I have dumb questions about inserting shapes

[joshuapatel]

I'm kind of freaking out right now, sorry...

I need to be able to insert shapes (ovals, arrows, rectangles...) for an assignment for one of my classes and I thought for sure my computer had Microsoft Word on it but it doesn't. I tried out Word Online (I think is what it's called) but it doesn't seem to allow you to insert shapes? Am I missing something?

Does anyone know of a way I can insert shapes since I'll need it for this assignment and many more...

 

[Ranman256]

Did you try copy/paste?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Are you even talking about Access? You mentioned Word. I have not had good luck inserting shapes into Access forms and/or reports. Excel? Not an issue. Word works with shapes - if you have Word on your system. Powerpoint? No problem - again, if you have it. But inserting true arbitrary shapes is a bloody bear in Access unless it has VERY recently changed.

The ONLY way I have ever had any success with Access shapes is to cheat, and the shapes in question are HIGHLY limited. Create text boxes that have no borders and no back colors (i.e. make both of those properties transparent. Then find the shape you want among the WINGDINGS character sets (of which there are three) and make that a constant value in the text box. Size it as appropriate. Note that you can't do things with shapes in this situation like you could in other cases, where the shape can include text within that shape. AND you can't stretch or shrink the shape in one direction only. It is actually a character in that case, not a true shape.

 

[Gasman]

Use OpenOffice ?

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/insert-shape-openoffice-64842.html

I'm kind of freaking out right now, sorry...

I need to be able to insert shapes (ovals, arrows, rectangles...) for an assignment for one of my classes and I thought for sure my computer had Microsoft Word on it but it doesn't. I tried out Word Online (I think is what it's called) but it doesn't seem to allow you to insert shapes? Am I missing something?

Does anyone know of a way I can insert shapes since I'll need it for this assignment and many more...

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Supplemental:

MSDN is fairly definitive and they say "not for Access out of the box."

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/F...s-be-drawn-on-ms-access-forms?forum=accessdev

The Microsoft community says "NO" unless you have some 3rd party tools.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ess-2010/6bbb655b-5104-4e21-a246-6b7516a7dc48

PC Review has a suggestion that you could do an OLE of a Microsoft DRAW object. "DRAW" is like "GRAPH" - you can insert it on a form or report but it is not a native Access operation. It is a secondary utility that normally doesn't get an icon of its own. You wouldn't call DRAW directly because it needs to be inside of something else.

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/drawing-shapes-on-forms.1089234/

I found an Access Web article that led to another article that also says "Access wasn't really built for that." Has to do with the forms already being sub-classed heavily. They offer SOME limited code at this link that might have limited value.

http://access.mvps.org/access/api/api0053.htm

Given how many articles I've found that say "NO" or "not without extra work" I have to say that your question wasn't so dumb after all.

 

[Pat Hartman]

It isn't clear what you are doing but you cannot automate cloud based versions of Word, Excel, and Outlook. You need to use the installed versions.

 

[deletedT]

You can change fonts and get the shapes you want.
If you are on Windows OS, you have already wingdings, wingdings1 & wingdings2 fonts installed.

For example you can change your font in the middle of your text to Wingding3 and type A for a right arrow. Or S for a triangle. or D for left arrow. Then change your font to anything else and continue on your text.
This is a part of Wingding3 font typed in notepad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingdings

Wingdings on Google





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[Pat Hartman]

can change your font in the middle of your text

Not in Access unless the field is defined as Long Text with a Rich Text format.

 

[deletedT]

Not in Access unless the field is defined as Long Text with a Rich Text format.

It doesn't seem to be an Access question. He's saying he thought his PC has Microsoft Word. And on-line word can't insert shapes.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I've indirectly asked that question myself. Not sure we are talking Access here because the OP has not been forthcoming about details.