Draw a Snowflake in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint

Start from a blank document in Microsoft Word. (If you decide to use PowerPoint, see the notes below for some ideas.)

To start a six-pointed star, click the Line tool on the Drawing toolbar. A drawing canvas (a drawing area) that says, "Create your drawing here" appears. (If the Drawing toolbar isn't visible, select View, then Toolbars, then Drawing.) Hold down the SHIFT key, and then click and drag the mouse to create a straight, vertical line inside the drawing area.

Duplicate this line by clicking once on the vertical line to select it, and then select Copy from the Edit menu.

Paste the line by selecting Paste from the Edit menu.

Next, rotate the line 60 degrees to the left. First, click Draw on the Drawing toolbar, and then click Rotate or Flip, and then Free Rotate. Round, green markers appear on the ends of the line. Holding down the SHIFT key allows you to drag the line 15 degrees at a time. While holding down the SHIFT key, drag the top green marker four "notches" to the left. (You will see that the line jumps each time you drag the line.)

Drag the line into place so it crosses over the vertical line through its middle.

Select the diagonal line, and then copy and paste this line to create the final line of the six-pointed star. Drag the duplicate off to the side a bit, and then select Rotate and Flip, and then Rotate Right from the Draw menu on the Drawing toolbar. Drag this third line into place so it also crosses through the middle of the other two lines. Your six-pointed star should look like the following:

Make your snowflake unique by adding other lines or shapes to the main parts of the star. To draw one side of the snowflake, try the Scribble tool. (On the Drawing toolbar, click AutoShapes, then Lines, and then the Scribble button.)
To create the opposite, symmetrical side, select the fill-in lines you just drew, copy them, and then paste to create a new set. Select the new set, and then click Rotate and Flip, and then Flip Horizontal from the Draw menu.

To get some ideas, look at the sample snowflakes shown below. (The samples are from the Snowflake Bentley Web site.) You can see more snowflakes at Clip Art and Media on Microsoft® Office Online at http://office.microsoft.com/clipart (type "snowflake" in the search box) or at the Snowflake Bentley Web site at http://www.snowflakebentley.com/snowflakes.htm.

After you have created your snowflake, click the Fit button on the Drawing Canvas toolbar so that the canvas will only take up the amount of space that your snowflake needs. You might want to resize your snowflake to make it larger or smaller. First click on the Scale Drawing button on the Drawing Canvas toolbar, and then drag from one of the hollow circles at the corners.

To move your snowflake elsewhere on the page, drag from an outside edge (a shaded border) of the Drawing Canvas.

To wrap words around your snowflake or even place the snowflake behind text, choose the type of text wrapping you want by clicking the Text Wrapping button on the Drawing Canvas toolbar.

Now all you have to do is type a poem or story about snow, snowflakes, or winter. Your original snowflake will really spice up your work.