Text flow between boxes

[Woody44]

I'm working on a Christmas gift for the daughter of a friend, and I have hit a roadblock. She wrote a little book, which I want to format and have printed up as a real book. I want to use a fancy border, which I have set up as a graphic and imported into a 2-page (left and right) master page layout.

When I go to Standard view and import text, rather then the text stopping at the bottom of the text box, it automatically extends the length (height) of the text box off the bottom of the page. I can't find any way to switch to my second (left-hand) page to link the text into the text box there.

Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thank you.

[Jossi]

Text boxes in TextMaker are by default created with fixed width and growing height. First of all, you should invoke the object properties of all text boxes (tab “Format”) and set the height to “fixed”. To connect the boxes, choose (in object mode) “Link text frame” in the right-click menu of the first text box, then click the second text box. A small grey triangle should appear in the middle of the top border of the second text box to show it is connected.

[Woody44]

Thank you. I'll try that.

[Woody44]

I couldn't make that work. I use the classic menu, not the ribbon. There's nothing pertaining to text box height in the Format menu.

[Jossi]

I use the classic menu, too, so this makes it easier for me.
Maybe I was a bit too short and cryptic the last time, so I‘ll give it another try:
First of all, if you want to link (connect) text boxes, you mustn’t place them on a master page. It would be really great if TextMaker could link text frames on master pages, like desktop publishing programs do, so that after each page break a new connected text frame is created automatically on the new page, but unfortunately this option doesn't exist in TextMaker.
So you will have to place the necessary text boxes manually in Standard view on all pages of your document. If all text boxes are to have the same size, this is easiest done with Copy & Paste in Object mode (View > Object mode).
While still in Object mode, right-click the first text box, select "Link text frame" in the pop-up menu, then click the second text box. Small grey triangles in the middle of the lower border of the first and the middle of the upper border of the second text box show that both boxes are connected now. Repeat this either to create a chain of more than two boxes (#2 to #3, #3 to #4, #4 to #5 and so on) or to connect left and right page boxes on each of the following double pages.
Finally, change to Edit mode and insert your text.
My previous answer was faulty insofar as connected text boxes automatically keep their height fixed as long as they are linked, so the first step (changing height from "Growing" to "Fixed") ist not necessary at all.

[Woody44]

Thank you, Jossi.

With this information, I have determined that TextMaker is not set up for me to use to lay out books. The two primary considerations are:

(1) the default setting to allow text boxes to grow. I can't even wrap my head around that. When I first tried using a text box, as I added text the text box just expanded right off the bottom of my page. That's crazy! The whole purpose of a text box is to put the text where you want it to appear. If there has to be an option to allow text boxes to grow automatically (although I can't think of a single reason why that should be allowed), it should be the alternate option, not the default.

(2) Not being able to define text boxes on master pages. This is perhaps an even more egregious shortcoming than the expanding text boxes. The entire purpose of master pages is to allow the user to lay out one (or two, for facing page type projects) page with all the elements properly located and defined, so that when you start working in the document you can focus on the text and not have to deal with repetitive tasks -- such as adding a text box on each new page. If I can't define a text box on a master page, I can't see any reason to have master pages. It makes them virtually useless.

[Jossi]

I think you are quite right on both points. It should be possible to set a fixed height as default for text boxes. And master pages are now only useful for fixed objects (like a logo), to be repeated without any change on each page. At present, when I create a document with several pages, set a text box on the master page and then start typing in the first text box in Standard view, the same text will be repeated on each page. TextMaker has a lot of layout options, but here one feels painfully that it is only a word processor, not a layout program.
BTW: The first time I asked for the second feature in the German forum was more than ten years ago, but to no avail. I suppose this would imply too great changes in the basic program functions and/or the file format.

[firkin]

Why not use the master pages for the fancy borders, and then just set the margins to ensure the text always stays within the border?

That way, you can format the book without worrying about linking/sizing text boxes?

See attached example.