Want to make your document look polished by having an image neatly enveloped by text? In this quick tutorial, you’ll learn how to insert a picture into Microsoft Word and apply proper text-wrapping so it can sit on the left, right, center or anywhere – and stay there. Let your text flow around it smoothly. Whether you’re using Word on Windows or Mac, these steps will help you control resizing, positioning and anchoring for clear and professional layouts.
We’ll show how to get all three positions and, importantly, explain why and how that works in Word.
Add a picture and setup Text Wrapping
The setup is the same for any image around text.
- Put the cursor in the paragraph you want the picture to appear with.
- Anywhere in the paragraph is OK, at the start is good.
- Insert the image into the document
- Use any method to add the picture:
- Insert | Pictures | This Device / Stock Images / Online Pictures.
- Copy and Paste
- Drag and Drop.
Resizing an image
At this point you’ll have something like this, possibly a lot larger. That’s because most modern photos are much larger than a Word page.
Before we continue, a little side note about resizing an image.
There are two simple ways to resize an image, a combination of the two will get what you need.
Change the width or height
The quick way make an image manageable on the page is changing the overall size. Click on the image then Picture Format | Size. Change the width to something that fits on the page, the value doesn’t have to be exact, just roughly correct.
In this case, the image is 8” wide on a page that’s not quite 6”. Worse, the corner handles for resizing (see below) aren’t available.
Change that to say, 2” width and now you can see the complete image with corner handles. The picture height has automatically changed to keep the image in proportion (Word calls this “Lock Aspect Ratio”).
The image isn’t yet in the right place, but at least it’s a manageable and visible size.
Drag to resize
The other way to resize a picture is by dragging one of the four corner handles. Click on a handle (dot) and drag towards or away from the center of the image.
FYI the four handles in the middle of each side change the height or width of the image, altering the proportions (Aspect Ratio) of the image. The top ‘circle with arrow’ lets you rotate the image.
Now the image is roughly the right size, lets continue with positioning. The image can be resized later.
Change to Text Wrapping
Click on the image and look for the icon at top-right, click on that to see a short version of Layout Options.
Choose the Square option, the first below the “With Text Wrapping” heading. Next to that is a similar “Tight” option. Make sure ‘Move with text’ is selected.
In Word for Mac, right-click on the picture then choose Wrap Text | Square and ensure ‘Move with Text’ is selected.
Now the image is set to Square With Text Wrapping, you’re ready to position the picture with the paragraph
Left side image
Drag the picture around so it’s next to the left margin of the page and (optionally) the top edge of the paragraph.
In modern Word for Windows (not Mac), green alignment or positioning lines appear when the image is in alignment. For example, the left margin (vertical line) and top of paragraph (horizontal line).
Right side picture
Drag the picture around so it’s next to the right margin of the page and (optionally) the top edge of the paragraph.
Again, the green positioning lines will help, when available.
Centered image in a paragraph
To put the image in the middle of a paragraph, drag it to the center with the text flowing around it on either side. A single center green alignment line appears in Word for Windows.
Anywhere you like
Once the image is set to Square or Tight with Text Wrapping, you can drag the picture anywhere. Here’s an image on the right at the bottom of the paragraph.
There’s a green vertical alignment line because the image is against the right margin. However there isn’t an alignment line for the bottom of the paragraph (only the top).
Anchor
Finally, did you notice the little blue anchor icons at top left of each paragraph? That’s an image anchor to show which paragraph the picture is linked to.
Knowing where the anchor is and it’s Locked setting (on or off) can be important when you’re trying to figure out image positioning in Word.
