Editing text across columns and pages

<< Click to Display Table of Contents >>

Editing text across columns and pages

FreePDF: These functions for editing text are not included in FreePDF.

When you link text boxes, you can easily edit the text they contain across all text boxes. The text boxes remain linked even after you close and reopen the PDF if you have enabled the option Store layout info in PDF. (For more information, see Options: Saving tab).

You link text boxes as follows:

1.Use the Text edit tool icon_tool_text-edit or the Object tool icon_tool_object.
2.Click on any text box.
At the top right, an additional ribbon tab Format appears with the heading Text box.
3.Choose the command Format | group Inner text | Link text boxes icon_tool_link-text.
4.Click in the center of each text box that you want to link. The box will be highlighted and a number will appear in its center. This number shows the order in which the text will flow between the boxes. Click on the box again to remove it from the flow.
5.Simply add more boxes with a mouse click. You can change pages and thus add text from different pages to the flow.
6.To start a new separate chain of boxes, click on a blank area of the page. The currently linked text boxes are now displayed again without a number. Then repeat the action from step 4.
7.When you have finished, select the Text edit tool icon_tool_text-edit in the Quick access toolbar. If you now click on one of the linked text boxes, you can view the flow again and edit the text it contains.

Disconnecting linked text boxes

If you want to disconnect linked text boxes from each other, select the Text edit tool icon_tool_text-edit and click on one of the text boxes.

Choose the ribbon command Format | group Inner text | Link text boxes icon_tool_link-text (click on the small arrow of the icon) and select Disconnect in the menu that appears.

Alternatively, you will also find this command in the context menu: Text Box dropright_arrow Disconnect

Notes

Before you link text boxes, each text box ends with a paragraph break. When linking, FlexiPDF checks whether these breaks are necessary or just a consequence of the text breaking across multiple text boxes. Unnecessary paragraph breaks are removed. However, FlexiPDF does not necessarily detect all unnecessary paragraph breaks. After reflowing, individual unnecessary paragraph breaks may occur in the middle of a text box. Remove them to restore the original text flow.

When you link text boxes, the text will not be reflowed immediately; it should thus look unchanged. If you reload and edit a document with linked text boxes, however, those boxes will be reflowed prior to your first edit. This is when you will notice possible problems with the text flow.