Fancy Up Your Text with Reflections and Tweak the Effects

SUMMARY: Have certain text in a Word 2010 document appear to reflect on a shiny surface.


One way to have text stand out in a Microsoft Word 2010 document is to make it appear to be placed on top of a glassy surface.

The “Text Reflection” effect is easy to use and you can select from one of nine default reflections. Or, spend all day configuring the reflection size, distance from the actual text, transparency, and blur.

1. Select the text that you would like reflected.

2. Select the “Home” tab in the Ribbon.

3. In the “Font” group, click the “Text Effects” button (it looks like a glowing letter A).

Accessing Text Effects in Word 2010

4. Select “Reflection” from the pop-up menu.

5. From here a secondary pop-up menu appears where you can select from nine default reflection types.

Selecting a text reflection type in Word 2010

If you want more control over the reflection (or love fiddling with dialog boxes), click the “Reflection Options” menu item in the pop-up. From here, tweakers can play with:

* Reflection transparency (0% opaque, 100% fully transparent)

* Reflection size (as a percentage of the original text, from 0% to 100%)

* Reflection distance (how far the reflection should appear from the original text)

* Blur (the greater the number, the more “out-of-focus” the reflection will appear)

Click “OK” on the dialog box to close it.