How to Wrap Text in Word – 3 Ways

How to Wrap Text in Word. Many users, while editing a document, may need to wrap text around an image or other object in Word. Thanks to this, you can change the style of the illustrated Word document at your discretion.

Text wrapping is the result of how text on a page interacts with an embedded object: an image, a table, a text box, or another element. You can wrap text around a picture in Word by placing text before, behind, after, or around the picture.

It is often necessary to position an image in a certain place so that the text flows around it in a given order. In Word, text wrapping around an object can be changed, added, or removed at any time.

In this guide, you will find instructions on how to wrap text around a picture in different versions of Microsoft Word: Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2021, Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, Word 2010, Word 2007. In these versions of Word, picture wrapping text is the same.

How to make text wrap around a picture in Word – 1 way

By default, the inserted object is treated by the program as a new text character. After adding new text to the document, the drawing will move along with the rest of the text because the object is anchored to the paragraph.

You can manually move the image to the desired location on the document page by holding down the mouse button.

Go through the steps:

1. Insert the desired image into the text of the document or use a previously inserted picture.
2. Left click on the picture.
3. Move the mouse cursor to one of the corners of the object to zoom in to the desired size.
4. Click on the image with the left mouse button, in the upper right corner near the image, the “Markup Options” icon will appear.
5. Click on the icon to select the appropriate option in the Text Wrap option.
6. Select the desired layout by clicking on the appropriate icons to wrap text around the image.

By default, the inserted object has the “In text” option. This means that this element is inside a paragraph, as if it were text. If you add or remove some text, the position of the image will change.

In the layout options, there are two settings for moving or fixing the position of an object on the page:

• Move with text – after adding or removing text, the image moves around the page.
• Fix position on page – the picture will remain in place, despite the movement of text in the document, after adding or deleting it.

How to wrap text in Word – 2 way

You can use a similar method by using the right mouse button when editing the menu.

Do the following:

1. Right click on the image.
2. In the context menu, click on the “Text Wrap” item.
3. In the open submenu, choose the text wrapping around the picture that suits you.

The following layout options are available to you:

• In text – the object is inserted as a new paragraph, the text is located above and below the picture.
• Square (Around the frame – the name of the layout in some previous versions of MS Word) – the text is placed around a rectangular square area at the same distance.
• On Outline – Text wraps around the outline of an object that can be resized and displayed in a number of ways.
• Through – the text is around the picture and inside.
• Above and below – the text is only above and below the object, in contact with it.
• Behind text – the page text is behind the image, but it is displayed on the background of the object as a watermark.
• In front of the text – the picture covers the part of the text that is behind the element.

There is a “Make Default Layout” option in the context menu. This means that you can set the selected text wrapping method for all subsequent insertions of objects on the pages of Word documents.

4. After editing is complete, save the Word file to your computer.

How to wrap a picture with text in Word – 3 way

Let’s move on to the next method of changing the position of the text around the image.

Do the following:

1. Open a Word document.
2. Hover your mouse over the location where you want to paste the image.
3. From the menu, open the “Insert” tab.
4. Click on the “Pictures” icon, then in the drop-down menu, click on “This device …” or “Pictures on the Internet …”.
5. Add an image to the document’s text.
6. The Picture Format (Format) tab opens in the menu.
7. Click on the “Position” icon located in the “Arrange” group.
8. Select the appropriate option for placing the object from the proposed ones to wrap the image with text in Word according to the specified parameters in the “Text Wrap” option.

How to set parameters for wrapping

You can further adjust the text wrapping options for an object on the Word document page.

Go through a few steps:

1. When choosing a wrapping method, in the context menu there is an item “Additional layout options …”, which you need to click on.
2. In the “Layout” window, in the “Text Wrap” tab, set the required option for each group of parameters.

In the “Wrap” group, select the appropriate implementation method.

In the Text group, select the text placement:

• around – the text is located on any side;
• left – the text is only on the left;
• right – the text is located only on the right;
• Larger Side – Text is placed on the larger side only.

In the “Distance to text” group, use the “top”, “bottom”, “left” and “right” sliders to set the distance from the image to the nearest text.

Depending on the selected wrapping method, the available parameter settings in the “Text” and “Distance to text” groups differ.

3. To apply the settings, click the “OK” button.

In the “Position” tab, the position of the image or other object in various positions is adjusted.

The “Size” tab sets the height, width, rotation and scale of the picture.

How to change text wrapping

In the usual case, the wraparound and the image itself are the same size and shape. You can give the outline a different shape as you see fit.

Do the following:

1. Select the image in the open document window.
2. Go to the Picture Format tab (Format).
3. In the Arrange group, click the Text Wrap button.
4. In the drop-down menu, select one of the wrapping options, except for the original option – “In text”.
5. Click on “Change Wrap Path”.
6. Move the mouse cursor over the edge of the highlighted red frame or one of the corner anchor points.
7. With the left mouse button held down, drag the wrapping path to the desired shape.
8. Save your changes to the Microsoft Word document.

Wrap text around a table in Word

In some cases, you need to wrap text around a table created in a Word document.

You will need to do the following:

1. Right click on the table.
2. In the context menu that opens, click on the “Table properties …” item.
3. In the “Table Properties” window, in the “Table” tab, in the “Wrap” group, click on the “around” option.
4. Confirm the changes by clicking on the “OK” button.
5. Drag the table to the right place in the document, the text will be placed around the table.

Article Conclusions

While working in a text editor, the user may need to change the markup of the document, in particular, wrap the picture with text in Word. This is necessary to change the appearance of the page after inserting an object there. You can choose the position of the image on the document page and how the text wraps around to your liking using the application settings.