Working with Word Processing Frames

All of the commands and features available to a "full screen" word processing document are also available to active word processing frames.  The environment inside a word processing frame is identical to the environment of a full-page word processing document.

However, word processing frames have a few additional features that allow you to link the text in one frame to the text in another frame.  Moreover, frames can be cloned, colored, and bordered unlike regular word processing documents.

Reminder:  When selected, a frame is like any other graphic item.  You can fill it with color, border it with a pen color, and rotate it in any direction.  The options described in this section apply only to word processing frames. 

You can create a word processing frame in any document type, including a word processing document.  There are essentially two ways to create a new word processing frame.  You can create an In-Line Frame or a Floating Frame.  Remember, you can always copy or cut a frame from one document or sheet to another. 

In-Line Frames

An in-line frame is inserted directly into the flow of text in a full-screen word processing document.  The frame gets treated like a character and as such is affected by indentation and alignment.  However, text styles, size, and font properties do not affect an in-line text frame. 

wpframes2.gif (15842 bytes)

In-line frames are useful if you want the frame to stay in the same position relative to the text.  When inserted in-line, text inside the full-screen document wraps around the frame borders. 

To Create a New In-Line Frame

  1. Position the insertion-point (blinking bar) where you want to place the new in-line frame.

  2. From the Frame menu, select Insert Frame, then select the type of frame you wish to insert.  The examples in this topic are concerned with word processing frames, however you can insert any type of frame in this way.
Reminder: Hitting the Escape Key while editing an in-line frame will move the insertion point to the main document.

Floating Frames

A floating frame is placed in a special graphics layer that exists above the full-screen word processing document.  A floating frame is not directly tied to the text flow, thus it does not move with the text in the full-screen word processing document.  The floating frame can be moved anywhere within the document, though, by selecting it and using the mouse.   You can also specify how text in the full-screen word processing document wraps around the floating frame.

To Create a New Floating Frame

  1. Show the ToolBar, if it is not already displayed.  To show the ToolBar, select Show ToolBar from the Window menu.

  2. From the Frame Tool  , select the frame you wish to insert.  The cursor changes to a cross-hair. 

  3. Draw the frame in the workspace.

  4. Text in the full-screen word processing document flows around the floating frame.  

  5. To specify how the text wraps around the floating frame, select the frame.  You know the frame is selected when there are "handles" around the frame and the content of the frame is not active.  If the frame is active, you will need to click outside the frame, then click once again on the frame.

  6. Select Text Wrap from the Arrange menu.  Or select the Text Wrap button buttontextwrap.gif (933 bytes) from the displayed graphics Part Bar.   A Text Wrap dialog box with the different wrapping styles is displayed.  Proceed to choose how you want the text to wrap around the floating frame.

    textwrap.gif (5411 bytes)

Linked Word Processing Frames

Linked frames are a great way to layout text flows into multiple frames.  For example, if you had a long selection of text that needed to be placed in different locations on the same page, two linked frames could handle this design.

wpframes1.gif (15481 bytes)

Generally, layouts such as this would be better suited for a graphics document.   However, you can place linked word processing frames like this in any document type, including word processing documents. 

NOTE:  In-line frames cannot be linked.  Only floating frames can be linked.

To Create a Linked Word Processing Frame Set

  1. Create a floating word processing frame.  See the instructions above.

  2. Select the frame.  If the frame is active, you will need to click outside the frame, then click once on the frame again.

  3. From the Frame menu, select Make Linked Frame.   The program creates a new frame identical to the selected frame.  Text will flow from the original frame to the linked frame.
Reminder:  Linked frames have a specific order.  If you create three linked frames, text flows from the first, to the second, to the third frames in order.
  1. You can now enter text into the first frame.  When the text flow reaches the end of the frame, it wraps to the linked frame regardless of where the linked text frame is placed. 
NOTE:  Linked frames do not wrap between sheets or other document files. 

If you delete one of the frames in the linked set, the other frames "pick up the slack".  None of the text is deleted unless the entire frame set is deleted.   Likewise, if you copy one frame in the set to another document or sheet, all the text in the frame set is copied to the new location.

To Clone a Frame

If you need an exact duplicate of a word processing frame, cloning is the solution.   Cloned frames are "live-linked" to each other.  Making edits in one frame duplicates the same changes to the other frame.  This can be very useful if you need to have the same text or graphics in different places within a document.  Using a series of cloned frames, you can make a change to one frame and all the other frames change as well.

  1. Select the frame you want to clone.

  2. Select Clone Frame from the Frames menu.  An exact duplicate of the frame is created.

AutoGrow & ScrollBars

Non-linked, word processing frames can be configured to auto-grow vertically or horizontally and display scroll bars.

  1. Select the frame you wish to configure. 

  2. From the Frame menu, select the option(s) you wish to apply to the frame.

    AutoGrow Horizontally:  The frame automatically resizes horizontally to accommodate text as it is entered. 

    AutoGrow Vertically:  The frame automatically resizes vertically to accommodate text as it is entered. 

    ScrollBars:  The frame displays vertical scroll bars. 

Opening a Frame

The Open Frame Window feature allows you to select any frame in your document and open the contents of that frame into a separate window.  This can be useful if you need to edit the contents of a particularly large frame. 

Frame windows are somewhat limited in their functionality because they are "live-linked" to the original document window.  You can format the items in the frame including editing text, cells, or graphics.  However many document features such as headers and footers and setting margins are not available.

To Open a Frame

  1. Select the frame you want to open. 

  2. Select Open Frame Window from the Frame menu.  The contents of the frame are opened into a new, full-screen document. 
NOTE:  The new document created when you open a frame is only for editing the contents of the frame.  You will not be able to add other frames or graphic items to the document. 
  1. When finished editing the contents of the open frame document close the window.  You can save the contents of the frame to another document file if necessary. 


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