Irregular Text Shapes

[Jack Hagerty]

I have a problem doing something that seems like it should be simple, but
it's got me stumped.

I'm formatting a book in Publisher 2007. I've used PageMaker in the past,
but my version is now too old (PM65) and since Publisher came with my Office
suite I thought I'd give it a try rather than spending $$$ for the Adobe
upgrade. I was pleasantly surprised how easy Publisher was to learn.

I'm currently laying out the cover and the liner notes on the back go into
an irregularly shaped area in the artwork. I've just spent over two hours
trying to figure a way to modify a text box (or an auto-shape) so the text
will fit into the planned space for it. It's sort of like editing the wrap
points in reverse. Instead of fitting text around an image, it's fitting text
inside an image with the picture in the background and the text on top.

In PageMaker there's a wrap points option for their "window shade boxes"
that will make the box any shape. I can't figure out how to do it in
Publisher.

Thanks in advance,
--
- Jack

Jack Hagerty
ARA Press
www.arapress.com

 

[Mary Sauer]

Publisher doesn't have a mechanism for irregular text shapes. You can type in an
auto shape but the text will not follow the shape.
I have created shapes with no fill, no line to force the text to wrap. For
example if you create a crescent from the auto shape menu, you can wrap the text
so it curves, copy the crescent, flip, you can force the text into a round
shape.
I have examples here:
http://msauer.mvps.org/more_graphics.htm
Scroll down.

PageMaker, InDesign are far more powerful applications. I have used Corel for
text inside a shape and brought the result into Publisher as an image.

 

[Jack Hagerty]

Thank you, Mary.

I had sort of come to that conclusion, but needed to make sure I wasn't
overlooking something trivial.

Your solution is brilliant! It's a bit awkward, but I only have to do it
once. Fortunately, this is a reference book and the cover has about the only
"creatively" shaped text.
--
- Jack

Jack Hagerty
ARA Press
www.arapress.com

 

[Mary Sauer]

I'm happy you worked it out. Publisher has some tools that folks overlook.
Thanks for posting back, I appreciate it.