November’s Tech Moment is a bit different in several ways. First, the featured program is Microsoft Word, which is not exactly an unknown entity. Second, while Word probably wouldn’t be on anyone’s Top 10 list of drawing tools, it can come in very handy, particularly since it’s free if you have a recent version of Word. Third, because I use a very old version of Word – Word 2003 (yes, really!), I can’t demonstrate any of its features. I can only point readers to links that will explain how to use Word’s drawing tools.

I chose Word as this month’s tech moment because a genea-friend was at my house and lamented the fact that a drawing program that she had been using to create “quick and dirty” trees to figure out DNA matches was no longer free. She was looking for a simple program that would allow her to draw boxes for names and lines to connect that would indicate relationships.

My husband suggested that she check out Word drawing tools, she did, and discovered it would do exactly what she needed it to do.

Since I don’t have access to recent Word versions, here are some links to browse:

• Word: Using the Draw Tab
• How to Draw in Microsoft Word
• How to Enable Pen/Draw Tool – How to Draw in Microsoft Word
• How to Enable Drawing Tools in Microsoft 2021 for Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• How to Draw in Microsoft Word
• How to Draw in Microsoft Word 2013
• How to Draw in Microsoft Word (Freehand and Shapes Tool)

There are enough options for learning here for anyone to get started. Notice that one of the tutorials is for Word 2013!

If you need access to drawing tools for simple tasks, Word drawing tools might be just what you need.