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Save a Shape
If you use Theme colors when formatting your shape you will find that the colors will change if you apply a different Theme to the document. You should be aware of this, particularly if you use the image that you have created as a logo or where you don't want to lose your colors.
To prevent the shape changing, you can save it as an image and then add it to your document as an image rather than a shape. To do this, copy and paste the shape onto a PowerPoint slide that uses the same theme that you have configured in the program that the shape originated in — or create the shape in PowerPoint.
Right click the shape and choose Save As Picture and save the image as a PNG format file. You can now insert the image into a document by choosing Insert > Picture and choosing the saved image to add to the document. Placing the shape as an image in a document breaks its link to the document Theme so it won't change if the theme changes.
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Display Excel Cell Information
As you have already seen there are things that you can do with shapes inside various Microsoft applications that vary according to the application you are using. In PowerPoint you can save a shape as a picture but you can't do this in other applications.
In Excel, you can display the contents of a cell inside a shape. To do this, click the shape to select it and then, on the Excel Formula Bar, type the cell reference of the cell whose contents should appear inside the shape eg. =A1 to display the contents of cell A1 inside the shape. Make sure to type in the Excel Formula Bar not in the shape itself.
To create complex images, group shapes together by clicking the first shape and then Shift + Click on the other shapes in turn. Right click and choose Group > Group to group the shapes together.
Another unique feature of shapes is that they can be used to crop images to shapes other than rectangular. Draw a circle shape in a document, fill it with a picture and then remove its border line and you have a circular image — something that would otherwise be difficult to do and the picture doesn't have to be circular it can be any shape you like including a shape you make yourself.
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Shapes in Word
Shapes behave a little differently in Microsoft Word than they do in the other applications in the suite. Many of the shape options in Word are still controlled by the dialogs you're used to using in Word 2003 and options like the Format Shape dialog aren't available when working with shapes.
The reason for this is that in Word 2007 the new graphic rendering tool hasn't yet been extended to apply to Shapes. In addition, while in Excel and PowerPoint you can collect shapes and clip art images into a group, you can't do this in Word.
You can get around this by creating or copying and pasting the objects inside a Drawing Canvas in the position that you want them to appear in. Then when you move the drawing canvas, the objects will move too. To create a drawing canvas, choose Insert > Shapes > New Drawing Canvas.
There is a lot more to working with Shapes in Office 2007 than meets the eye. The differences between shapes in Excel and PowerPoint and Word will seem confusing until you get used to each program's behavior, yet the power that shapes have now and will have in the future to allow you to create quite sophisticated effects will make it worthwhile spending some time becoming familiar with their use.
Helen Bradley is a respected international journalist writing regularly for small business and computer publications in the USA, Canada, South Africa, UK and Australia. She blogs at http://www.projectwoman.com/blogger.html.
Be sure to check out all of Helen's articles in the Exploring Office 2007 series:
