Linking Textboxes in Microsoft Word

In this lesson, we want to write an article

that may take more space than we want put in one text box,
so we will “spill over” into another textbox
(and another, and another, if needed.)

Sometimes, you may want to place the beginning of your text on one page,
and the rest on another page, or just farther down the same page,
and have them “linked” together automatically.

This could be useful for placing the beginning of an article (or just a headline ?)
on “Page One” and the rest of the article on another page, in a “linked” textbox.

How can this be accomplished ?

Two or more textboxes are needed to do this effectively,
and can be done in Word 2007 as well as earlier versions,
which are slightly different, but similar in concept.

First make a textbox of the size that will fit the page,
regardless of whether the text fits.

If the text needs more room, another box is used.

Part 1: The First Textbox

We would need to make the first textbox that will contain the beginning of your text,
This textbox will then link to the next textbox (in Part 2, below).

Start with the first textbox, using the “Text Box” dropdown list on the “Insert” tab on the 2007 ‘ribbon’ :

Insert a textbox of the type that you want (“Simple Text Box” for this example):

The ribbon will change to the  “Text Box Tools” tab, to enable formatting of the textbox :

so you may need to switch back to the “Insert” tab after formatting the textbox, if needed.

Your page should something like this :

We now have the first textbox that will contain the first part of your linked text !

Part 2: The second textbox

To link one textbox to the next,
create the second textbox before linking to it.

You will get this error, if you try to link to a second textbox, before you add it :

Note that clicking on the border of the  first textbox,

the “Text Box” menu changes to a shorter list :
(Clicking any place but the border, displays the larger menu, shown above, which we don’t want here.)

Select “Draw Text Box” from this menu to create the next textbox.

Your page should now look something like this :

Now, right-click on the border of the first textbox to get this menu :

(If you get a different menu, like this :

you probably missed the border ?)

Click on the “” selection …

The cursor will now look like a pitcher :

Drag the “Linking” cursor into the second textbox and release the mouse button.

Your document should now look something like this :

Notice that the text from the first box, that did not quite fit,
is now in the second textbox.

Even better, if you were to add or delete text from either textbox,
the other textbox will automatically adjust itself !

Also note that the second textbox can be nearly any place in your document.

Your text can be continued in as many textboxes as you may want or need :

Simply repeat the process as many times as you want.

 Each textbox can be formatted differently,
as in this “Headline” + “article” example :

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