Ms Office Tune Up

When you read a newspaper, magazine, or newslet­ter, you often come across an article that starts on one page and then continues on a different page later in the publication. In some cases, you may have to make several “jumps” from one page to another to complete the article. This is a useful technique because it enables the publisher to place several articles on the front page of the publication, which helps create interest. It also helps on the inner pages of the publication because it gives the publisher more flexibility to lay out the articles (whether they’re continuations from the front page or new articles).

If you’re creating a multi-page publication in Word, how can you break up articles so that they appear on different pages? The most obvious way is to insert the first part of each arti­cle on the front page and then copy the rest to an inner page. That might work if all your text is complete and no longer requires editing. However, you may still have trouble fitting the text properly on the pages, so it may require quite a bit of cutting and pasting to get a suitable layout. And, certainly, this type of setup is a nightmare waiting to happen if your text or formatting still needs to be revised.

The problem with cutting and pasting to get this effect is that the different parts of any one article aren’t connected in any way, so there’s no flow. In Word, you usually create flowing text by converting that text into two or more columns: The text flows from one column to the next and from the last column on one page to the first column on the next. Even better, each time you add, format, move, or delete text in one column, Word automatically adjusts the position of the text in the other columns to compensate. Unfortunately, you must keep columns together; you can’t start an article in columns on one page and then continue it in columns on a different page.

The solution that gives you both flowing text and the ability to jump from one part of the publication to another is the concept of linked text boxes. This refers to two or more text boxes configured so that the text in one box flows into the next box, even if that box is located elsewhere in the document.

Assuming you’ve created two text boxes (choose Insert, Text Box), you create a link between them by clicking inside the first text box, choosing Format, Create Link (the mouse pointer changes to a pitcher), and then clicking inside the second text box.

CAUTION

If you have existing text that you want to include in the text boxes, resist the temptation to cut and paste the text into the boxes for now. For linking to work, the text boxes (particularly the second one) should be empty.

Now add all your text to the first text box. When the text reaches the end of the first text box, it flows into the second text box.

What if you want to use more than two text boxes? That’s not a problem because Word enables you to link up to 32 text boxes. Begin by creating all the text boxes. Then link one text box to the next using the Create Link command. (That is, link the first to the second, then link the second to the third, and so on.) When that’s done, add all your text to the first text box.

Whether you use 2 or 32 linked text boxes, you need to know how to navigate from one to the other. Word gives you the following techniques:

• To move to the next text box-Move the cursor to the end of the current text box and then press the right arrow key. Alternatively, right-click any border of the current text box and then click Next Text Box.
• To move to the previous text box-Move the cursor to the beginning of the current text box and then press the left arrow key. Alternatively, right-click any border of the current text box and then click Previous Text Box.

NOTE

Unfortunately,Word doesn’t give you any way to reorder linked text boxes. If you need to change the order of the links, you must break them and then recreate them in the new order.

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