Sometime back we looked at some of the things you can do with Word's newspaper-style columns and text boxes. However, there's another trick you can perform by linking text boxes. This allows you to have more than one text flow. So, for example, you could start a story on page one and continue it on a later page, independently of the main text.

To link text boxes, select the first one, right-click and click on 'Create Text Box Link'. You'll see the cursor change to a jug. When you move over a .second text box, the jug will tip - click on it and the .second box will be linked (see screen 1). Any 'overflow' of text from the first box, whether causeq by editing or resizing, will appear in the latter, and you can repeat this process to link further boxes.

If you're using this to continue a story on a different page, you will notice that there's a snag. You don't have any indication of where the story goes to or comes from - for example, 'Continued on page 2' or 'Continued from page 1'. You could, of course, insert these manually at the end or beginning of the boxes, but then they would be part of the text flow, so wouldn't stay put. Word does have a caption feature for pictures and objects, but as this can be something of a struggle (we'll return to it another time), here's an easier way - create more text boxes.

Create another text box below the first, then type in 'Continued the text to distinguish it from that in the box above - either smaller or italic type, a different colour or whatever you see fit. Fiddle about with the new box size, set the outline and fill to none, and manoeuvre it into position When you're happy with the
appearance, select both the main box and the 'Continued ... ' box. This can be rather tricky - I've found the easiest way to do this is to click on the Select button on the Drawing toolbar, then drag out a rectangle round both boxes. Having selected them, go to the Draw menu on the Drawing toolbar, then Group. Repeat the process above the second main text box with 'Continued from ... ' You'll then find that although the main boxes remain linked, the 'Continued ... ' ones are not, but they remain attached to the main boxes, so you can move them around the page as a single entity (see screen 2).

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One limitation of text boxes is that you can only have one column of text in them. If you want a two-column boxout, then why not use two identical linked text boxes side by side? To make the process as painless as possible, and the result as elegant, draw the first box and from the Colours and Lines tab of the Format dialogue box, select 'no line'. Next, hold down the Ctrl key and drag the box over to the right - you'll get a second box identical in size and formatting to the first. Don't bust a gut trying to get hem exactly aligned at the top, as there's an easy way to do this - select both boxes as described above, then from the Drawing toolbar Draw menu, choose Align or Distribute, Align Top. Now group them as before, so you can move the double box around the page and resize it to balance the columns so that they both contain the same number of lines.

If you want to surround both columns with a border line, then don't use the line command from the Drawing toolbar, as this produces an unsightly line between the two columns. Instead use the Rectangle drawing tool to surround both boxes, then set that rectangle to have no fill. Jiggle the size until it looks right, then repeat the Group command to include the rectangle. Once again, you'll be able to move the grouped items as a single item, and then fine-tune the size to get perfectly balanced columns (see screen 3).

For those using Word 2007, I'm not going to go through it all again, but here's
a quick survival guide. You create text boxes from the Text Box Gallery on the Insert ribbon. The gallery contains a variety of ready-made boxes that mayor may not suit or your needs, so you might prefer to use the 'Draw text box' command at the bottom of the gallery, which performs the same as in previous versions. As with Word 2003, you can right-click to link and format them.

Alternatively, you can format a text box from the Text Box Tools, Formatting ribbon that appears when you create or select a box. The Select tool is hidden away
at the right-hand end of the Home ribbon Select, Select Objects. However, holding down Ctrl and then selecting multiple objects by clicking on them with the Text Box Tools Format ribbon active is much easier than the equivalent in 2003 or earlier. To align text boxes with each other, select them both, then look carefully in the Arrange section of the Text Box Tools, Format ribbon - it's the tiny unlabelled icon at the top right. Group is just below it.