 | Contouring text within a Fancy page border in WordPerfect® 9
By Katherine McCray
One of the easiest ways to draw attention to your document is to add a page border. WordPerfect® comes with two types of page borders, Line and Fancy, which consist of basic line styles and graphics, respectively. Even though page borders are most often used to create documents such as invitations and certificates, they can also be used to liven up any type of content.
If you've ever applied a Fancy page border to a finished document, you've quickly realized that the graphic covers part of your text, making it illegible. One way to avoid this is to apply the border first to a blank document and then type the text in a manner that doesn't overlap any of the border graphic. But depending on the border you use, this may involve having to frequently press the [Tab] and [Spacebar] keys as well as break lines in unusual places to keep the text clear of the graphic.
There's another method you can use that allows you to easily fit your text to a page border graphic with a few simple steps, as shown in Figure A. In this article, we'll show you how you can use guidelines to manipulate margins in order to contour your text to a Fancy page border.
Figure A: By manipulating the margins you can easily adjust your text to fit within a Fancy page border.
The technique
As mentioned, you can adjust text around the graphic of a Fancy page border by tabbing, spacing and breaking lines as needed. Our technique, however, involves using the guidelines to manipulate the page margins before you enter your text. This way the text automatically flows within the border graphic. Another advantage is that you'll get a better idea of how much text will fit on the page and how it will look after you tweak the margins.
First, you'll apply a Fancy border to a blank document and then move the margins inside the border graphic. You'll then apply the new margin settings to your text document and copy and paste the text into the border document. Finally, you'll tweak the margins to get the contour effect you want.
This technique also works if you want to type the text directly into the border document instead of copying and pasting. After you type your text within the newly set margins, you can then tweak the margins for the contour effect. But for the purpose of this article, we'll copy and paste existing text.
A few things about margins
Once the guidelines are turned on, you can drag the margins to new positions. The vertical margins (left or right) are controlled by hard returns. This means that you can move the margin of one paragraph separately from the remaining paragraphs. You can also insert a hard return at the end of a line within a paragraph if you want to move the remaining part separately.
Setting up the border and margins
The first step is to apply a Fancy page border to a new document. To begin, open a blank document in Page view and choose Format, Page, Border/Fill to display the Page Border/Fill dialog box. Select Fancy from the Border Type dropdown list to show the available Fancy borders. Click on the Marsh border from the Available Border Styles list box, as shown in Figure B, and then click Apply and OK to apply the border to the document.
Figure B: There are many different types of Fancy borders to choose from.
Next you'll use the guidelines to adjust the vertical and horizontal margins so that they're positioned inside of the border graphic. However, you first need to double-check that the guidelines are turned on. To do this, choose View Guidelines to display the Guidelines dialog box. Select the Drag To Move Guidelines and Margins check boxes if they aren't already selected, and then click OK. Now hover the mouse pointer over the right vertical margin until you see a double arrow. Click and drag the margin to the left so it's just before the bird's beak, as shown in the top portion of Figure C. Let go of the mouse button and drag the bottom horizontal margin up above the water swirl, as shown in the bottom portion of Figure C.
Note: Once your margins are set at their new positions, if you prefer to type your text into the border document you can do so at this point.
Jot down the new margin settings for the next step; in our case they're Left=1, Right=4.06, Top=1 and Bottom=2.44. If you didn't make note of the ToolTips that showed the new margin settings, you can access them by choosing Format Margins.
Figure C: Adjust the vertical and horizontal margins so that the text falls within the border graphic.
Setting up the text
Open the document containing the text you want to use with the Fancy border. Format the text the way you want it and then make sure the insertion point is at the beginning of the document. Choose Format Margins and enter the new margin settings you created earlier. Click Apply and OK (OK only in WordPerfect 9) to apply the settings to your text, as shown in Figure D.
Figure D: Apply the new border document margin settings to the text you want to add.
Now choose Edit Select All and click the Copy button on the WordPerfect toolbar to copy the text to the Clipboard. Use the Window menu to switch to the border document and then click the Paste button on the WordPerfect toolbar to paste your text.
Because of the new margin settings, your text may run over to another page or two. If you only want the border to appear on the first page, place the insertion point at the beginning of the second page and choose Format Page Border/Fill. In the Page Border/Fill dialog box, click the Discontinue button to remove the border from the second page. Repeat this step for any other pages from which you want to remove the border. We'll adjust the margins for any subsequent pages later.
Contouring the text
Scroll up to the first page of the border document, if necessary. As mentioned earlier, the margins will move individually according to the hard returns in the text. Start at the top of the document and drag the right vertical margin to the right until you come to the grass in the border graphic.
Note:
If your document contains a title, as ours does, the whole margin may move when you drag it to the right, instead of just a portion of it. If this happens, you can start with a paragraph below the title and then go back and fix the title margin, or simply drag the right margin back to its starting point for the first paragraph.
Work your way down the document, moving the margin to the right of each paragraph individually to create the contour effect, as shown in Figure E. If your text has bulleted items as ours does, you can move them separately as well. Any line that ends with a hard return can be moved separately. At the bottom of the page, you may need to move the margin to the left to clear the grass in that area. When you've finished, you should have a document similar to the one shown in Figure A.
Figure E: Any line or group of lines that ends with a hard return can be moved individually.
When you've finished contouring the text on the first page, you may need to make further adjustments to the margins on any subsequent pages. The vertical margin from the first page is carried over to the next page, so if you move it on the second page, it moves on the first page as well. To get around this, press [Enter] after the last word on the first page to insert a hard return. This creates a new margin that can be moved individually on the second page.
Conclusion
Using Fancy page borders is a quick way to draw attention to any type of document. In this article, we've shown you how you can manipulate a Fancy border's margins so the text fits snugly within its graphic.
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