Hands on: How to manipulate Word's text boxes

Previously, we looked at some of the things you can do with Word’s newspaper-style columns and text boxes. However, there’s another trick you can perform by linking text boxes. This allows you to have more than one text flow. So, for example, you could start a story on page one and continue it on a later page, independently of the main text.

To link text boxes, select the first one, right-click and click on ‘Create Text Box Link’. You’ll see the cursor change to a jug. When you move over a second text box, the jug will tip ­ click on it and the second box will be linked. Any ‘overflow’ of text from the first box, whether caused by editing or resizing, will appear in the latter, and you can repeat this process to link further boxes.

If you’re using this to continue a story on a different page, you will notice that there’s a snag. You don’t have any indication of where the story goes to or comes from ­ for example, ‘Continued on page 2’ or ‘Continued from page 1’.

You could, of course, insert these manually at the end or beginning of the boxes, but then they would be part of the text flow, so wouldn’t stay put.

Word does have a caption feature for pictures and objects, but as this can be something of a struggle (we’ll return to it another time), here’s an easier way ­ create more text boxes.

Create another text box below the first, then type in ‘Continued on page 2’. Format the text to distinguish it from that in the box above ­ either smaller or italic type, a different colour or whatever you see fit. Fiddle about with the new box size, set the outline and fill to none, and manoeuvre it into position.

When you’re happy with the appearance, select both the main box and the ‘Continued…’ box. This can be rather tricky ­ I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to click on the Select button on the Drawing toolbar, then drag out a rectangle round both boxes.

Having selected them, go to the Draw menu on the Drawing toolbar, then Group. Repeat the process above the second main text box with ‘Continued from…’ You’ll then find that although the main boxes remain linked, the ‘Continued…’ ones are not, but they remain attached to the main boxes, so you can move them around the page as a single entity.

One limitation of text boxes is that you can only have one column of text in them. If you want a two-column boxout as seen on some pages of PCW, then why not use two identical linked text boxes side by side?

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