Name Fills in Microsoft Word and Publisher

Ever wonder how to do a simple name fill in Microsoft Word?  Well, I get asked this question a lot, so I thought I would post a quick tutorial on how to do this for those who would like to try it on your own.  You can follow the same steps in Microsoft Publisher if you have it.  If you are using Word 2010 like myself, you will not be able to do this, but good news, you can use PowerPoint 2010!  There are a few differences using PowerPoint, so if you need help using it, please let me know. 

 
The first thing you should do is save the picture that you want to fill your word with.  Usually in your pictures folder.  I will use this picture. 

 Use a version of Microsoft Word with the WordArt option and open it up. 

- Go to insert
- WordArt

- Select the style you would like to use, type your word, choose the size you want the text to be, then click OK. 

- For text fills you want to use a bold font so that your picture will be easy to see.  I will use Big Nib-Extended, but I also like to use Boulder, Coaster and Impact.  Feel free to find your favorite.  (There are many sites where you can find a collection of free fonts to download.  I like Dafont.com.)

-You can re-size your text by dragging out the corners or sides of the text box. 

- Right click on your text and then click 'format WordArt'

- When the window pops up, under the 'fill' option, click 'fill effects' and another window will pop up. 

- Click the 'picture' tab and then the select picture button.  A window will pop-up where you can search for the image you would like to use.  Select your picture and click OK.
- As you can see, the color tab now has your picture.  Choose the color, line and weight of your text outline and then click OK. 

- Ta Da! Your text should now be filled with your image!

- If you are satisfied with how the image looks you can print it out or save it as an image by taking a screenshot of your text by pressing the PrtScr button on your keyboard.  Open up your paint program or any photo editing program you use.  Paste the picture and then crop it to get rid of the extra stuff you don't need and then save.  (If you are using Publisher you just need to right click the image and then select the 'save as picture' option.)


- If you want to add some pizzaz to your text, you can play around with it using the format tools. 

Here is my text using a 3D effect and the text transform tools. 

-  So, what are you waiting for?  Go ahead and try it.  Have fun experimenting and creating your own work of art!


Any questions?

~Milliepie