invisible text box in Word 2007

[Ted M H]

I am using many graphics and text boxes in my document. At one point I
inadvertantly dragged a text box off the top of a page and the text box just
disappeared. Now it's causing me problems when I try to place another
picture and text box in the same area of the document. It's there, and it's
impacting my page layout, but I can't see it or delete it. I tried using
Word's find function. I know the invisible box has the literals "Go To
Special" as do two other text boxes in my documents (the two other text boxes
are visible and fine). Word tells me that it has found three instances of
"Go To Special" in the text boxes in my document, so I know that third box is
in there somewhere. I even tried using the highlight feature, but that third
box remains invisible. Any ideas how I can track down that rouge invisible
text box and kill it?

 

[Aeneas]

Try switching to Print Layout view; move the pointer to the top of the page
where you think you dragged it off/ when the pointer turns into arrows
pointing towards each other iwth the ScreenTip Double-click to show white
space, double-click. Obviously if white space is already displayed, this
won't help you. Good luck!!

 

[Beth Melton]

Here are a couple things to try.

- Turn on your formatting marks (¶) on the Home tab in the Paragraph group
- Click in the area you think the text box is located. If you see an anchor
then the text box is selected. Another visual clue is the contextual Drawing
Tools will display when the text box is selected.
-----
- Add another text box
- Click the text box to select it
- Press the Tab key to cycle between the shapes/text boxes. Note that the
visual clues of the selection will be the same as described above.
------
- On the Home tab in the Editing group, click Select and then click Select
Objects
- Hover your mouse around, both on and off the page, when the mouse pointer
turns into a Move pointer (multi-directional arrows) click to select the
text box.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In addition to Beth's tip, if you display text boundaries (not sure where
this in Word 2007, but in earlier versions it's on the View tab of Tools |
Options), there'll be a dotted-line border around the text box even when
it's not selected.

 

[Luc]

Suzanne,
You can find text boundaries: Office button, Word options button, advanced,
it's in the view document section.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Thanks, Luc. I figured it would still be in the Word Options section.

 

[CyberTaz]

The excellent suggestions from others will probably help you resolve the
situation, but if not here's another weapon to use in the battle... And it
may prove useful at other times as well:

Click the Office button & select Word Options at the bottom of the menu.

Select Customize from the left list, then All Commands from the Choose
Commands From: list, locate the Select Multiple Objects command & add it to
your QAT. Once you use it you'll see exactly how it works.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Beth Melton]

Ha! Your suggestion is the best method to take in finding the object - mine
involves a lot of clicking and guesswork. ;-)

Why do I keep forgetting about this command??? PowerPoint 2007 and Excel
2007 both have a new Selection Pane which is used to select objects and set
the visibility of objects. Word didn't get a nifty new Selection Pane but in
a way we DO have one and have had it for several versions. Granted it's not
the same but it's close.

Thanks for the reminder, Bob!

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[CyberTaz]

Glad you like it! It's one of those things that has been buried at the
bottom of the heap for so long that many don't even know of it - and most of
those who *do* have forgotten I'm not a staunch proponent of "foreign
objects" in a doc in the first place, but when they _have_ to be there I
find that tool to be virtually indispensable. Particularly pleased that it
mad the trip into 2007

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Ted M H]

Thanks everyone for the help. As it turns out I somehow dragged objects from
the body of the document into the header and the header expanded to
accomodate the object. I ended up cutting from the header and pasting back
into the body, and was able to get the results I wanted. Still not exactly
sure what happened...All your replies helped me learn new stuff about
Word--thanks a million.