INSERTING PHOTOS IN A CHRISTMAS LETTER
November 2009

Receiving letters from family and friends during the holiday season can be fun. Often it is the only news you receive from some of them throughout the year.

On the other hand, letters that drone on can be sleep-inducing. Keeping things short and to the point is definitely a fine art. Try to keep your letter to a page, if possible, a page and a half at the most. Hit on the major milestones that people would be interested in knowing about. The point is not to lose the reader's interest with too many pages to read.

It's also a good idea to let someone else read it before you send it out to make sure you got your facts straight. And make sure you keep copies of your holiday letters for yourself. Someday they will be a wonderful keepsake for children and grandchildren.

A very special way to personalize your holiday letters is to add your own photos or special graphics. You can then print on holiday paper or just on plain white paper, as the photos and graphics will add all the decoration. You can do this right in your word processor such as Microsoft Works. Just open a new document and type in your letter. It works best if you have all your text in place first, then add photos and graphics.

Add an existing picture or photo from a file on your computer (Microsoft Works 8.0):
1.In the document, click where you want to insert a picture.
2.On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click From File.
3.If the picture file you want is listed, double-click the file name to open it.
4.If the picture file isn’t listed, switch to the drive or folder where the file is located, and then double-click the name of the file you want to open.
Tip:
You can also add an existing picture by clicking Insert Picture on the toolbar.

Add a Microsoft clip art picture:
1.Click in the document where you want to insert a picture.
2.On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click Clip Art.
3.Click Browse.
4.Under Select a category, click the category you want.
5.You can refine your search by choosing a sub-category under Select a sub-category, or a type of clip under Select a media type.
6.Click the picture you want, and then click Insert.
Tip:
You can also add an existing picture by clicking Insert Clip Art on the toolbar.


Holiday Letters with Graphics
November 2009

Resize a Photo or Clip Art Picture:

To resize clip art and maintain a picture's proportions:
1.In your document, click the picture that you want to resize. Selection handles appear around the picture.
2.Position the mouse pointer over one of the CORNER handles until it looks like a 2-pointed arrow.
3.While holding down the left mouse button, drag the corner into the center of the picture until it is the size you want, then release the mouse button.
Note:
To keep the same proportions, you MUST drag a corner handle. If you drag in a side or top handle, you will warp the picture.

Crop a picture
1.In your document, click the picture that you want to crop. Selection handles appear around the picture.
2.Position the mouse pointer over one of the handles until it looks like a 2-pointed arrow.
3.To crop a single side, use a side, top, or bottom handle. To crop two adjoining sides at once, use a corner handle.
4.Click the appropriate picture handle and hold down the CTRL key as you drag until you have cropped the area you want to remove. Release the mouse button, and then release the CTRL key.
Notes:
If you release the CTRL key before you release the mouse button, you will resize the picture rather than crop it.
Cropping does not make any change to the actual picture or graphic. You are simply telling the program how much of the original picture that you want displayed.
If you want to resize the picture, do this BEFORE cropping. Trying to resize after cropping will reverse the cropping and display the full picture.

Wrap text around an object:

You can wrap text around an object to highlight the shape, curves, and points of the object. It makes a document look interesting, and doesn't move the object.
1.Click to select the object (picture or clip art).
2.On the Format menu, click Object.
3.Click the Wrapping tab.
4.Under Style, click on one of the style choices:
a.The In Line With Text style insets the graphic in the text at the location of the insertion point. The graphic moves as you add or delete text. The text does not wrap around the graphic; white space extends to the margins on either side of the graphic.
b.The Square style wraps the text around all sides of a square bounding the graphic. The graphic moves as you add or delete text.
c.The Tight style wraps the text around the graphic in an irregular shape bounding the actual image. The graphic moves as you add or delete text.
In the Square and Tight styles, you will have available the Text Placement option boxes that will allow you to move the picture to the left or right margin.