Grid paper in Word

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Any suggestions on how to take a Word template that is divided into 1″ squares (a graph) and accurately sub-divide each square into 12 equal sub-divisions? I’ve used the horizontal and vertical rulers to make the 1″ grid but I need a very accurate method to further divide each square into 12 sub-divisions. I’ve tried various on-line or screen rulers but I can’t find any that I can dived into 12 equal parts to the inch. For those who are curious this is being used to sketch out various rooms to determine appliance placement, square footage and wall placement, and wall and floor tile layout. I need to be accurate to the nearest inch. I’ve tried various home/room layout programs but they don’t seem to meet my needs. I don’t want anything complicated like a CAD program and I don’t want or need to spend money on this. I’m only going to use this on an occasional basis. Any help would be appreciated.

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I’ve done this kind of thing in Powerpoint. I felt it was easier with the graphics.

I’d draw a shape scaled to your smallest unit, and then duplicate it and group it together.

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I’ve done this kind of thing in Powerpoint. I felt it was easier with the graphics.

I’d draw a shape scaled to your smallest unit, and then duplicate it and group it together.

Catherine,

Thanks for the quick reply. Good idea, but I’m not well versed in Powerpoint, plus I’m always using Word for all my templates of this nature. Also is much more portable. However…

As a side note, as I was waiting for a reply such as yours I started experimenting and came up with a method that isn’t very elegant but gets the job done.
Perhaps you or others might be interested in how I did it.

I enlarged the image with the zoom feature to it’s biggest to get one square in full screen. I then inserted a text box in sufficient size and proceeded to divide that into 12 section using the standard ruler in Word. I then rotated that image so that the top edge spanned the diagonal of the large square. I then drew lines vertically to intersect each section from top to bottom of the square. I deleted the text box. I then grouped and copied then pasted the vertical lines that now created 12 equal columns in the square and rotated them 90 degrees to achieve a grid within the large square. I again grouped these lines with the previous vertical lines and proceeded to copy and paste into each large square on the rest of the sheet.

Catherine, again thanks for the reply. Sometimes a person needs to step back from a problem and come back later to see a solution. Again not elegant but it works.

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I know you said you didn’t want to use a fancy AutoCad tool, but there is a “fairly” simple on-line AutoCad tool for anyone who might be interested. I’ve used it for just this sort of thing you’ve asked about here.

http://draw.labs.autodesk.com/ADDraw/draw.html

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I know you said you didn’t want to use a fancy AutoCad tool, but there is a “fairly” simple on-line AutoCad tool for anyone who might be interested. I’ve used it for just this sort of thing you’ve asked about here.

http://draw.labs.autodesk.com/ADDraw/draw.html

Richelle,

Looks interesting. I’ll take a closer look at it later and may use for future work. But I don’t want to learn another program and figure how to format it at this time. Word 2007 has me currently frustrated with it’s new fangled Ribbon!

Thanks

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If you don’t like the ribbon, download the Ubit menu and install it: It enables you to use word, xcel and powerpoint with 2003 look-alike menus: Great for those who are more comfortable with the 2003 Office “look”.
Get it at: http://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages

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If you don’t like the ribbon, download the Ubit menu and install it: It enables you to use word, xcel and powerpoint with 2003 look-alike menus: Great for those who are more comfortable with the 2003 Office “look”.
Get it at: http://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages

Peter,
Yes, I do in fact have this installed. But I find that it tends to cause more confusion than without it. I’m trying to learn the “ribbon method”, it’s not easy!

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Any suggestions on how to take a Word template that is divided into 1″ squares (a graph) and accurately sub-divide each square into 12 equal sub-divisions? I’ve used the horizontal and vertical rulers to make the 1″ grid but I need a very accurate method to further divide each square into 12 sub-divisions. I’ve tried various on-line or screen rulers but I can’t find any that I can dived into 12 equal parts to the inch. For those who are curious this is being used to sketch out various rooms to determine appliance placement, square footage and wall placement, and wall and floor tile layout. I need to be accurate to the nearest inch. I’ve tried various home/room layout programs but they don’t seem to meet my needs. I don’t want anything complicated like a CAD program and I don’t want or need to spend money on this. I’m only going to use this on an occasional basis. Any help would be appreciated.

The real problem with your request is that one twelfth of an inch is an inexact measurement. By that I mean that a tenth of an inch is simple as it is 0.1″, but a twelfth is 0.0833333 recurring, so becomes almost impossible to enter accurately in Office where you cannot enter into dialogs figures to that accuracy. You may get closer if you convert one twelfth to picas or points, but I don’t believe you’ll get the exact result you seem to want.

If I want to do this using tenths, then I’d create a table: you’d need to set exact row and colum height to 0.1″, set the table margins to zero and the border width to a quarter point, set the font size to 1 point, set the paragraph formatting to single line spacing and zero before/after spacing. Because Word tables are limited to 32 columns, you’d need to set the page up to two columns so that the table can fill the page. You will also need to set every tenth column and tenth row to have a darker line than the cell tenth grids. Quite some work but doable remembering that once you have created one 1″ row across the half page, you can select it and use Copy/Paste and F4 to repeat it until the page is full.

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The real problem with your request is that one twelfth of an inch is an inexact measurement. By that I mean that a tenth of an inch is simple as it is 0.1″, but a twelfth is 0.0833333 recurring, so becomes almost impossible to enter accurately in Office where you cannot enter into dialogs figures to that accuracy. You may get closer if you convert one twelfth to picas or points, but I don’t believe you’ll get the exact result you seem to want.

If I want to do this using tenths, then I’d create a table: you’d need to set exact row and colum height to 0.1″, set the table margins to zero and the border width to a quarter point, set the font size to 1 point, set the paragraph formatting to single line spacing and zero before/after spacing. Because Word tables are limited to 32 columns, you’d need to set the page up to two columns so that the table can fill the page. You will also need to set every tenth column and tenth row to have a darker line than the cell tenth grids. Quite some work but doable remembering that once you have created one 1″ row across the half page, you can select it and use Copy/Paste and F4 to repeat it until the page is full.

Hi Terry,

Another good reason why we should go metric!

Using the diagonal segmented line method that I thought of after I made the post seems to be working well and is accurate to the level I need. Not having tried the other methods I can’t say mine is better, but I have advantages that may not be available with the others. By grouping all the lines I can easily change color and weight and completely remove all lines after I make my layout. I can also move the graph lines as a whole to adjust for paper size. Or by un-grouping I can easily change one section to a different scale as if using a zoom effect.

Strange, but many times after I ask for help in solving a problem I seem to stumble upon the solution myself. But I always learn something from others anyway.

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I would suggest that you use what is available online rather than Word. Take a look at this link Grip paper 12 lines per inch
That same website has all sorts of grid paper and other printable papers.

Ron

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I would suggest that you use what is available online rather than Word. Take a look at this link Grip paper 12 lines per inch
That same website has all sorts of grid paper and other printable papers.

Ron

Ron,
Thanks. Nice site. I’ll use it. However, unless I transform it into a Word file I can’t use it on screen or modify it in anyway. The more I play with my Word template I made the more I like it.

This is the first time I’ve visited this forum (I usually hang out in the Win 7 section). I like the fast help and many suggestion you all offered.

As a side note, if anybody might be interested I’ll be happy to share my template with anyone who asks.

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If you feel a like trying a little bit of VBA, try the following:

Press Alt-F11. This will open the Visual Basic editor environment.
Go to the Immediate window. If it is not there, Select View > Immediate Window from the menu.
Paste or enter the following in:

for n=0 to 8:activedocument.Shapes.AddLine(72,72+72*n,504,72+72*n).Line.Weight=2:next
for n=0 to 6:activedocument.Shapes.AddLine(72+72*n,72,72+72*n,648).Line.Weight=2:next
for n=0 to 8*12:activedocument.Shapes.AddLine(72,72+6*n,504,72+6*n).Line.Weight=1:next
for n=0 to 6*12:activedocument.Shapes.AddLine(72+6*n,72,72+6*n,648).Line.Weight=1:next

This will create a 8 inch by 6 inch grid on the active document with heavy lines every inch and lighter lines each twelfth of an inch. You can play with the number in the above to change the size, spacing, and line weights. You may have to press enter at the end of each line. The numbers are all based on 72 points per inch, so 12 works nicely, as does 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 18, 24, or 36 divisions per inch.

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norm,

pi-eater’s post reminded me that you have the option to set Word’s ruler to points as a measurement unit. In Word 2003, you get there via Tools > Options > General. (I don’t have access to 2007 at the moment, but the setting should be there somewhere under Word Options). As pi-eater points out, there are 72 points to an inch, so once you have the ruler set to points, it’s quite easy to use the ruler to subdivide by units of 1/12 (since 6 x 12 = 72).

One footnote to anyone who wants to try pi-eater’s cool code: to use it in the Immediate window, you’ll need to paste it in, and then after putting your cursor at the start of the first line, hit Enter four times, to execute each line of code.

Gary

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Gary and Pi-eater,

This looks very intriguing. I’m definitely going to try this. This is one of those tricks that I’m going print out and keep on file.

Thanks,

Norm

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Gary and Pi-eater,

This looks very intriguing. I’m definitely going to try this. This is one of those tricks that I’m going print out and keep on file.

Thanks,

Norm

Maybe because I’m using Word 2007, but I did not get the results you predicted. What I’m I doing wrong?

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Maybe because I’m using Word 2007, but I did not get the results you predicted. What I’m I doing wrong?

Ok guys I got it now. I don’t know what I did wrong before, but this is very nice.

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