OFF97: How to Rotate Patterned Fills in Office Art

• Microsoft Office 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
• Microsoft PowerPoint 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you rotate an Office Art drawing object or AutoShape that contains a textured or patterned fill, the fill pattern stays in its original orientation and does not rotate.

CAUSE

The patterned fills are actually made up of tiled bitmaps which cannot be rotated in the Microsoft Office programs.

WORKAROUND

The following workaround uses Microsoft Photo Editor, a program that ships with Microsoft Office 97. This procedure works for any degree of rotation, but looks best for 90-degree orientations. The tiling of the bitmap for a rotation other than 90 degrees is more visible.

Rotate the Drawing Object 90 Degrees

1. Start one of the Microsoft Office programs. On the Drawing toolbar, click a shape button, and draw a shape that is not a circle or square.

2. On the Format menu, click Format AutoShape.

3. Click the Colors & Lines tab. Under Fill, click the Color list, and then click Fill Effects.

4. Click the Texture tab, scroll to the bottom of the Texture list, and select the bottom right texture (medium wood). Click OK, and then click OK again.

   You will see that the wood grain now runs horizontally in the object you drew.

5. To make the fill appear to rotate with the drawing shape, copy the object, and then start Microsoft Photo Editor. To start Photo Editor, on the Start menu, point to Programs, and then click Microsoft Photo Editor.

6. On the Edit menu in Photo Editor, click "Paste as New Image."

   You will see the fill pattern as a square rather than the shape of the object you copied.

7. On the Image menu, click Rotate, click Rotate Left, and then click OK. The wood grain pattern is now vertical. To save this file as a new bitmap (.bmp) file, on the File menu, click Save As, and type the name you want in the File Name box.

8. To apply the rotated fill (vertical wood grain) to the object, repeat steps 2 and 3 to access the Fill Effects dialog box. On the Textures tab of the Fill Effects dialog box, click Other Texture, locate the .bmp file that you saved in Photo Editor, and apply this rotated fill to the object.

Rotate the Fill at an Angle Other Than 90 Degrees

Follow steps 1 through 6 in the " Rotate the Drawing Object 90 Degrees" section of this article to create, copy, and paste the drawing object. To rotate the fill at an angle other than 90 degrees, follow these instructions:

1. On the Image menu, click rotate, select the angle of rotation, and then click OK.

   The pattern image will appear as a rotated textured square within a solid square.

2. Using the Select tool on the Photo Editor toolbar, click and drag an area to select only the rotated pattern. With that area selected, on the Edit menu, click Copy, and then click "Paste as New Image."

3. Save this as a new file and apply the rotated textured fill to the object.

REFERENCES

For more information about drawing shapes, click the Index tab in Help, type the following text

   autoshapes