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.
- Open Word and start with
a new blank document.
- Change the page orientation
to landscape (File > Page
Setup > Landscape).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- The cursor will automatically
position itself with the text box. Type in
the word Monitor.
- 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 double-headed arrow appears (
)
and clicking and dragging to the required
size.
- 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.
- 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.
- Save the document as computer to your E-Guides USB memory stick.
To create an answer sheet and link to main document
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 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:
For an animated drag and drop activity see:
