Text flow around object
You can see a concrete example below:
Text is to be formatted round a graphic.
The four Text flow
icons allow you to flow a text contained
in a text frame around any other desired object(s). Any other frame
can serve as the object for this. With raster graphics, however, text
formatting will not be around the contents of the frame but around the
complete rectangular frame border holding the graphic. With objects
such as raster areas, vector graphics and line frames, the text will
follow the shape of the actual object.
This flow-around path then serves as a new left or right margin
edge for formatting the text. But you can also alter this flow path
with the Show text flow
function described above. The way that
the text will flow around the object depends on which of three icons
you click on.
To format the text, click first on the text frame (in Modify frame mode). Then select whether the text should flow to the left, right, or both sides of the object by clicking on the appropriate Text flow icon (see below). Now, select the frame or frames which the text should flow around. When you click on the Text flow icon a second time, Calamus will reformat the text in the way that you imagined. (It is possible to flow text around more than one frame at a time.)
The differences between the three types of text flow should still be described briefly:
As long as there is room for text on only one side of the object or objects, all three Text flow icons will have the same effect. It is only when there is room for text on both sides of the object(s) that you will see a difference. The icon shown will place the text on both the left and right sides of the object, providing this is possible acording to the formatting rules (see also Text rulers settings of the Text module):
The flow path created during text formatting is managed together with the text frame. So if the object is moved, a new text flow path has to be created.
The fourth icon (the first in the Text flow group, already mentioned above) serves to delete the flow path again and restore a rectangular text format. To do this, just select the formatted text frame and then click on this icon. All formatting around objects will disappear from the frame, and the text will fill it normally.
Following are examples of some interesting flow paths you might want to construct: To put your text in the shape of a triangle, create two invisible upside-down triangular raster area frames over the text:
Now, select the text frame and click on the icon that places text on both sides of the frame.
Then select the first raster area frame by clicking on it, and the second raster area frame by clicking on it while holding down the [Shift] key. Click on the Text flow icon once more. If you are happy with the shape of the text, you can delete the raster area frames:
Line frames open up even more possibilities. Note that the text can flow along both sides of the line. This allows you to create an empty oblique streak through the middle of the column by setting Text flow offset to an appropriate width around the line:
A further example: A slanted text column. For this the text should not be formatted in a rectangular shape, but the columns should run at an angle. Here too you can use two triangular raster areas to define the left and right flow-around polygons. First, create an empty text frame over which you lay two triangular raster areas:
Set the flow path as described above. Now, you can delete the
raster area frames. The text frame created, in which the text will
slant from top right to bottom left, should be copied (physically)
once for each column required. Now link these oblique columns into a
piping chain with the Text flow from frame to frame
function
(see below). You should only now import the text, which will be
formatted to the desired shape.
