2017

You can control how text will flow in relation to the columns. See "Controlling column
flow."
Merging and splitting boxes
Options in the Merge or Split Paths submenu (Item menu) let you create complex
Bézier boxes from existing boxes. For example, if a rectangular box overlaps an oval
box, you can select the submenu and choose an option that will create a single box
with the same content. If you merge two picture boxes, one picture will display in the
combined box. If you merge two text boxes, the text from one of the boxes will be
deleted.
To merge two or more text boxes and preserve the text, see "Merging text boxes.
To use the Merge or Split Paths feature, select two items and then choose one of the
following options from the Merge or Split Paths submenu:
• The Intersection command retains any areas where items overlap the back item,
and removes the rest.
• The Union command combines all the items into one box, retaining all overlapped
areas as well as non-overlapped areas.
• The Difference command deletes the front items. Any overlapping areas will be
cut out.
• The Reverse Difference command deletes the back item. Any overlapping areas
will be cut out.
• The Exclusive Or command leaves all of the shapes intact but cuts out any areas
where there is overlap. If you want to edit the points surrounding the cut-out
area, you will notice that there are now two points at every location where two
lines originally crossed.
• The Combine command is similar to the Exclusive Or command, but if you look
at the points surrounding the cut-out area, you will notice that no points were
added where two lines intersect.
• The Split command either splits a merged box into separate boxes, splits a complex
box that contains paths within paths into separate boxes, or splits a box that
contains a border that crosses over itself (such as a figure eight). To use this feature,
select two items and then choose one of the following options from the Merge
or Split Paths submenu.
• The Outside Paths command works with a merged box that contains several,
non-overlapping shapes. Outside Paths keeps all the outside path information
and divides non-overlapping outside paths into separate boxes.
• The All Paths command creates separate boxes out of every shape within a complex
box.
Merging text boxes
To merge two or more text boxes, preserving the text:
110 | A GUIDE TO QUARKXPRESS 2017
BOXES, LINES, AND TABLES