When you type or import text into a text frame, the text becomes part of an article. Text frames are containers which hold text articles. Articles can flow from page to page because text frames can be linked together.
You can place more than one article on a page. For example, a newspaper generally has half a dozen articles on the front page which are continued on inside pages. Each article is in a linked series of text frames where the first frame is on the front page and the other frames are on the inside pages.
If there are other text items accompanying an article, such as a caption, you should create separate text frames or text blocks for them.
When text frames are linked together, text will flow from the first to the last. If you add text into a frame, text will move from the bottom of it to the top of the next frame. If you delete text from a frame, text from the next frame will move up to the bottom of that frame.
1. Begin text linking.
Select the Link button from the toolbar or choose Link Text Frames from the Layout menu. The mouse pointer will change to an empty frame shape.
2. Select the frame to link from.
Click on the text frame from which to flow text. The mouse pointer will change to a full frame shape.
If the frame selected to link from is already in the middle of a series of linked frames, the existing link to the next frame will be broken and all the text will be picked up and placed in the new link.
3. Select the frame to link to.
Click on the text frame to which to flow text. Text from the first frame will flow into it if there was too much text (overset text) in the previous frame. The mouse pointer will remain unchanged so that you can continue to add frames to this series. You can change pages while linking frames to create links between pages.
4. End text linking.
Click again on the last frame in the linked series to end text linking, or choose a tool in the toolbox.
PageStream will display an overset indicator at the bottom right corner of a text frame if there is too much text to fit into the frame and it is not linked to another frame. To clear the overset indicator, you can edit the text to fit, or link the frame to another frame.
1. Click on the overset indicator.
Choose the Text tool and click on the overset indicator. The mouse pointer will change to a full frame shape.
2. Select the frame to link to.
Click on the text frame to which to flow text. Text from the first text frame will flow into the second frame.
3. End text linking.
Continue text linking as you normally would, or click again on the second frame to end text linking, or choose a tool in the toolbox.
You can break an article into two at any time by severing the link between text frames. The text that is visible in a linked frame will remain in the frame after the link is broken.
1. Place the insertion point in the text frame to unlink.
Choose the Text tool and click in the text frame.
2. Break the text links.
Select the Unlink tool or choose Unlink Text Frames from the Layout menu. Text links will be broken in both directions if the text frame is linked from one frame and to another.
You can choose to break the links in only one direction by holding down Shift while choosing Unlink Text Frames. A dialog box will appear to select the direction to unlink.
If you are unsure of the order in which frames are linked, PageStream can display a bar at the top of each frame with linking information. Choose Preferences from the File menu, click on the View tab, and select Show Text Frame Links to display this bar.
The leftmost number in the bar is the page number of the text frame from which the frame is linked. The rightmost number is the page number of the text frame to which the frame is linked. The center numbers indicate the article number (A: #), the current frame's number and the number of frames in this linked series (F: current # / # in series).
You can check these numbers to verify that your text links are correctly setup. This is especially important in a complete document such as a newspaper in which text frames are not linked in the same order as the pages.
If the left or right number is replaced by dashes, it means that the text frame is the first or last frame respectively in the linked series.