How to put a box around text that's already in a document ?

Question

Level 1

1 points

How to put a box around text that's already in a document ?

I have a long document that I am now formatting for publication.

In many places in the document, I want to put boxes around existing text. I want all the boxes to be the same size and shape, regardless of how much text is inside them. I want them to look like index cards, with notes on them. I don't want the boxes to be the full width of the page. I don't want text to flow around the boxes.

How do I put a box of a fixed size and shape around text that's already in the document?

I tried highlighting the text and then clicking INSERT>TEXT BOX but that puts an empty box beside the highlighted text, not around it.

I tried using INSPECTOR>TEXT>MORE>BORDERS, and that puts a border around the highlighted text, but the border extends the full width of the page and it won't allow me to adjust the size and shape of the border to look like an index card.

Is there a way to create a box with fixed dimensions (that looks like an index card) then plop it down over highlighted text?

I'd rather not have to copy and paste all the pieces of text into empty boxes, but if necessary I will. But how and where do I make and save the box with fixed dimensions, and then how do I bring it into the document and put it where I need it?

I'm using Pages 09 (4.3) with OS10.9.1

(I don't want to use the more recent Pages.)

I've downloaded the Pages 09 User Guide but can't find the solution in there

.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

MacBook Pro with Retina display

Posted on Mar 14, 2014 4:40 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 14, 2014 11:44 AM in response to Mile End

I created a Textbox 9 x 6 cm and put a stroke on it:

I cut and pasted the Textbox (object with handles showing) into a clear paragraph in the text.

Important is to uncheck Object causes wrap. WhenObject causes wrapis checked it becomes an anchored object linked to the blue line with dot anchor.

Give it Before & After Paragraph spacing and a Multiple Line spacing.

Alignment is as per any text, the Textbox acts like a character in the text.

Peter

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Answer 2

Alex2131

Level 1

90 points

Mar 14, 2014 10:14 AM in response to Mile End

Mile End, if you already create the index card as your needs, all you have to do is as fruhilda said.

On the pages documents with the index card you just did, select it and copy it. Then go to the document you want the index card to be and paste it. Yes, you need to do this each and every time on every page.

I wouldn't use Insert>choose. I use copy/paste instead.

Alex

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Answer 3

Mar 14, 2014 5:07 AM in response to Mile End

Toolbar > Text Box

Inspector > Metric > Size > make it what you want

Inspector > Text > Text > Color and Alignment > make it what you want horizontal and vertical

Inspector > Text > More > Inset margin > make it what you want

Inspector > Graphic > Fill > Color fill > make it what you want > Stroke > Line > make it what you want

Use this standard Textbox to cut and paste whatever you want inside it.

If there is to be only one per page, make it on its own section and capture it as part of a template.

Peter

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Answer 4

Mile End Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 14, 2014 5:56 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Thanks Peter! I followed your instructions down to the end of your italic lines. But then I'm stuck.

I created a box to the exact dimensions needed, as you instructed. I did it in a new, blank Pages document.

I saved that as a template:

INDEX CARD.template

I saved it into the default template folder. I also saved it onto my desktop.

But now I can't insert the box into my long document at the various places where I need it.

I put my cursor on the place where I need it, I click INSERT>CHOOSE. I see my INDEX CARD.template in the template folder, but it is not highlighted, so I can't choose it. (Nor is it highlighted in my desktop folder.)

How do I bring the box into my document?

Also, is there a way to superimpose the box onto text, so the text is inside the box? Or do I have to copy and paste the text into the empty box each time?

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Answer 5

Mar 14, 2014 7:17 AM in response to Mile End

ME,

I guess that Peter was using the term Template in the more general sense, not the specific case where documents can be spawned from .template files in Pages. What I think was meant was that you would go to the document with the object you wish to insert and Copy it, then Paste it into the document under construction.

Jerry

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Answer 6

Mile End Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 14, 2014 8:33 AM in response to Jerrold Green1

Hi Jerry, and thanks for jumping in here to help.

I have tried every way I know of copying and pasting the box that I made (following Peter's instructions) into my existing 250-page document, at the numerous places in the document where I need it, and every time I do so the box appears smack in the middle of the page, forcing existing text to wrap around it. Even when I succeed in dragging the box to the place I need it, with no text wrapping around it, when I then try to paste the chunk of text into the box that I want there, it creates another box within the existing one!

There has got to be a simple way of doing this.

I've got the box I need, of fixed dimensions. Where do I save it (it's now in a separate document on my desktop) and how to I copy and insert it into the many different places in my 250-page document where I need it? Then, how to do copy and paste different chunks of text into those boxes?

I'm not constructing a new document. I have an existing document (all text), 250 pages long, in Pages. I want to put chunks of the text that is already in the document into boxes that look like index cards scattered throughout the document. There must be a way to use the box/index card that Peter showed me how to make over and over again in the existing 250-page document.

Any ideas?

Thanks for your help!

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Answer 7

Mile End Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 14, 2014 9:30 AM in response to fruhulda

Yes, but I don't need the box duplicated at the same place where it is stored, or at the same place in the existing document. I need it inserted once only at many different places in the existing document.

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Answer 8

fruhulda

Level 6

15,167 points

Mar 14, 2014 10:06 AM in response to Mile End

You can't get multiple boxes at the same time spread over the whole document. Only you knows where you want the boxes. Pages doesn't know. You have to do one at the time. What you ask for doesn't exist.

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Answer 9

Mar 14, 2014 11:22 AM in response to Mile End

Mile End wrote:

Thanks Peter! I followed your instructions down to the end of your italic lines. But then I'm stuck.

I created a box to the exact dimensions needed, as you instructed. I did it in a new, blank Pages document.

I saved that as a template:

INDEX CARD.template

I saved it into the default template folder. I also saved it onto my desktop.

But now I can't insert the box into my long document at the various places where I need it.

I was assuming that all your text would be inside the boxes, therefore explained how to make a template which has a box on each page.

I put my cursor on the place where I need it, I click INSERT>CHOOSE. I see my INDEX CARD.template in the template folder, but it is not highlighted, so I can't choose it. (Nor is it highlighted in my desktop folder.)

How do I bring the box into my document?

Copy and paste the Textbox within or between documents or option drag to duplicate it.

Also, is there a way to superimpose the box onto text, so the text is inside the box?

Putting a border around text is only around the selected text and therefore has no standard size.

You appear to be working backwards, and I am not sure if you are really asking how to link text from one box to another.

Or do I have to copy and paste the text into the empty box each time?

Yes you do, because only you know where you want it.

Unless you want the text linked from box to box.

Can you show us a screen snap sample of what it is you are trying to achieve?

command shift 4 then drag over the area you want to capture.

The screen snap is saved to your Desktop and you add it here via the camera icon when you post a reply.

Peter

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Answer 10

Mile End Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 14, 2014 11:19 AM in response to Alex2131

Alex, thanks, but I've tried several times and I can't get it to work the way you say it should. I don't understand why.

My "index card' doesn't look like yours. If you're using a special template somewhere in Pages, maybe that's why it works for you and not for me. What I am using and calling my index card is an empty box that I made using Peter's instructions (above). I have saved that box in a blank Pages document on my desktop.

As you suggested, I have copied that box (by clicking on the border of the box and using copy/paste) and then tried to paste it into my 250-page document where I need it. I put my cursor in the blank space between two paragraphs, and press paste. But the box doesn't paste in there where I want it, it pastes into the centre of the following paragraph, with text from that paragraph on both sides of it! That's not what I want. I want the box to go in a blank space between two paragraphs, without affecting those paragraphs. Then I want to take some text and paste it into the box.

If I have to do it every time on each page of the document, that's ok, I can live with that. But why won't my box paste into my document where I want it? Also, the box I have made is flush to the left margin and saved that way. But when I paste it, it goes to the center of the page. If I drag it to the left margin, it further messes up the text around it.

I'm not using any special formatting in my document. The text is al l flush left an single-spaced. Line breaks are made just using the "return" key on my keyboard, as usual. The text is in a standard type face and font.

Any ideas why it's not working for me?

(I don't actually want a real index card like you have, with lines on it. I just want a plain box the size of an index card, into which I'll paste some text.)

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Answer 11

Mile End Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 14, 2014 11:37 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Hi Peter,

This is a creative project, and I didn't know how I wanted it to look and the text be organized until the end, which is why I couldn't create a template or style at the beginning and just fill in the blanks as I wrote. So I now have 250 pages of text. Scattered throughout the document are short, special pieces of text that I want to put on what I'm calling "index cards" -- ie, I want to put a box the size and shape of a standard index card around those short special pieces of text. They are scattered here and there throughout the 250 pages. The text in each box is different, and complete unto itself: so, no linking needed between boxes. But each box must be an identical size and shape, flush to the left margin (but not extending to the right margin). I can't just put a border around each special piece of text, because the border extends to the right margin, and I don't want that. So, I'm trying to do what you and Alex are suggesting: copying and pasting my box into the document where I need it. But, as I explain to Alex, it creates havoc with the text in the next paragraph, and won't paste in flush to the left margin.

Any ideas what's going wrong?

(I can't give you a screen smaple because I haven't been able to do it yet!)

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Answer 12

Mile End Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 14, 2014 12:01 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

Peter (and Alex)... MANY THANKS!

Your final instructions, Peter, solved the problem. I hadn't unchecked Object causes wrap and I hadn't checked the "Inline" button. That does the trick!

Thanks for your patience. Obviously, I'm a low-level user of Pages. I'm a writer, not a designer, and I hadn't done this kind of thing before. I must say I thought Mac was supposed to be much more intuitive and user-friendly, but the Pages user manual doesn't seem to cover this, and the various steps you've led me through don't seem that intuitive, to me!

In any case, I appreciate your help very much!

(Alex: I did right-click on your name, but saw no way to send you an e-mail. I could only get to your profile page, where I didn't see any way to send an e-mail from there. But thanks anyway...)

John

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