Problem with Textboxes

G

Gary McGill

Hi,

I'm creating a document in Word 2000 (to be used in 2000 up to 2003). The
document has several pages with a 2-column layout, but for various reasons
I'm using textboxes to position the columns.

I've almost immediately hit a bizarre problem with my textboxes, which I've
reduced to the bare minimum so that I can post an example (at
www.electrum.co.uk/gary/bug.doc). The problem exhibits itself in Word 2000
and Word 2003 (haven't tried XP/2002).

Page 1 of the example document contains a single textbox, which has a
picture in it.
Page 2 contains a single textbox with some text in it.

To see the problem, make sure that Word is in Print Layout mode, then scroll
so that the textbox on the second page is visible, but the bottom of the
first page is also visible. Put the selection in the 2nd page textbox, and
try using the up/down arrow to move the selection. It doesn't work! Also,
the ruler (under the menu bar) is set up for the textbox on the first page,
despite the selection being in the textbox on the 2nd page! If you scroll
the window so that you can no longer see the bottom of the first page, then
the problem goes away...

I've discovered that if I resize the textbox on the first page to make it
bigger, then this cures the problem(!). However, I don't exactly feel
confident that I know what went wrong in the first place, or that this will
stop the problem re-occurring...

Anyone seen this, or have any idea what might be going wrong?

Gary
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Gary,

Hard to be absolutely certain (the doc opened in IE, so I didn't have access to
all the menus), but it seems the problem may be a combination of your use of
manual page breaks, plus where the graphics are anchored. As best I can tell,
the anchors are 1) "overlapping", or at least directly adjacent, locked, and
associated with the Page Break.

Try
- delete the page break
- unlock the anchors
- drag the first page text box anchor to a paragraph mark on that page
- drag the second one to a paragraphs that will be on the second page

Then restore the page break, or better, use the "Page break before" formatting
on the first paragraph of the second page.

Note: Text boxes are finicky things. You might consider using a table, instead
of text boxes, to create the columns.
I'm creating a document in Word 2000 (to be used in 2000 up to 2003). The
document has several pages with a 2-column layout, but for various reasons
I'm using textboxes to position the columns.

I've almost immediately hit a bizarre problem with my textboxes, which I've
reduced to the bare minimum so that I can post an example (at
www.electrum.co.uk/gary/bug.doc). The problem exhibits itself in Word 2000
and Word 2003 (haven't tried XP/2002).

Page 1 of the example document contains a single textbox, which has a
picture in it.
Page 2 contains a single textbox with some text in it.

To see the problem, make sure that Word is in Print Layout mode, then scroll
so that the textbox on the second page is visible, but the bottom of the
first page is also visible. Put the selection in the 2nd page textbox, and
try using the up/down arrow to move the selection. It doesn't work! Also,
the ruler (under the menu bar) is set up for the textbox on the first page,
despite the selection being in the textbox on the 2nd page! If you scroll
the window so that you can no longer see the bottom of the first page, then
the problem goes away...

I've discovered that if I resize the textbox on the first page to make it
bigger, then this cures the problem(!). However, I don't exactly feel
confident that I know what went wrong in the first place, or that this will
stop the problem re-occurring...

Anyone seen this, or have any idea what might be going wrong?
Click to expand...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
G

Gary McGill

Cindy,

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, when I tried re-creating the document
with no page breaks (using "Page Break Before" instead), I got pretty much
the same results :-(

I'm not keen to use tables to lay out the document, because some of the
content is tables - and so I'd have tables-within-tables, which I've always
found confusing.

Gary
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Gary,
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, when I tried re-creating the document
with no page breaks (using "Page Break Before" instead), I got pretty much
the same results :-(
Click to expand...
But did you pay attention to the ANCHORs?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
G

Gary McGill

I did check that the anchor for each text box is on the same page as the
textbox itself, if that's what you mean? As in, when I click on the text
box, the anchor graphic is displayed at the top-left of the current page.
I'm not sure whether there's any way of getting more info about the anchor?
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Gary,
I did check that the anchor for each text box is on the same page as the
textbox itself, if that's what you mean? As in, when I click on the text
box, the anchor graphic is displayed at the top-left of the current page.
I'm not sure whether there's any way of getting more info about the anchor?
Click to expand...
That's what I mean, more or less. However, I'd make sure the one on the
second page is NOT anchored to the top paragraph (since it may still have an
association with that on the previous page). If you get it set up like that,
post it again and I'll take another look...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
G

Gary McGill

Cindy,

I tried removing the page breaks from my sample document, and using Page
Break Before instead. I then inserted a couple of extra (blank) paragraphs
on each page, so that I could move the object anchors to the second
paragraph (neither the first, nor the last).

Sadly, I get the same results as before :-(

I've posted the revised document at
http://www.electrum.co.uk/gary/bug.html - thanks for taking the time to look
at this! :)

Gary
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Gary,

OK, when I open a play around with this, I make the following discoveries

1. If I use Enter until it inserts an additional page between the two pages
with text boxes, the problem goes away. So I know that the boxes aren't
directly linked, somehow.

2. If I pull down the frame of the first textbox a bit (beyond the edge of the
picture, so roughly a paragraph-height of white space shows) the problem goes
away.

Remark: there would be no need, really, to place a graphic in a textbox? Why
not simply apply the text wrap to the graphic?

In any case, this is definitely "unexpected behavior" (to use a nice term) and
I will pass this it on to Microsoft. There most likely won't be any fix for
current versions, but maybe something in a new one.
I tried removing the page breaks from my sample document, and using Page
Break Before instead. I then inserted a couple of extra (blank) paragraphs
on each page, so that I could move the object anchors to the second
paragraph (neither the first, nor the last).

Sadly, I get the same results as before :-(

I've posted the revised document at
http://www.electrum.co.uk/gary/bug.html - thanks for taking the time to look
at this! :)
Click to expand...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
G

Gary McGill

Cindy,

The reason I put the graphic in a textbox was simply to illustrate the
problem. My actual document is very much more complex than that one :)

Thanks for your help. I'll await Word 2004 :)

Gary
 
D

Daiya Mitchell

Word 2004 is already out and it's a Mac version. I think you are waiting
for Word 2005. :)
 
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