Here is the honest version up front: Microsoft Word can give you the black background, the yellow text, and the slanted perspective, but it cannot animate the scroll. Word has no real animation engine. So if you want the text to actually crawl up the screen as a video, Word alone will not get you there, and I will show you the workaround and the faster route at the end.
If a static, slanted, movie-style page is all you need (for a printout, a card, a presentation slide), Word does that fine. Let me show you.
What you will end up with
A black page, yellow Star Wars style text, tilted so the top recedes into the distance. It looks the part as a still image. For motion, you record it scrolling or you use a tool built for it.
Step 1: Set the stage
Open Word and create a new document. Go to the "Design" tab, click "Page Color," and choose black. That is your space backdrop.
Step 2: Choose the font
The real crawl uses a Franklin Gothic style face. In Word, News Gothic or Arial in bold both do the job. Set the size to roughly 20 to 24 points. Highlight your text, go to the "Home" tab, and make the change. Set the colour to that Star Wars yellow, #FEDA4A.
Step 3: Add the angle
Word will not tilt body text directly, so use a text box.
- Go to "Insert," then "Text Box," and draw one.
- Type your crawl text inside it.
- Select the text box, choose "Format Shape," open "3-D Rotation," and adjust the Y Rotation until the text leans into the distance.
Nudge it until the top of the block looks further away than the bottom. That lean is the whole effect.
Step 4: Fake the movement
Word cannot animate, so you have two options.
The low effort one: during a presentation, slowly scroll the document with the arrow keys or the scroll wheel. It is rough, but it works in a pinch.
The better one: use a screen recorder to capture the page while you scroll, then play the recording back with music underneath. You get a video, but the smoothness depends entirely on how steady your scroll is, and mine never is.
The limitation, and the easy fix
This is where Word stops. There is no keyframing, no real scroll animation, no clean video export. You are forced into a screen-recording workaround that rarely looks smooth.
So if your goal is an actual crawl video, skip the workaround. The Stargazer Star Wars Crawl Creator does the animation for you: type the text, pick the music, export a clean video with the correct font and motion. It is the difference between faking a scroll and having one.
Create your own Star Wars crawl: Generate Now
Want more control instead of less hassle?
If you actually enjoy the technical side, the other guides go deeper:
- Crawl in PowerPoint adds a real Fly In animation.
- Crawl in Photoshop gives you a proper starfield and perspective.
- Crawl in After Effects is the full cinematic version.
That is it. Word is the right tool for a quick static crawl, and the wrong tool the moment you need it to move. Pick accordingly and you will save yourself a frustrating afternoon.