Setting Options, and customizing the Drawing toolbar.
Under Tools, Options (Alt-t o), set the following:
“View” tab: Print and Web Layout Options—check Drawings and Object Anchors
“General” tab: If you are using Office XP, UNcheck “Automatically create Drawing Canvas when inserting AutoShapes”
(The Drawing Canvas is a new feature in Word 2002, designed to make it easy to create a complex shape. I have yet to discover any value to it, and find it to be simply a nuisance.)
“Edit” tab: Check “Enable click and type”. This may be useful when you are working with a drawing, since it allows you to position text in relation to the drawing without hitting the Enter key repeatedly.
If you are using Word 2002, I recommend unchecking “Show Paste Option Buttons”. These buttons get in the way, and even sneak there way into my web documents!

Customizing the Drawing Toolbar
To display the Drawing toolbar, click your right-mouse button on the grey area at the top of the window, which will bring down the Toolbars menu. Check “Drawing”. I like to have certain buttons displayed on my toolbar. To put buttons onto the toolbar, you need to customize the toolbar: Click the right-mouse button on the grey area at the top of the window and choose the bottom-most item: Customize (You can just press the “c” key).
Click the Commands tab at the top of the dialog box, and under Categories click “Drawing”. You may then drag icons from the Commands list at the right onto the Drawing toolbar.

HOW TO SAVE THESE SETTINGS
These changes are all stored in a “template” file called normal.dot. If you want to transfer the settings from one computer to another, you have to move this file to the appropriate directory on the target computer. Here is where normal.dot resides: In Windows 98: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates In Windows NT, 2000, or XP: Here you have to provide a “profile” name (“my name”): C:\Documents and Settings\(my name)\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates

Download pdf How to Make Elegant Drawings in Microsoft Word