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Positioning Text Boxes
After you insert a text box, you can adjust its positioning on the page. This includes the ability to float text boxes to the left or right, or even outside of page frames.
This can be done through styles or by using local formatting. If you want to position all text boxes in the same place on the pages where they appear, use a style. If you want to position each text box so that it is in a unique location on the page where it has been inserted, use local formatting.
How to position text boxes using a style
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Open the topic style sheet that you want to modify.
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Make sure the appropriate medium is selected. If you are not using style sheet mediums for your different outputs or if you want all mediums to have the same settings, just leave the medium set to "default" and continue.
Mediums can be used if you want to use one group of settings for online output types (DotNet Help, HTML Help, WebHelp, WebHelp Plus, WebHelp AIR, WebHelp Mobile) and another group of settings for print-based output types (Adobe PDF, XHTML, Microsoft XPS, Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker). For example, you might use the "default" medium for your online outputs and you might use the "print" medium for your print outputs.
See About Style Sheet Mediums.
- In the local toolbar, make sure the first button displays
(which means that the Simplified view is currently shown in the editor). If the button displays 
instead, then click it.
- In the upper-left corner of the editor, click in the Show Styles field
and select Show Paragraph Styles.
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Select the appropriate <div> style. If you use the default style when inserting the text boxes, then select div. Otherwise, if you have used a class of that style that you created previously, then select it instead.
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In the local toolbar of the editor, click 
. The Properties dialog opens.
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Select the Position tab.
- In the Position section, you can select a Float and a Clear setting. You can also set the Vertical Alignment of the text box.
Float Use this field to specify where to place the text box on the page.
- None Does not place the text box in a specific location.
- Left Positions the text box on the left side of the page frame, allowing you to type text to the right of the text box.
- Right Positions the text box on the right side of the page frame, allowing you to type text to the left of the text box.
- Center of Column Positions the text box in the center of the column on the page.
- Outside Left Margin Positions the text box beyond the left margin of the topic text.
- Outside Right Margin Positions the text box beyond the right margin of the topic text.
- Outside Frame Positions the text box outside of the page frame.
- Outside Frame, Top Align Positions the text box outside of the page frame, as well as aligning it with the top of the frame.
- Left of Frame Positions the text box to the left of the page frame.
- Right of Frame Positions the text box to the right of the page frame.
- Center of Frame Positions the text box both vertically and horizontally in the middle of the page frame.
Clear Use this field to position a text box so that it is "clear" of an adjacent text box. For example, let's say you have already inserted a text box and applied the float left property to it. If you then insert another text box immediately after the first text box, you want to make sure that the second text box doesn't rest next to the first text box. Instead, you want the second text box to be placed completely below the first text box. Therefore, you can apply a clear property to the second text box.
- None Does not apply the clear property to the text box.
- Left Side The text box will be placed below the bottom outer edge of a previous text box that is floating left.
- Right Side The text box will be placed below the bottom outer edge of a previous text box that is floating right.
- Both Sides The text box will be placed below the a previous text box, whether it is floating left or right.
Vertical Alignment Use this field to adjust where the item is positioned vertically.
- Baseline The baseline of the box will be aligned with the baseline of the parent box.
- Text Top The top of the box will be aligned with the top of the parent element's font.
- Text Bottom The bottom of the box will be aligned with the bottom of the line box.
- Top The top of the box will be aligned with the top of the line box.
- Middle The vertical midpoint of the box will be aligned with the baseline of the parent box, plus half the x-height of the parent.
- Bottom The bottom of the box will be aligned with the bottom of the line box.
- In the Properties dialog, click OK.
- Press CTRL+S or click
to save your work.
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When you insert a text box, select the div tag that you have modified.
See Inserting Text Boxes.
- Open the content file (e.g., topic, snippet).
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Right-click inside the text box and from the menu, select Text Box.
The Text Box Properties dialog opens.
- Select the Size & Position tab.
- In the Position section, you can select a Float and a Clear setting. You can also set the Vertical Alignment of the text box.
Float Use this field to specify where to place the text box on the page.
- None Does not place the text box in a specific location.
- Left Positions the text box on the left side of the page frame, allowing you to type text to the right of the text box.
- Right Positions the text box on the right side of the page frame, allowing you to type text to the left of the text box.
- Center of Column Positions the text box in the center of the column on the page.
- Outside Left Margin Positions the text box beyond the left margin of the topic text.
- Outside Right Margin Positions the text box beyond the right margin of the topic text.
- Outside Frame Positions the text box outside of the page frame.
- Outside Frame, Top Align Positions the text box outside of the page frame, as well as aligning it with the top of the frame.
- Left of Frame Positions the text box to the left of the page frame.
- Right of Frame Positions the text box to the right of the page frame.
- Center of Frame Positions the text box both vertically and horizontally in the middle of the page frame.
Clear Use this field to position a text box so that it is "clear" of an adjacent text box. For example, let's say you have already inserted a text box and applied the float left property to it. If you then insert another text box immediately after the first text box, you want to make sure that the second text box doesn't rest next to the first text box. Instead, you want the second text box to be placed completely below the first text box. Therefore, you can apply a clear property to the second text box.
- None Does not apply the clear property to the text box.
- Left Side The text box will be placed below the bottom outer edge of a previous text box that is floating left.
- Right Side The text box will be placed below the bottom outer edge of a previous text box that is floating right.
- Both Sides The text box will be placed below the a previous text box, whether it is floating left or right.
Vertical Alignment Use this field to adjust where the item is positioned vertically.
- Baseline The baseline of the box will be aligned with the baseline of the parent box.
- Text Top The top of the box will be aligned with the top of the parent element's font.
- Text Bottom The bottom of the box will be aligned with the bottom of the line box.
- Top The top of the box will be aligned with the top of the line box.
- Middle The vertical midpoint of the box will be aligned with the baseline of the parent box, plus half the x-height of the parent.
- Bottom The bottom of the box will be aligned with the bottom of the line box.
- Click OK.
- Press CTRL+S or click to save your work.
Note: If you want to adjust the space between the object and the text that flows next to it, you can modify the margins on the object (using the Borders & Margins tab in the dialog).
Note: For additional details on the rules for floating objects, see http://www.w3c.org.
See Also
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