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Set Your Text Free by Linking Text Boxes in Publisher

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Some projects take a lot of tweaking in Publisher—a
newsletter, for example. What I want to do is lengthen the first column
and shorten the second and third columns to make room for a handy
upcoming-events section. Shifting text and making everything fit seemed like
way too much trouble before I discovered linking text boxes. I would cut a
sentence from the bottom of the first column and paste it at the top of the
next column and then cut more text here to paste it there—things just got
sloppy fast.

I link text boxes to let text flow freely between the boxes
as I resize them. In the example of my newsletter, I place all the text for the
main article into one text box. I can tell it’s too long because the handles on
the text box are red and the Link shortcut button appears. To make my text flow
into the text box to the right, I simply link the two text boxes.

To link a text box to another text box:

  1. Click the Link shortcut button, which looks like an ellipsis, on the lower
    right of the text box. The mouse pointer turns into a pitcher icon.
  2. Move the pitcher to the text box you want to link to, and then click it. The text
    automatically flows into this second box.

The small black arrow between the boxes indicates that
they’re linked. If I need more space, like a third column, I can always link to
yet another text box.

If I ever want to unlink two boxes, I can do it from the
Ribbon. From the Text Box Tools Format tab on the Ribbon, I can unlink text
boxes or even create links or move between linked text boxes.

To unlink two text boxes:

  1. After you select the text box, click the Text Box Tools Format contextual tab.
  2. In the Linking group, click the Break Link button, which looks like a
    broken chain. This will break the link between the selected text box and the
    next box that the text flows to. It will not affect a link from a previous text
    box.

Instead of endless cutting and pasting—and losing text here
and there in the process—linking text boxes makes adjusting text layouts in
Publisher infinitely easier.