I am trying to create some birthday letters for the grandkids on my personla stationery (6 x 8.5). I want to include some graphics (clipart and photos) to make it more interesting.

I am trying to get the text to flow around the graphics and I am having a ton of problems. If the images are very small (less than about 2x2) or not close to the bottom of the page, it works OK. But if the images are close to half the page width or close to the bottom of the page, they jump all over the place. Sometimes when I am trying to nudge them into place using the arrow keys, the down arrow will move the image up.

Are there any secrets to making this work, or am I trying to force a square peg into a round hole and I should just give up and use Publisher?

Hi Jennifer,

The basic rule for working with graphics in Word is to start at the top of the document and work your way down - after the text editing is finished. Trying to add text or relocate an image ahead of images that have already been positioned tends to generate more than its fair share of frustration, as changes in text flow impacts on the positioning of images lower down. Provided the text and images are to remain on the same page, locking the image anchor to the top of the page and unchecking the 'move with text' option does allow greater flexibility. The other thing you could try for a one-page document is to put all the images into the page header. That way, their positioning is unaffected by changes in text flow.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Very helpful. Thank you!