Circle text in Word for Mac

Here are the steps to circle some text in your Word for Mac document. You didn’t mention what version of Word you’re using, so I’m using the latest greatest version: Word for Mac 2011.

You can use the Scribble tool from Word’s lines and connectors to draw a circle or freeform shapes. After you make your scribble, you’ll probably want to use the formatting tools to change the color and modify the behavior of your circle. The formatting ribbon appears when you select your scribble. Here’s the step by step:

1. Using the ribbon go Home | Insert->Shape->Lines and Connectors->Scribble.
The Insert group is way down on the right end of the ribbon. There are several different line choices, but Scribble is the one that’s the easiest for drawing a freehand circle.


2. Use your mouse to draw a circle around the text.
It takes a steady mouse hand to draw a smooth circle, but you can get the job done. Initially, Word may try to wrap text around your circle, rather than let you draw directly over the text, but that can be fixed in the next formatting step.

3. If the text is trying to wrap around your circle, right-click (control-click) your circle and then on the shortcut menu choose Wrap Text->None.
With wrap set to none, you can position your circle over the text in your document.


4. Select the scribble and use the Format tab on the ribbon to change the color of your circle.
The Shape Styles group on the right side of the ribbon give you several options to change the look of your scribble. For example at the right end of the ribbon there's a tool that let's change the Wrap Text options.