Word Processing Concepts

Word Processing Terms

The following terms are used throughout this chapter:

Floating	Graphic objects or frames placed above the text. These items are not directly tied to the text flow, and therefore do not move with the text. Text wraps around the items as specified.
Hard-Return	When the <Enter> key is pressed, a “hard-return” is placed in the text flow. This ends the current paragraph and begins a new one.
In-line	An item, such as a graphic or frame, that is placed in the flow of text. An in-line item is treated like one, big character in the document. As such, the item moves and behaves a little like a single character.
Text flow	A continuous block of text.
Soft-Return	Also called a line feed. A line feed breaks the line without beginning a new paragraph. <Shift>+<Enter> inserts a soft-return in the text flow.

Paragraph and Character Formatting

One of the most important concepts to remember while working in the word processing environment is the difference between paragraph and character formatting.

Character formatting is concerned with the appearance, size, and color of the actual characters in a word or paragraph. Character formatting only applies to the characters you select.

Paragraph formatting is concerned with the appearance and placement of paragraphs in a document. Some properties, such as alignment, apply to entire paragraphs regardless of how many words or characters you select.

Alignment and line spacing are examples of paragraph formatting, while color, type style, and size are examples of character formatting.

Working with Word Processing Frames

All of the commands and features available in a document where word processing is the base environment are also available in active word processing frames. In addition, word processing frames have a few additional features that allow you to link the text in one frame to the text in another frame. Frames can also be cloned, colored, and bordered.

You can create a word processing frame in any document type, including a word processing document. There are two types of word processing frames available:

In-Line

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.

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.

Floating

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.

Creating a New In-Line Frame

Position the insertion-point (blinking bar) where you want to place the new in- line frame.
From the Insert menu, select the type of frame you want to insert. You can insert a Graphics frame, a Table frame, or a Spreadsheet frame.

If you select a Graphics frame, you are prompted for the graphics file to insert into the frame.

If you select a Table frame, you are prompted for the number of rows and columns. You can alter this number later by using commands on the Table menu.

Creating a New Floating Frame

Show the Drawing Toolbar, if it is not already displayed.
Select the type of frame you want to insert. The cursor changes to a cross-hair.
Draw the frame in the workspace. Text in the full-screen word processing document flows around the floating frame.
To specify how the text wraps around the floating frame, select the frame.
Select the Text Wrap tool from the Standard toolbar. Choose how you want the text to wrap around the frame.

Linking Word Processing Frames

Linked frames enable you to lay out text flows into multiple frames. For example, if you have a long selection of text that you want to place in different locations on the same page, two linked frames could handle this design.

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

To create a linked word processing frame set:

Create a floating word processing frame.
Select the frame. If the frame is active, you will need to click outside the frame, then click once on the frame again.
Select Make Linked Frame from the Modify menu. gobeProductive creates a new frame identical to the selected frame. Text will flow from the original frame to the linked frame.

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 text is laid out again in the order of the remaining frames. 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.

Cloning a Word Processing Frame

Cloned frames are “live-linked” to each other and contain exact duplicates of the frames’ contents. 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.

Select the frame you want to clone.
Select Clone Frame from the Modify menu. An exact duplicate of the frame is created.

Using AutoGrow & ScrollBars

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

Select the frame you want to configure.
Select Frame Properties From the Edit menu, then select the option(s) you want 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.