Content creation: Microsoft® Word drag and drop
Microsoft® Word - Drag and drop
Why use drag and drop?
A drag and drop activity offers labels or
pictures to be dragged into a correct place
using a mouse.
The example shown shows a number of
labels on the right side of the screen. The
learner has to click onto a label, then drag into
position and drop at the appropriate place on
the picture.
No immediate feedback is given to the
learner. A link ‘Check your Answers’ at the bottom of the activity can take the learner from
the document to a completed sheet to check to see if the labels have been placed correctly.
How to create a drag and drop activity
The following instructions will help you create the simple drag and drop activity shown above,
with a link to an answer sheet.
1. Open Word and start with a new blank document.
2. Change the page orientation to landscape (File > Page Setup > Landscape).
3. Insert the title ‘Getting Started with your Computer’ and below this text insert the
instructions:
Drag the correct boxes from the right hand side to label the diagram.
4. Insert the computer image into the document (Insert > Picture > From File). Browse
your E-Guides USB memory stick: Content creation > Activity files and choose the
file dragdrop.jpg. Alternatively, find a suitable image for a labelling activity and insert
into the document.
5. Click on the image you have inserted. A solid black bounding box should appear
around it and the Picture toolbar should open. If this toolbar does not automatically
open, go to the Menu Bar and select View > Toolbars > Picture.
Figure 1: Picture toolbar
Select the Text Wrapping icon ( ), scroll down and select Behind Text. This will
allow the answer boxes to be dragged over the image without it moving around.
Note that the bounding box has now changed from being a solid box to consisting of
edge markers only.
E-Guides training programme 2007 - 2008
Content creation: Microsoft® Word drag and drop
6. To create the labels first open the Drawing toolbar if it is not already visible at the
bottom of the Word window (View > Toolbars > Drawing).
Figure 2: Drawing toolbar
7. Select the Text Box icon ( ) and draw a rectangle, or click once on the document
and a square text box will appear. A large box with Create your drawing here may
appear on the document: ignore it and create the text box wherever it is required.
8. The cursor will automatically position itself with the text box. Type in the word
Monitor.
9. Format the font, size, colour, alignment and style as required, resizing the text box if
necessary by holding the mouse over one of the white edge markers until a doubleheaded arrow appears (
) and clicking and dragging to the required size.
10. Repeat steps 7 - 9 to produce text boxes for Mouse, Hard-drive, Keyboard.
Another way to produce these text boxes would be to copy the first text box, paste it
and edit the text. This is particularly useful if you want to ensure all the text boxes
are the same size. However, before pasting the text box, ensure that the copied
text box is de-selected, otherwise the new box will be pasted within the existing box.
11. Test your work by dragging and dropping the text boxes over and around the main
image, then move the text boxes to the required starting position for the activity.
To drag a text box, move the mouse around the bounding box until the move symbol
appears ( ), click and hold the mouse button down and drag and drop.
12. Save the document as computer to your E-Guides USB memory stick.
To create an answer sheet and link to main document
1. To create an answer sheet for the activity you will need to make a copy of this activity
first. Go to File > Save As, and save the document as computer_answers. Move
the text boxes to their correct location and go to File > Save.
2. Now you want to link computer to its answers sheet. To do this, type the text Check
your answers at the bottom of the page. Highlight the text then do one of the
following: Insert >
Hyperlink or click on
the hyperlink icon on
the Standard toolbar
( ).The Hyperlink
dialog box will
appear. Select
Existing File or Web
Page under the
option Link to, then browse to computer_answers using Look in, or type in the file
name at the Address: prompt.
E-Guides training programme 2007 - 2008
Content creation: Microsoft® Word drag and drop
3. Test the activity. Open the file
saved as computer and drag and drop the labels to the correct positions. Then click
on Check your answers and check the results in the new document that opens.
Now that you have tried a simple drag and drop why not create another activity?
Why not have a look at the Activity: Computer Basics which you can find in on
SDELC (http://www.sdelc.co.uk) Module 7.0: E-learning content – sourcing and
creating > Information about using Microsoft Word > Drag and drop >
Computer basics. You could then follow the instructions to create a more advanced drag
and drop activity.
Suggestions for use
The following are examples of learning materials produced using Microsoft® Word drag and
drop fields. This type of activity can be created in the same way using photographs, or with
blank text boxes for students to fill in the answers, or with two sets of text boxes to create a
mix-and-match exercise.
Further resources:
For drag and drop activities see:

Older Parents: http://aclearn.qia.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=12454

Business Planning: http://ferl.qia.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=8693

Structure of a Heart jigsaw: http://ferl.qia.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=9785

Motivation theories: http://ferl.qia.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=8460.
For an animated drag and drop activity see:
E-Guides training programme 2007 - 2008
Content creation: Microsoft® Word drag and drop

http://aclearn.qia.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=25225.
E-Guides training programme 2007 - 2008