Creating a Yellow Pages Document (Newbie)

[RAS]

I am trying to create a phone book yellow pages document and am having great
difficulty in getting graphics inserted to display correctly without fouling
up text and graphics which follow the insertion point.

The document is a double-column listing about 60 pages long and contains
graphics in four standard formats: 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and full page. Eighth and
quarter page graphics are bit mapped and a column width wide. Listings are
under typical yellow pages headings and are 3-4 lines long in appropriate
fonts.

My problem is getting text and graphics to flow correctly. I am trying to
modify an existing document created by someone else by inserting and
deleting revisions to text and ad artwork in Word formats. The existing
document appears to have been "brute-forced" to get text & images to display
on the page correctly. As a consequence, everytime I make a mod, it has a
tendency to "detonate" most document formatting (images in the wrong place
in sequential text; images on top of one another, etc.)

I am willing to start from scratch if I must. Are there some basic rules I
should follow to insert graphics properly in the text flow? Is Word the
wrong apllication for what I am trying to do? I have Publisher 2003, but it
appears more complex than Word 2002 for this task.

Thanks

 

[CyberTaz]

Hello RAS-

One term that doesn't appear in your post is Text Wrap, and that seems to be
the central issue. Images placed in a Word doc are set as 'In-Line' graphics
and behave as any other "character" on the line.

If the images are to remain in place and have the text flow around them in a
specific way, Text Wrap needs to be applied by selecting the picture and
using Format>Picture>Layout and choosing the appropriate style of text
wrapping.

It sounds like what you are working with is a doc that uses wrap on some
images, but others have been left in-line. You can check & change the style
of wrap as necessary in the Format Picture dialog box as well as on the
Picture Toolbar.

Word has been accused of not handling things particularly well when a lot of
graphics are involved. For a project like this, IMHO, a page layout program
(such as Publisher) makes the task much simpler. The text can still be done
in Word, then imported to the page layout file. The graphics can be layed in
anywhere along the way.

HTH |:>)