Disappearing text boxes in Pages 7.1

Question

Level 1

51 points

Disappearing text boxes in Pages 7.1

I'm working on a large picture book with some text and captions. Sometimes, inexplicably, when I click on a text box and drag it to a different location, the text within just disappears. Weirdly, this doesn't happen in the upper two thirds of the page (I'm in Page Layout mode) - only in the bottom one third of the page. When I set up a new document from scratch and paste in the offending text box, this doesn't happen - I can drag it around anywhere on the page without problem.

The document has 100 pages, so maybe it's something to do with that? It's as if there is some sort of force field in the bottom two thirds of the page!

Your help appreciated!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.5)

Posted on Jul 16, 2018 9:16 PM

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Answer 1

Barry

Level 9

59,867 points

Jul 17, 2018 3:13 AM in response to Dick Powell

Hi Dick,

The behaviour you are describing is exactly what happens when a text box approaches an object which has text wrap turned on.

That the disappearing act is cancelled when you paste the box into a new document lends support to that interpretation—the new document has had no objects added to it beyond the text box itself, so there's no object in that document whose text wrap setting could affect the text in the box,

You may have an invisible object in your document. In word processing documents, this is fairly common, as the pages are created only when they are needed to carry the body text. Remove some text, and the last page may disappear. If it had any images o it, they are still there, but with no page there to display them, they are not visible.

There's also a possibility that you moved an image off the page, then de-selected it. Although you can't see it, the image (or other object) is still 'there.'

You can check for off page objects by significantly reducing the View Zoom scale significantly (I used 25% below), selecting an object on the screen, then pressing command-A to Select All. In the image below, you can see the handles for a selected shape, well off the page to the right.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 2

Jul 16, 2018 11:36 PM in response to Dick Powell

Turn off the Wordwrap of your objects on the page.

The Wordwrap is pushing away the text as it gets close to the objects.

And we like to know what you are using because then we can tell you exactly where to find the settings.

But then I guess you can see where I am pointing at on my screen...

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Answer 3

Barry

Level 9

59,867 points

Jul 16, 2018 11:39 PM in response to Dick Powell

Hi Dick,

Does the text box really disappear (can't be selected by dragging a rectangle that invades its space), or does it simply 'lose' the text it should be displaying?

Isuspect the cause is that the text box is too close to another object which has Text Wrap set to Automatic. Select that object and reset Wrap to None, and the issue may be resolved.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 4

Dick Powell Author

Level 1

51 points

Jul 17, 2018 12:12 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Thanks Peter - I had already suspected this might be the culprit and had already turned TextWrap to None for the photo. In fact, the particular text box I was having trouble with was on top of a photo when I attempted to drag it downwards, but it has the same effect when dragged to the side of the photo. The text just disappears. Nudge it up a smidgeon and it reappears. I can send it down using the down arrow key and see precisely where it disappears. The same thing happens with some photos, where dragging them downwards causes them to disappear. I figured this was Pages thinking I was dragging the image onto the page below, so went ahead and did that. When I then dragged it back up to the page above it reappeared and no longer objected to being place low down on the page. But this doesn't work with text boxes. Any other ideas?

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Answer 5

Dick Powell Author

Level 1

51 points

Jul 17, 2018 12:14 AM in response to Barry

Thanks Barry

The text box is still there if I drag across to select it, but its contents are not visible. As you will have seen from my reply to another contributor, I had already turned off TextWrap for the one other object on the page.

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Answer 6

Dick Powell Author

Level 1

51 points

Jul 17, 2018 8:19 AM in response to Barry

Thanks Barry

Everything you say makes perfect sense and my thinking was as yours. But I checked again - there are no unseen objects lurking over the horizon and, in any case, you might expect their force field to influence things to the left and right, but this is happening below the page. Still, when zoomed out to 25% I selected as much of the canvas as the window showed and nothing was highlighted. Using Select All also revealed nothing. But there is clearly something lurking below each page but Lord only knows how to get rid of it! As you say, it may be a legacy of a conversion from a word-pro doc to a page layout doc.

And then, heaven knows why, the problem disappeared and I can drag the text box down easily! Something I did clearly had an effect - maybe the zooming out alone, the attempt to select? Who knows?

Until the next time my friend!

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Answer 7

Jul 17, 2018 1:41 AM in response to Dick Powell

Sorry for the wrong expression* but it is Textwrap, Textwrap, Textwrap.

Position does not matter, it is Textwrap.

* Me typing on my phone.

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Disappearing text boxes in Pages 7.1

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