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In MS Word, how can I prevent the appearance of "Create your drawing here" area when inserting a square (or a circle) in a document?

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seriously man. First thing it should strike you that you're not the first person to ask that, so if you google it you're likely to find the answer. Second thing is to google that phrase obviously you'll find out. Probably most of us have looked it up. Look at jay's answer – barlop Feb 2 at 23:27
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What you're looking for is in Tools > Options > General

Then untick the "Automatically create drawing canvas when inserting AutoShapes"

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This is great to know. Wish you could create the canvas without the text in it. – datatoo Feb 3 at 20:28
@datatoo: what text do you mean? "Create your drawing here" is just a hint to the user and isn't 'really there'. – jay Feb 4 at 23:37
it isn't really there, but it always shows. Would be nice to not have a hint you already know for the rest of your life. – datatoo Feb 5 at 20:44
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up vote 1 down vote

You didn't indicate what version of Word you're using - it looks like 2003. In Word 2007, it works quite differently...

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Choose a shape and click in your document to draw it. Then you get this...

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Your new shape is ready to move, size, or rotate - and all the useful drawing tools are automatically displayed. The Ribbon does do some things well!

I won't be so rude as to tell you to upgrade, but if you do a lot of drawing shapes this would be one reason to do it!

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up vote 1 down vote

I hate the way drawing layout works in Word 2003. It is so easy to draw and layout in Excel, there is no comparison. Admittedly this is not a Word only solution, but this is faster if I am doing a lot of objects on a page.

If you want it to just be quick and easy, draw it in Excel, (Edit>GoTo>Special> Objects) copy all the objects at once, and paste them into a Word document already positioned as you would like.

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