2018

BOXES, LINES, AND TABLES
96 | A Guide to QuarkXPress 2018
You can also specify box color in an Item Style. For more about Item Styles, see
“Item Styles XTensions software.”
Applying gradients to boxes
A gradient is a gradual transition from one color to another. To apply a gradient to
the background of active boxes, see
Creating gradients“.
Specifying number of columns in text boxes
To specify the number of columns in a text box,
use the Cols field and the Gutter field in the Home tab and the Text tab of the
Measurements palette to specify how many columns the text box should have and
how wide their gutters should be.
The Line Between option available in the Text tab allows you to specify that a line

will be drawn between columns in a multi-column text box and and its height will
be equivalent to the height of the text in the column.
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