MX

Connecting text areas—text flow
When text overflows the bottom of the text area, an overflow indicator is shown on the bottom of the
area. If you drag this over any other text area, the overflow text will flow into the new text area, and the
two areas become connected. This is shown with a flow arrow.
Dragging the overflow indicator from
one text area to another will connect
the two areas so text flows from one
to another. You can link as many
together as you require.
There is a quick way to create flowing text. If the text cursor in an area with overflowing text, then just
click-drag on the page to create a new text area. The new text area is automatically connected and text
will flow into the new area.
Tip
: You can flow text from one area to another on any page, even earlier pages. If you need to flow into an
area many pages away, it's probably easier to use the above method, although if you zoom out to a small
page size you can drag the overflow arrow across pages.
To disconnect one text area from another, just drag on the overflow indicator and drop it away from any
text area.
If you delete a text area that is connected to another only the area is deleted, the text will simply re-flow
into the remaining text areas.
Resizing text areas
Using the Text Tool
, you can click and drag on any of the corner control handles. The text in the area will be reformatted to
fit the new size.
Alternatively you can use the Selector Tool to resize the text object, but in this case the behavior is
different. If you resize a text object using the Selector Tool, the text itself changes size. This is consistent
with the normal operation of the Selector Tool
.
However in the case of flowing text areas this would cause undesired side-effects; you almost certainly
do not want part of a flowing text story to be a different point size than the rest. Therefore, the Selector
Tool
behavior varies depending on whether you are resizing one text area that contains a flowing text story, or
resizing the whole text story. The rule is:

If you resize a single unconnected text area (or simple text or text column) then the area
"container" and text content are resized together.

If you select the text areas of the whole flowing text story (they have to be on a single page) then
a resize will resize the text and areas together.

But if you resize a text area that is part of a flowing series of text areas, then only the container
size is altered and the text inside remains the original size, and will be re-formatted to fit the new
size. This is like resizing a text area with the Text Tool.
If you want to resize all text in a text story, select it all with "Ctrl + A", and apply the required font size.
You can rotate a text area, using the Selector Tool
as normal, and the text will flow through the rotated text area normally.
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