CHANGING YOUR DESIGN COLORS

The next time you're using Word to design a promotional flyer or a

poster, invert your thinking. Specifically, invert the colors you use

for your text. For instance, suppose you're creating a poster to direct

students to a classroom for training. You begin by typing training

class this way at the top of the document, and because it's a poster,

you probably use a 48-point font.

While there's nothing wrong with plain, old black text on a white

background, you might be surprised by the results you can get working

with light text on a dark background. 

Here's one easy way to get started. Follow these steps:

1. Open a new document and use the Drawing toolbar's Text Box tool to draw a big rectangle spanning the width of your page.

2. Use the Drawing toolbar's Fill Color tool to select a background

color for your headline. Try black, blue, or any other color that grabs your eye. Click inside the text box to colorize it.

3. Go to Format | Font, select the Font Color drop-down list, browse

through the color selections, and select the color for your font before you start typing. If you're publishing this document on a color printer, on the Web, or on an intranet, you can be as artsy as you like

in selecting your color combinations. But if you're going to print the

document on a monochrome printer, you should be more concerned with the degree of contrast between the colors you choose.

4. While you have the Font dialog box open, go ahead and choose the font style and size you want.

5. Click OK and start typing.

You can use the same trick, using a color fill with a light font, when

you add text to any of Word's drawing objects.

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