Bouncing Pictures in Word

We’ve all had this problem. You insert a picture or a text box into Word, and all is fine until you start editing or trying to move things around—then boom! The figure ends up somewhere new or disappears altogether. It is annoying and frustrating. However, there are some things you can do to help, but not eliminate, the issue, if you continue to use Word.

Be aware that when you insert a picture or text box, it goes where your cursor was. However, Word does not link it to that spot, but rather links it to the beginning of the paragraph the cursor was in at the time. That means that if the paragraph shifts, so does the picture. If the paragraph shifts to a page without enough space for the picture, then Word gets confused and either leaves blank spaces that are hard to eliminate or loses the picture. You need to link the picture to the page or the margin to keep it from bouncing when the text shifts. This is best done when you first insert the picture.

When you insert a picture into Word, once the picture comes up and is still selected, there should be a little box to the upper right with blue lines and an arc. When you roll over it, the layout options menu should drop down. It will give you the current text wrapping status (usually ‘in line with text’) AND other options for text wrapping. Choose one of the first two other options: text wrapping square or text wrapping tight. Once you do that, then there are two options on the bottom that are now available: ‘Move with text’ and ‘Fix position on page’. Select the second! This should eliminate most of the bouncing around.

But what can you do if you did not position the figure when you first inserted it? You can go back and re-position it, but it does not always work as well. First, select the picture or text box, then right click to bring up the options menu for pictures. Select ‘More layout options’ or go to the Drawing tools Format tab, if that comes up, and select ‘More layout options’. A window will come up with three tabs, Position, Text Wrapping and Size. Check the Text Wrapping first, making sure that you have selected either square or tight. I usually recommend tight. Then make sure none of the options on the bottom (Move with text etc.) are selected. You should select Okay at this point to save these changes, but it does mean that you have to either right click again or go back to the Drawing Tools. You should be able to move to another tab without saving until your are done, but just in case, save. With the formatting window up again, select the Position Tab. There are controls for both horizontal and vertical positioning. The third option for both is Absolute Position. That is the one we want to use. There should be a number in the first column corresponding to the current position of the picture or text box. That you do not have to change. It is the second column that is critical. Make sure that says Page or Margin. Do this for both the horizontal and vertical placement. Select Okay. The picture or text box should stay put now. However, sometimes these changes still do not solve the problem completely. You will notice, though, things do not bounce around quite as much.