This article describes how to use text effects available in MS-Word 2007 and up in order to add more interest to titles and text in documents such as brochures and posters.
A tutorial in the over-priced, over-rated Shelly/Cashman microcomputer applications textbook series instructs students to enter the title of a text in all caps, like this:
All caps was the best we could do with typewriters, but in the age of word processing all caps is outdated, unsophisticated, and unsightly. Here are some alternatives.
Small caps look more sophisticated than all caps, and they're easy to do. Here's how:
With the release of MS-Word 2007, Microsoft replaced the old "WordArt" feature with "Text Effects" (as opposed to just "Effects").
This update was a case of "something lost, something gained". While we can no longer rotate and warp text the way we could with WordArt, Text Effects does offer a multitude of choices and combinations of lines, borders, fills, shadows, reflections, glows, and 3-D'ness.
The method works just like applying all other effects: select the text, open the Format Text Effects dialog box, and select the effects you want.
Just be sure not to simply click on the Text Effects tool in the Font group - that only brings up a few boring pre-sets which don't even begin to tap into the many possiblities offered by Text Effects.
Instead, after selecting the text, launch the Font dialog box, and then click on the Text Effects button at the bottom of the dialog - that brings up the Format Text Effects dialog box and opens a whole new world of possibilities