There are two ways to make a text box transparent in Office; Word, Excel or PowerPoint. There’s a quick option and other that gives you some more control.
The Word, Excel or PowerPoint ‘Text Box’ feature is presented as a way to have ‘pull quotes’ or sidebar text in your documents however it can do a lot more than that. Text Boxes have all sorts of uses for placing content (not just text) where you want in a document, sheet or slide.
The default background for a text box isn’t always what you want.
The Text Box defaults to a white background, regardless of the page background.
Inserting a Text Box is easy from Insert | Text Box then choose from a style or draw the box onto your document. Either way the formatting and size can be changed later.
You could choose the same color as the page background for the text box background however that means you’d have to change the color in two places if the page background changes. There’s also a printing issue. By default, the page background isn’t printed but a text box background is printed. What you see on the screen won’t be what is printed.
There are two ways to change that white background to match the page or slide background:
No Fill
No Fill is on the pull down menu of Fill options as well as on the more complete Format Shape dialog box of options under Fill.
There is similar option No Outline which will remove any border. It is on Format Shape | Shape Styles under the Shape Outline button or in the Format Shape dialog | Line Color | No Line
Combine the two to make a seamless Text Box that blends with the page background automatically.
Transparency 100%
Another option for a text box is missing from immediate view – Transparency. A transparent text box will show the page background automatically which means any change in the page color will automatically reflect in the text box. This is easier than changing the Text Box background each time the page background changes and makes more sense when printing.
It also gives you more subtle control over the text box background by changing the transparency to a lower % such as 80% or 60%.
To find the Transparency option, and many others, click on the little arrow button in the bottom right corner of the Shape Styles section.
This opens up the full range of formatting options for the shape.
As we’ve mentioned many times before, those little arrows on the bottom right of ribbon sections are important because they often open up a lot of additional features.
To get the transparent effect, choose Fill | Solid Fill then move the Transparency slider to the right or type in 100%. The Fill color is irrelevant when the Transparency is total.
Or try another transparency level.
With the page and text backgrounds matched you might want to try a border around the text box to make it stand out.
In Drawing Tools | Format there are also Position and Wrap Text options to place the Text Box on the page and have the main text wrap around it.
- Simple image overlays in Word
- Text Box in Excel, PowerPoint and Word
- Word’s Text Box Gallery revealed
- Changing the Text Box Gallery to suit you.
