2018

BOXES, LINES, AND TABLES
A Guide to QuarkXPress 2018 | 97
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.
T
he 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:
Select the text boxes you want to merge.1.
Choose Item > Merge Text Boxes and choose one of the following from the sub2.
menu:
Top Down - to merge the text in the boxes in the order they appear on the•
layout (Left-to-Right and then Top-to-Bottom).
Selection Order - to merge the text in the boxes in the order that you•
selected the boxes.
The text in the boxes is merged and contained in a single box.
3.
The size of the resulting text box is dependant on the bounding box of the area 
selected. Use Item > Fit Box to Text to size the new box to fit the text it
contains.
This option is disabled if any of the selected boxes is a linked text box, a locked text

box or a bézier text path. Boxes with an associated callout marker and grouped text
boxes cannot be merged with any text boxes.
Adding text and pictures to boxes
To add text to a box, choose the Text Content tool , double-click the box, and
then either start typing, paste text copied from elsewhere, or choose File > Import.
To place a picture in a box, select the box with the Picture Content tool and
then either paste a picture copied from elsewhere or choose File > Import.
Changing box type
To convert a selected box to a different type, choose Picture, Text, or None from
the Content submenu (Item menu). However, you can also change a text box to a