2009/10/23 James Elliott <[email protected]> > A question on Text Boxes ... > > I note, as I am sure all of you have, that if you draw a text box by > clicking on the icon and dragging the mouse around you page, once the text > exists in your document or slide, it will disappear, never to be recovered, > if you go away from it without first typing something into it ... i.e it > seems that empty text boxes cannot exist in OOo? > > Usually it is not a problem: create the box; and type or insert the > contents into it before going off to do something else. However, it is > driving me nuts in Draw. > > I like using Draw to format my newsletters because I can create columns > easily using text boxes, and Draw suits me extremely well in other ways, > like inserting, resizing, and cropping photos, for example - brilliant! - > who needs Photoshop or Gimp - LOL. > > I have a 2-Column page Template, among others ... i.e. two columns (or Text > boxes) on a blank page. to keep the Text Boxes from disappearing, before > saving the page as a Template, I originally typed in some placeholder text. > this works well until, enthused with my writing, I get to the bottom of > column-1, half way through typing a sentence, move up to the top of the next > column, delete the placeholder text, and go to type the rest of the > sentence, and ... oops! ... the whole text box has disappeared, gone, along > with all my carefully selected margins ... poof! - gone! > > Do any of you clever people with infinitely more knowledge than I, have any > suggestions? > > Many thanks, James. > > > When you create the text box, put a line (border) around it:
1. create the text box by dragging to approximately the right size and position 2. click on the hatched border of the box to bring up its green "handles" 3. right click to bring up the context menu 4. select Line 5. on the Line tab select a Line Style *other than* "invisible" 6. click OK Note that this procedure works in Draw. In Writer you have to enter at least a single space between steps 1 and 2, otherwise the box disappears when you try to click its hatched border. Bug???? I think so. You can now safely leave the (empty) box, move it, resize it and so on. It will remain visible. When, eventually, you are happy with the size, position and contents of your text box you may change the Line Style back to "invisible". If you want to save the document, make sure the text box is visible. Only make it invisible just prior to printing. Or even make the line a feature of your news letter by playing with its Style, Colour, Width (thickness) and Transparency. If the line is thick enough you can also set a Corner Style so that the corners of your text box are, say, rounded instead of sharp. Also play with the Line Styles I use Frames in Writer documents for this sort of thing because you can make the text flow *automatically* from one frame to another which is not necessarily adjacent. You do this by defining "Next Frame" and "Previous Frame" as appropriate (each frame is named and referred to by its name). So, for instance, I have a template which defines a landscape page with 2 rows of 4 portrait frames, all the same size. The text flow goes row 1, column 1 > R2, C1 > R1, C2 > R2, C2 etc. but it could just as easily have been different. As one frame gets full the text automatically "jumps" to the next frame; if you delete text from one frame, subsequent text will flow backwards so that the very last frame gets emptier. Again, the frames can have "interesting" borders. -- Harold Fuchs London, England Please reply *only* to [email protected]
