text boxes are linked even though Word doesn't think they're linked

Using Word 2000 on Windows 2000.

I have a document that contains a lot of complicated graphics that
we've drawn right in Word. I've had no real problems with text boxes
until now--on the very last graphic in this document.

When I create a text box and type text into it, Word seems to
connect it to the next text box or to some other random space on the
page.

I've looked at every text box on the page and none of them are
linked. If I delete the text boxes and start over--creating new text
boxes and placing them on the page, the same problem begins
somewhere around the second or third text box.

Argh. Help. What is this?

Here are new behaviors:

When I create a Word text box, a sort of mirror image text box
appears in close proximity to the box that I've just drawn. What's
in the first text box appears in the second one; when I alter the
text in one, the text in the other changes as well.

Sometimes when I create a text box, two or three cursors appear
within it. If I start to type in that box, then sometimes a twin box
appear elsewhere on the page...usually closeby.

The two text boxes aren't linked. In fact, no text boxes are linked
on the page at all (or anywhere in the document as far as I know).

The two text boxes aren't grouped.

If I select one text box and turn off the border, then the contents
of the other/twin text box overwrite the current text box--they sit
on top of each other and slightly off, so that you can see both sets
of text.

If I delete one, they both go away and then I get bounced to the
first page of the document.

I can't find anything about this in the MS Word groups and I'm about
to do myself in over this one.

Have you seen this before?

Thanks.
Barbara



Barbara White wrote:

Using Word 2000 on Windows 2000.

I have a document that contains a lot of complicated graphics that we've
drawn right in Word. I've had no real problems with text boxes until
now--on the very last graphic in this document.

When I create a text box and type text into it, Word seems to connect it
to the next text box or to some other random space on the page.

I've looked at every text box on the page and none of them are linked.
If I delete the text boxes and start over--creating new text boxes and
placing them on the page, the same problem begins somewhere around the
second or third text box.

Argh. Help. What is this?

Hi Barbara,

Oddities with text boxes crop up on occasion. Best we've been able to
tell, this is some form of document corruption; there also seems to be
a limit to the number of drawing objects a Word document can deal with
without "losing it".

Some people have reported that copying and pasting all except the last
paragraph mark into a new document helps.

You might also try bringing together separate elements that make up a
whole into a "Word picture" and see if that stabilizes the situation.
(Look for "Word Picture" in Tools/Customize/Commands, under the Drawing
catagory and drag it to your Drawing toolbar. clicking on that will
bring you into Word's picture editor. Everything you put in here will
be managed by Word as a single graphic, rather than separate Drawing
objects)

Using Word 2000 on Windows 2000.

I have a document that contains a lot of complicated graphics that
we've drawn right in Word. I've had no real problems with text boxes
until now--on the very last graphic in this document.

When I create a text box and type text into it, Word seems to
connect it to the next text box or to some other random space on the
page.

I've looked at every text box on the page and none of them are
linked. If I delete the text boxes and start over--creating new text
boxes and placing them on the page, the same problem begins
somewhere around the second or third text box.


Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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