After pasting a Prism graph (or layout) into Microsoft Word, it seems stuck. How can I move it around the document?

The problem has nothing to do with Prism, and is a general problem of placing pictures or objects within Word. The concepts have been the same for several versions of Word, but the terminology has changed. The discussion below is correct for Word 2000 - 2007.

There are two ways to place a graphic into Word:

• In-line with the text. The graphic acts sort of like one big text character. Text goes before it and after it. You can move it within the document just like moving text. Adding more text above it will push it down the page. Taking away text above will move it up. Or you can copy and paste.
• Floating over the text. In this case, the graphic 'exists' in a layer above the text. You can grab it with the mouse and move it wherever you want.

The default in Word has changed from version to version. With Word 2003, you can change the deault within the Options dialog (edit tab). With Word 2007, this setting is in the Cut, copy & paste section of the advanced tab of Preferences.

If you can't move the graphic by grabbing with the mouse, it must be in-line. If you want to change this, follow these steps:

1. Click once to select it.
2. Click the right mouse button shortcut menu (or the Format menu) and choose Format Picture or Format Object.  
3. Go to the layout tab.
4. Choose in-line with text to make the graphic feel like a paragraph in the text. Choose any other choice for the graphic to float over the text layer. The other choices (and there are more on the Advanced subdialog) tell Word how to flow the text over, under or around the graphic.

But before following those steps, consider whether you don't want to stick with in-line graphics. I prefer to make all my graphics in-line with the text. This lets me put graphics within Word tables, lets me work in Normal view, and makes the document most compatible with other programs. I can get the page layout I want, and don't have to think about the position of graphics too much. All the GraphPad manuals were created using Word and all Prism graphs, screen shots and equations are in-line. Many are within Word tables.

If you want to move a graphic freely with the mouse, this is only possible when you make choices other than in-line with text. When you use one of these layout choices, you can't work in Normal view. If you switch to Normal view in Word, the graphics seem to disappear from the page, which can be very scary if you spent a lot of time creating and arranging the graphics. Switch to page view (View menu) to see them again. You also can't insert floating graphics within tables. Another issue is that printing documents with floating graphics can cause problems with some printer drivers.