape around it.
When you use the ‘Tight’ option for an image with a transparent background, the text wraps around the shape of the image itself.
But when an image has a background, text won’t wrap around the image’s shape, instead it wraps around the frame even with the ‘Tight’ option selected.
To wrap text around the image itself when it has a background, you must first remove the background.
Remove the Background from an Image in Word
To remove the background:
- Select the image, and then click the ‘Remove Background’ button located in the ‘Format’ or ‘Picture Format’ tab on the Ribbon.
The ‘Format’ tab only appears when you select an image or object.
- When you click ‘Remove Background’, a new ‘Background Removal’ tab opens. Word will try to automatically detect the background by coloring it magenta.
-
Since Word often doesn’t accurately detect the background, you have to use the ‘Mark Areas to Keep’ and ‘Mark Areas to Remove’ tools in the ‘Background Removal’ tab.
-
Click the ‘Mark Areas to Keep’ to highlight the portions of the image you want to keep. The cursor will turn into a pen for drawing the area.
- After highlighting the areas, click outside the image to see the results.
- Use the ‘Mark Areas to Remove’ button to mark the areas you want to remove. Again, draw over the areas using the pen and click outside to see the effect.
- Your final image should look like this with no background.
If you make a mistake, you can undo an action by pressing Ctrl + Z or click the ‘Discard All Changes’ button.
- When you’re done, click the ‘Keep Changes’ button to save and exit the background removal tab.
Now you have an image with no background.
Editing Wrap Points after Removing Background
After removing the image’s background, you can adjust wrap points to control how close text flows to the image when using ‘Tight’ or ‘Through’ wrapping option. If you are using images with transparent backgrounds you don’t need to remove the background.
- Select the image and switch to the ‘Format’ tab.
- Click the ‘Wrap Text’ button and then select ‘Edit Wrap Points’.
Word will show small black squares connected by red lines. The number of wrap points depends on the image’s shape.
Click any of the small square handles and drag to move the wrap points closer or further from the image.
You can also create a new wrap point by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on the red line. To remove a wrap point, click it while holding Ctrl.
For example, we’re moving these wrap points closer to the image.
Once done, click outside the image to view the results.
Extra Text Wrapping Layout Options
After wrapping text, you can customize your text wrapping further with ‘Layout Options’.
- Select the image, and then click ‘More Layout Options’ from the ‘Wrap Text’ dropdown.
The ‘Layout’ dialog will open.
- Go to the ‘Text Wrapping’ tab. Here you can find the ‘Wrapping style’, ‘Wrap text’, and ‘Distance from text’ sections.
Note: These options only work with ‘Square’, ‘Tight’, or ‘Through’ wrapping styles.
In the ‘Wrap text’ section, choose which side you want text to wrap around the image: Both sides, Left only, Right only, or Largest side only. Choosing one-side options will leave the other side empty.
For example, if you only want text on the right side, choose ‘Right only’.
Now, the text is only on the right side of the image.
The ‘Distance from text’ section lets you set spacing between text and image on all four sides. Smaller numbers equal less space, larger numbers equal more space.
In the ‘Size’ tab, you can adjust height, width, rotation, and scale. Click ‘OK’ to apply changes or ‘Reset’ to revert.
Anchoring Your Image in Word
By default, Word anchors your image to a specific paragraph. This means the image moves with the paragraph when you add or remove text above it. You can identify the anchored paragraph by the small anchor icon that appears when you click on the image.
To make the image stay in the same place on the page, no matter what you add or remove, you can anchor it to a fixed position on the page.
To do this, use the ‘Wrap Text’ dropdown from the ‘Format’ tab, and change the option from 'Move With Text’ to ‘Fix Position On Page’.
Now, the image will stay fixed on the page, and the little anchor icon moves to indicate which paragraph the image is linked with.
Position With Text Wrapping
Another way to wrap text is by using the ‘Position’ menu. This lets you quickly position an image and automatically wrap text around it.
You can’t move an image freely unless it’s wrapped. But the ‘Position’ menu makes it easier.
To use the ‘Position’ menu:
- Select the image and go to the ‘Format’ tab. Then, click the ‘Position’ dropdown.
-
A dropdown appears, with two sections: ‘In Line With Text’ and ‘With Text Wrapping’.
-
The ‘In line with text’ option keeps the image in line with the text.
-
The ‘With Text Wrapping’ section allows you to pick from nine predefined positions for your image. The text will automatically wrap around it. These positions are:
- Position in Top Left with Square Text Wrapping
- Position in Top Centre with Square Text Wrapping
- Position in Top Right with Square Text Wrapping
- Position in Middle Left with Square Text Wrapping
- Position in Middle Centre with Square Text Wrapping
- Position in Middle Right with Square Text Wrapping
- Position in Bottom Left with Square Text Wrapping
- Position in Bottom Centre with Square Text Wrapping
- Position in Bottom Right with Square Text Wrapping
When you hover over each option, you can preview the image and the text wrapping.
Let’s try one of the positions on an inserted image:
Here is what it looks like when we use ‘Position in Top Left with Square Text Wrapping’.
And here is how it looks when using ‘Position in Middle Centre with Square Text Wrapping’.
The image is fixed in that position on the page.
You can also click ‘More Layout Options’ from the ‘Position’ dropdown to fine-tune using more precise positioning options.
