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About this lesson

How to handle too much text and control the overflow to another text box.

Lesson versions

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2016, 2019/365.

Exercise files

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Text box - Identify Parts.docx
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Quick reference

Textbox - Identify Parts

Become familiar with the text box elements and your work runs smoother.

When to use

Every time you use a text box, you will recognize the parts and elements and be able to notice how they help you.

Instructions:

Begin by opening the corresponding Exercise File with this lesson, or to go File, New and find the “Business Newsletter” called Trader News.

Observe the opening page and click into the banner, “Trader News”

Text Boxes

  1. When you click on the headline “Trader News”, notice 2 new ribbons appear. These identify the headline as a Text Box and provide new tools for formatting.       
  2. Click into the black bar with the date on the right side. It is basically 2 text boxes side-by-side. The clue is the handles on the shape and the ribbons at the top of your screen: 

Font Formats

  1. Click and drag a word in a text box and observe the “mini-bar” that appears on the screen.  This is the fastest way to get your font format tools right where you need them. 

Overflow Text

  1. When a text box is too small for the text length, it will appear with red handles to warn you that some of the text is not viewable:       
  2. By activating the tiny ellipsis button on the text box, you can “spill” the text into another textbox.  Essentially creating “overflow text” to a new box.   
  3. To find where the original text came from, a new handle on the overflow box will appear:  
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  • 00:04 Hello. In this lesson,
  • 00:06 we're gonna talk about text boxes.
  • 00:08 So let's go ahead and click on File > New,
  • 00:10 open up the Trader News Business Newsletter.
  • 00:13 And when that comes open, it has a ton of text boxes already in place.
  • 00:17 So we're gonna take a look at these, so you can figure out how to tell if a banner
  • 00:21 across the top is a picture, is a word art or is a text box.
  • 00:25 First of all, on my Insert ribbon and to activate text boxes to draw a new one,
  • 00:30 you would hit the Draw a Text Box.
  • 00:32 I'm not ready to do that, we'll do that in another lesson.
  • 00:35 Right now, I just wanna recognize what's going on on the screen.
  • 00:37 So, I have this banner.
  • 00:38 When I click on the banner, take a look up on top.
  • 00:41 We have Drawing Tools and Text Box Tools.
  • 00:43 Now, text boxes are in squares and rectangles.
  • 00:46 And so, you can always click on the Drawing Tools and
  • 00:48 maybe fill the background with a color.
  • 00:51 But generally, I like to leave mine white, but just so you know it's very normal
  • 00:56 to have a Drawing Tool right along side the Text Box Tool.
  • 00:59 So, I know that's a text box.
  • 01:00 We have a banner underneath, a long black banner underneath.
  • 01:04 I'll go ahead and click on that.
  • 01:05 Sure enough, it is a text box.
  • 01:07 It has been filled with black fill color and then white font.
  • 01:12 Now, take a look in the top right-hand corner.
  • 01:14 It says, replace with logo.
  • 01:15 That looks to me like it is a text box.
  • 01:17 But when I click on it though, take a look at the ribbon Picture Tools.
  • 01:21 So, do you get the idea what's happening here?
  • 01:23 Just lift your eyes up to the ribbons and it will always tell you.
  • 01:26 Now if this banner right here happened to be word art,
  • 01:29 I would have a word art ribbon up here as well.
  • 01:33 I know it's just a basic text box.
  • 01:35 Another thing about text boxes is you can, of course, alter the text within it.
  • 01:39 So I have black large font, small font, green font right here.
  • 01:44 Well, on your Home ribbon, we've got Arial 16,
  • 01:47 cuz I'm clicked on to this particular area.
  • 01:49 When I click and drag just any word in there and let go, a minibar comes up.
  • 01:53 That also tells me Arial 16.
  • 01:56 If you'll take a look at my quick access bar right here, I've put my font style and
  • 02:00 size on my quick access.
  • 02:02 So no matter where I'm at on my screen, at a glance,
  • 02:05 I always see what my font style and size is.
  • 02:08 So, three different ways to see it.
  • 02:10 But the problem is if you're not on your Home ribbon,
  • 02:12 maybe you're on your insert ribbon your fonts have changed.
  • 02:14 So, knowing that click and drag here to see this is great.
  • 02:18 You could also do a right-click there and right up here is a minibar, but
  • 02:22 it lands so high.
  • 02:23 It kinda gets blended in the background of everything else.
  • 02:25 So, that's why the click and
  • 02:27 drag is really kinda handy to very quickly see your fonts.
  • 02:30 Another item about the text box that might happen is that the text box is too short
  • 02:35 and you've got text in there, but you can't see it all.
  • 02:39 You won't know you can't see it all unless if it's too short,
  • 02:42 you get this little red handles around the text box.
  • 02:45 I love these.
  • 02:46 They're like red flags.
  • 02:47 Problem, problem.
  • 02:48 Now, another item that happened is we have a little tiny box right over here.
  • 02:51 You can hardly tell what it is and it doesn't get bigger when I zoom in, but
  • 02:55 it just means that you've got more text, it's an ellipsis.
  • 02:59 Meaning, there's more text here.
  • 03:00 So I'm gonna click on that text box and look,
  • 03:03 like this little measuring cup shows up.
  • 03:05 Well watch what happens.
  • 03:06 When I move this measuring cup into an accompanying text box, I can basically
  • 03:10 tell it spill the text that doesn't fit, spill it into the text box beside it.
  • 03:15 So when I click there, there is the text that was at the bottom of this one.
  • 03:19 Now, it's giving me red handle, which means this text box is still too short.
  • 03:24 So, I could click and drag and
  • 03:25 measure that down until the red handles no longer appear.
  • 03:28 Notice I've got a little arrow, whoops, right over here.
  • 03:31 It's really tiny.
  • 03:32 This little arrow, telling me that it spilled over or
  • 03:35 it's connected to the text box to the left.
  • 03:37 Excellence feature, if you just know what to look for.
  • 03:40 So stay with me.
  • 03:41 We're gonna go ahead and create a new text box and set the margins inside.
  • 03:45 Thank you.

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