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I have several floating text boxes that have borders around them and text inside. I would like to convert them to inline text boxes, also with a border. I can't seem to do this.

Alternatively, I would like to create an inline text box, enter the text, and add a border. But I can't seem to do this either. When I click on the text box icon in the menu bar at the top of the NW file I get a floating shape--which is not what I want. I must doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what it is. I find inline text boxes to be much simpler to use (I use them mostly to put images on a page), but I can't seem to create an inline shape with a border into which I can enter text.

Background to this question: The problem came to light when I tried to use the "File>Export as . . . epub" command. The epub file generated was not identical with the NW file, mainly because an floating palette containing text, had shifted and lost its border, thereby changing the formatting of the file (the page layout had changed--for example, photographs which were intended to be on a particular page had shifted to the next page, and the size some photographs (all in inline textbooks) had changed.)

Hello Frank:

The best solution is for you to use paragraph borders and shading. You can apply such options to regular text paragraphs to achieve the look of an inline text box. To add such display options to your text use the main menu (eg: Format > Paragraph Borders) or the paragraph palettes.

However, there is a complication. You mentioned creating an EPUB file, and unfortunately paragraph borders and shading are not exported to the EPUB file format. You would need to use a table to create a boxed/bordered paragraph that survives the export to EPUB. You can place your text paragraph inside a table with a single table cell.

I hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks for your reply Martin.

Unfortunately, if it doesn't work with the Import to epub command, that's a problem for me since that's where the difficulty arose.

As an alternative, would it work to first create a pdf version of the file, and then convert the pdf file to epub? I am not sure how to do this. Would Calibre do this? (I have downloaded Calibre, but have not used it.) Or is there some other software that would covert pdf to epub successfully?

Frank Einstein wrote: ↑2020-10-21 08:20:23 Unfortunately, if it doesn't work with the Import to epub command, that's a problem for me since that's where the difficulty arose.

I assume you mean export to EPUB. Did you see my suggestion to use a table? I just confirmed that table cell borders are exported to EPUB properly.

As an alternative, would it work to first create a pdf version of the file, and then convert the pdf file to epub?

I'm sorry but I'm really not sure. It could work, along with other methods of converting files to EPUB, but it really depends on the quality of the converter. I haven't used any, so I couldn't say. If you try this please let us know how it goes.

Tanks for your reply. (Yes, of course I meant export to EPUB, not import. I must have been tired.) I will try using your suggestion to use a table.