'Getting You Started' guide to
Pagemaker 6.5

Section 2   Importing and manipulating text

Importing text

Click on 'File', then 'Place'. In the dialogue box that appears, select the appropriate drive and directory. Choose the file to be imported and click 'OK'. Standard text files have the suffix .txt. Files from other word processors may have other suffixes (e.g.. Word Perfect 5.0 is .wp5).

A further dialogue box may appear. Choose options as appropriate then click 'OK'. A 'loaded text' icon appears.

Move the cursor to where you want the text to begin and click. The text will appear on the screen (probably in 'Greek' form). The text block will have top and bottom 'window' handles and corner handles (black squares). To limit the area of the page in which you want the text to appear, click and drag the text icon instead of simply clicking.

Zooming in and out

There are two ways of zooming in :

i) Use the Zoom tool from the toolbox.  Click once to change the cursor to a magnifier, then draw a box ('marquee') around the area to be magnified, and release.  Double-click on the Zoom tool to return to the normal view.

ii) Use the 'View' menu.

Manipulating text blocks

By using the Pointer tool   you can manipulate a text block in several ways.  First select the block by clicking anywhere inside it (if it is not already selected).  The handles appear to show that it is selected.

Moving a block

To move a block without changing its shape, place the cursor anywhere inside the block, and click and drag to the required position.

Reshaping a block

Place the cursor on a corner handle, click and drag.

Splitting a block into two

Place the cursor on the bottom handle, click and drag upwards. When you release, the bottom handle will contain a red triangle. Click once on this, and the cursor changes to a loaded text icon. Position this where the second part of the text is to be, and click. (See 'Threaded and Unthreaded Text' below.)

Rejoining split blocks

Starting with the last block, click and drag the bottom handle up to meet the top. Then move to the first block, and click and drag the bottom handle down. If the original has been split into more than two, you will have to start with the last and work backwards through them to the first.

Cut, copy, paste

Whole blocks can be cut or copied to the clipboard by using the appropriate functions under the 'Edit' menu.  Notice that when pasting, the blocks will always appear at the same position on the page from which they were cut or copied.

Using the 'Text' tool

The 'Text' tool  can be used to perform a number of editing functions on text within a text block.

Highlighting text

To highlight a portion of text, first select the 'Text' tool, then place the cursor at a point in the text. Click and drag the cursor to a second point in the text and release. The selected text should appear in reverse video. e.g.:

OR

Click an insertion point at the beginning of the text to be highlighted. Move the cursor to the end of the text and hold <Shift> whilst you click another insertion point.

Changing text attributes

Having highlighted a portion of text, you can alter its attributes by using the 'Type' menu.

The most useful choice here is 'Character', which allows you to alter fonts, size, type style (i.e.. bold, underline, etc.) in one go.

Cut, copy, paste

The highlighted text can be cut to the clipboard or copied to the clipboard by using the appropriate function under the 'Edit' menu. In either case, to re-insert the text somewhere else, position the cursor at the required position and click, then choose 'Edit' and click on 'Paste'.

Exercise

Use the four files named par1.txt, par2.txt, par3.txt and par4.txt.  Each of these has a short news story held in a single paragraph.  The files are standard ASCII text files with no special characters or formatting in them.

Open a new page in PageMaker and Place the four paragraphs on it, one at a time.  Then use the Pointer tool to re-size, re-shape and rearrange the paragraphs to give a suitable appearance on the page.

Experiment by setting up different numbers of columns before placing the text.

You can also use the Text tool to highlight text, and alter its appearance with the 'text' menu.

Larger text blocks

If the text to be placed is too big to fit on one page, PageMaker allows you to place it on several pages. This can be done manually or automatically.

Manual text flow

Import the text as normal. When one page is filled up, importation stops, and the text block has a red triangle in the bottom handle. Click once on this and the loaded text icon reappears. Now generate a new page (or pages) by selecting 'Layout' and 'Insert pages'. Several pages may be generated at once if required. Page markers appear at the bottom left of the screen, with the page(s) currently on display highlighted.  Click on a page number to switch to that page. Place the loaded text icon at the top of the next page and click. Repeat this process until there is no more text to place.

Auto text flow

Before importing the text, select 'Layout' and 'Autoflow'. When the text is imported, the text icon looks different - it now contains a squiggly arrow.

Place this text in the normal way, but now the text will automatically flow on to succeeding pages, creating new ones if necessary.

Threaded and unthreaded text

Where a single text 'story' is contained in several blocks, these blocks are 'threaded' together. This means that text from the first flows on to the second, and so on, to the end of the story. If, for instance, you add some more text to the first block, the text lost from the end of it will appear at the beginning of the second block, and so on. Thus the sense of the story is preserved even if the layout is changed.

A threaded text block can be identified by a plus sign in its top and/or bottom handles. Unthreaded text is where a text block stands alone, without being connected to any other block. These blocks have nothing in their top and bottom handles.

Threaded text block	Unthreaded text block

To unthread a threaded block

Select the block you wish to unthread with the Pointer tool.  Click on 'Edit' and 'Cut' (the block will disappear).  Now click on 'Edit' and 'Paste'.  The block will reappear in the same position, but it is now an unthreaded block.

BEWARE - if the block was in the middle of a story, say the second of three, the first block is now threaded directly to the third.

To thread in an unthreaded block

Choose the Text tool and highlight all the text in the block to be threaded.  'Cut' this.  Now click an insertion point within an existing threaded block and click on 'Paste'.  You may have to switch to the Pointer tool, select the new block, click on the bottom handle if it has a red triangle, and reposition the remaining text somewhere.

Exercise

Use the three text files named story1.txt, story2.txt and story3.txt.  Each of them contains a news story in pure text form with no headings.

Produce the first two pages of a newspaper which must contain these stories.  You may decide upon an arrangement, choose which story is to be the 'lead', invent your own headlines, etc.   Up to four columns may be used; text can span more than one column if necessary.  You have a completely free choice of which font(s), text size(s) and special effects to use.

Printing

Before printing, make sure that the machine you are using is actually connected to a printer!
Select 'File', 'Print' to obtain the following dialogue box:

The main details to check here are -

• Ensure that the printer in the 'Print to:' box corresponds to the one connected to your computer.
• Set the 'Pages' option to print the pages you want.

Please note that PageMaker is notorious for taking a long time to print, especially where graphics are concerned.