iWork® '09 For Dummies®

Chapter 8. Using Text Boxes

In This Chapter

• Placing text boxes relative to a page

• Placing text boxes relative to text

• Flowing text between text boxes

• Adding objects to text boxes

Word processing documents let text flow from page to page, with new pages added automatically as they are needed. In page layout documents, the only items that appear on pages are objects. The objects can contain text, but the size and shape of the object limits the amount of text that can be shown.

Text boxes are objects that you place on a page and that can contain text. They can appear in both page layout and word processing documents. A text box can be used to highlight a small section of text; it can be used also to display part of a lengthy run of text that may continue in another text box on the same or another page. Although the main purpose of text boxes is to contain text and allow it to flow from one text box to another, they can also contain objects such as graphics, shapes, and charts. Their handling of text flow distinguishes them from other objects in iWork.

Think of a newspaper's front page, which typically displays a number of articles. Most of the articles are incomplete, and they end with a note such as "Continued on Page A14." That's an example of text boxes in action: The first text box is on the front page, and the second is on page A14. When the newspaper is laid out, the text boxes are linked. If an editor adds or deletes a paragraph in the text box on the front page, the text reflows between ...