I'm formatting a table where the first cell containing text points to two different cells containing more text. I want to draw two arrows to create a right angle at the top with the arrows pointing downward to the two different cells below.



I've created multiple rows between the two lines of text and merged the cells into which I want to place the arrows. Once I insert the arrows, I can't quite line them up so they are cleanly connected at the right angle, nor can I control the length of the arrows so that they match.

Does Word have a feature that can help with this?

jklein

Once you have an arrow selected, you can adjust its size and position properties using the Drawing Tools. You can also move an image around via the arrow keys on the keyboard (depending on the keyboard you may need to turn Numlock off). One of the tings you'll notice about this is that the images will tend to move in fairly obvious increments, rather than smoothly. You can change that behaviour by clicking on the 'Align' dropdown on the Drawing Tools tab, selecting 'Grid Settings' and changing the vertical & horizontal values. They can be made as small as 0.05pt or as large as 1584pt!

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thank you for that information, Paul.

How do I get the connection points (the little squares at the opposite end of the arrows) to connect so that the two lines form an angle? And how do I line them up to be 90 degrees (or 45 degrees or whatever)? I still can't seem to control the movement very well, and I'm still relying on my eyeballs to line up the arrows in the table. The gridlines help with that but I don't understand how to utilize the vertical and horizontal values.

BTW, I'm on a PC, not a Mac, if that makes any difference.

As I said, you can use the arrow keys to move the image around. If you've set the grid size to 0.05pt, you should be able to get extremely accurate positioning. At small increments, you may find it easier to increase the document zoom (up to as much as 500% is possible) so you can see more clearly where the ends are in relation to each other.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thank you! I finally realized that I have to hold the shift key down while I'm using the arrow keys. I'm working it now. Appreciate your help!

JKlein

Ah, OK. Different keyboard setup.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]