Troubleshoot connecting text boxes

Text is missing

• If you delete a text box from the beginning or middle of a story, any text that was in the deleted box is added to the box that followed it, and all other text is pushed down into other boxes in the chain.
• If you delete the text box at the end of a chain of boxes, any text that was in the deleted box goes into the overflow area of the previous box.
• If you delete all the boxes in a chain of connected boxes, you delete all the text as well.

The text I thought I deleted shows up on another page

The page you deleted probably contained a text box that was part of a story. When you deleted that page, the text was moved to a connected box on another page. Do one of the following:

• Delete the text before you delete the page it's on.
• If you've already deleted that page, delete the text from the page it now appears on.

I can't see all the text in the text box

If the box isn't connected to any other boxes and text is missing from the box, the text has moved into the overflow area.

A text box with text in the overflow area will have an overflow indicator on the lower right-hand corner of the box. You cannot see text stored in the overflow area.

If the box is connected to other boxes, the text will be displayed in the next connected box in the story. A text box connected to another box will have a Go to Previous Box button on the top left corner of the box or Go to Next Box button on the bottom right corner of the box.

I adjusted the margins and now text is missing

The size of the text box doesn't change when you adjust its margins. Therefore, if you increase the size of the margins, the text may not fit in the smaller space. Some of the text may move into a connected text box or the overflow area of the current box. Try the following:

• Reduce the size of the text.
• Increase the size of the text box.

There is more text than appears in the text box

If there is more text than the text box can hold, Publisher stores the extra text in the overflow area, where you can't see it. If there is text in the overflow area a Text In Overflow indicator appears at the lower-right corner of the text box .

Here are some ways to get your text out of the overflow area and back into your publication.

• Turn on automatic copyfitting

  How?

  1. Click the text box.
  2. On the Format menu, point to AutoFit Text.
  3. Do one of the following:
     • To shrink or expand text to fit in the text box when you resize the box, click Best Fit.
     • To reduce the point size of text until there is no text in the overflow area, click Shrink Text On Overflow.

  After this, whenever you resize the text box, the font size remains the same.

• Make the text box larger
• Make the margins in the text box smaller
• Connect the filled text box to another box so any extra text is displayed in the other box

  How?

  When you connect text boxes, text that won't fit into the first text box flows into the next text box. A chain of connected text boxes, also known as a story, can span multiple pages.

  Use connected boxes to:

  • Continue a story in another text box
  • Create columns of different widths
  • Move text from the overflow area into another box
  1. If needed, create a new text box.

     How?

     1. On the Objects toolbar, click Text Box or Vertical Text Box .
     2. In your publication, point to where you want one corner of the text to appear, and then drag diagonally until you have the box size you want.
  2. Click in the text box you want as the first text box in the story.
  3. On the Connect Boxes toolbar, click Create Text Box Link .

     The mouse pointer changes to a pitcher .

  4. Click in the text box you want as the next in the story.

     This text box is now connected to the first box and any text in the overflow area now appears in the next box.

  5. To connect more text boxes to the story, repeat steps 3 and 4.
   

I can't figure out which boxes are connected

1. Click anywhere in the text box.
2. On the Edit menu, click Select All.

   All the text in a box, or all text in a story, is highlighted.

The "Continued" notice doesn't appear at all

"Continued" notices do not appear if:

• The next text box in a story doesn't contain text.
• The next connected box is on the same page.
• The current box is on the background page.
• The current box isn't connected to another box.

  Or, the text box may not be big enough to fit a "Continued" notice. In that case, you can make the box bigger.

If the "Continued" notice still doesn't appear, you can:

• Reword the notice.

  How?

  • In the text box, make any changes you want to the Continued notice.
  • To insert a missing page number, click Page Numbers on the Insert menu.

    Repeat for every notice you want to change.

   
• Reduce its font size.

I tried to select the whole story, but selected everything on the page instead

You probably clicked on the edge of the text box instead of clicking in the box. Click in the text box. When you see the insertion point, press CTRL+A.