Word Art: MS Office verdict

The question I can ask myself before we start this discussion is: "What is the current status of Word Art in Microsoft Office and its users?" 

Well, I think we will find this answer together.

Is Word Art dead? MS Office verdict

Let us understand what is this Word Art, because this is something that's not popular in MS users as it is design related than academic or corporate related. Why? Let's see.

What is Word Art?

First you understand two words; "word" and "art" – very simple, I think that we are done here. But let us make its meaning very clear to very understandable.

Word Art is a tool in Microsoft Office that crafts words and change their cascade, including size, depth and skin.

If you will familiar with MS applications will realize that Word Arts are completely different from other writing styles in Microsoft Office, they are special fonts. They look something like this:

Word Art is different from other fonts in Microsoft Word

You see clearly that the words in the above photo have some elegance and are very stylish. You can see that they have shiny colors, shadows and depths with 3D-like look. 

Let's take a look on how you can access them in 3 main Microsoft Office products (Word, PowerPoint and Excel).

Word Art in Microsoft

To insert Word Art in MS Word is a very simple process:

1. Open Microsoft Word application.
2. In ribbon, choose Insert tab.
3. After choosing the tab, on the right in text ribbon, find Word Art (it has an A icon)
4. Choose among different styles in Word Art.

Word Art in Microsoft Word

 

Word Art in PowerPoint

1. Open Microsoft PowerPoint application.
2. In ribbon, choose Insert tab.
3. Go in Text ribbon and choose Word Art icon
4. Choose among different styles in Word Art.

Word Art in Microsoft PowerPoint

Word Art in Excel

1. Open Microsoft PowerPoint application.
2. In ribbon, choose Insert tab.
3. Go in Text ribbon
4. In drop-down choose Word Art
5. Choose among different styles in Word Art.

Word Art in Microsoft Excel

Is Office's Word Art dead?

Is it true that Word Art doesn't anymore attract people to use it? If yes, what's wrong with it?

As you can see in the instructions above (about using it), this tool is very diversified I mean it's common in almost every editing product of Office.

Few years back

The world is going digital than anyone can ever thing, the streams of new technological tools are coming to life each and everyday. What is terrific, is that this technology is conquering every sector you can imagine.

This is not like decades ago, where technology was limited moreover was not worldwide. Now the world is flooded with innovators.

Before we start secondary school (in 2009), we knew that there exist computers but never have I touched on it even a single day. Imagine how uncivilized we were and I bet that in my village only few legends have managed to do that.

When I got to school, thank God we had computer science lesson. That's when I recorded my first touch on computer, where we learned Microsoft Office 2007.

In those years, Word Art was an ambition to everyone who was feeling him/herself as a designer. You can't deny that this was one of the best features all around bunch of software.

Word Art is extinguishing

Comparing to some years ago, the tool has lost clients and lovers who might really became uninterested in using it or were attracted by outer tools that work better than it, and this is likely the cause because in this digital world everything is competition.

What is causing Word Art extinction

Even though Microsoft has tried to put Word Art on standards to increase its value but here are hindrances that are putting it back.

1. Primitive: Comparing to present technology, Word Art looks cheap and antique to designers. It doesn't have a modern look.
2. Powerful tools: Out there there are software and online tools that are doing splendid work when it comes to design so that you can't compare them with decent typography in Microsoft Office. There are advanced tools like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and many others that were created for that and they have knocked it down.

The two factors above are highly influential to this.

Advantages of Word Art

Even though it is not anymore popular like it was before (I can't lie about that) but I still like the way it manages to be of some use in my eyes. I has advantages that hold me from leaving it.

Yes, Word Art is primitive and I accept that but this sometimes can help. Think, about deadlines we all know how stressful they are that's where making it faster is a must.

The tool is greatly a design way that is express, you don't have to wait for rendering or what and some elegance can be applied. Look at this picture, does it look good?

Kord Blog Word Art

This image looks good, isn't it? I still prefer Word Art because it does good things in a simple way, that is express without crashing the computer's RAM to give you an eye-catching text.

The tool can be used for headings, even though there are appropriate headings regarding writings and other documents (If you want to know them click here) but it can also do that for you depending on the purpose.

Other topics about Microsoft Office:

• Know different options of pasting in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PPT, …) 
• Find Tool - Microsoft Office's neglected but powerful tool
• Use of Headings and styles in Microsoft Word

I have seen many people who use it (Word Art) for communique headers, and it really works well.

Then, here is my conclusion.

Conclusion

With the first question I started asking myself, the answer is that Word Art it is no more as strong as it used to be but it is still useful on one side. So isn't dead yet!

Because there are many factors I refer to, starting by myself there are works regarding typography that I do that can't require me to open those heavy programs and through PowerPoint or Word it does a great job for me.

Yes, it is down by now but I still like it's simplicity and elegance even though it isn't catching up well with the modern design technology.

So, How many times do you use Word Art in Microsoft Office throughout the year?