A text box is a graphical element in Word 2013 that contains — hold your breath— text. The text can be used as a decorative element (as a pull quote) to highlight a passage of text on the page, or it can be simply an information box or an aside, such as those that litter the pages of USA Today.
The primary purpose of the text box is to prevent your document from becoming what graphic designers refer to as the dreaded Great Wall of Text.
Text boxes are easily shoved into a document by following these steps:
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Click the Insert tab.
You should see the text group.
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In the Text group, choose Text Box.
There will be options for your text box.
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Choose a preformatted text box from the list.
The text box is splashed onto the current page in your document.
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Rewrite the text in the box.
The Drawing Tools Format tab appears whenever a text box is ready for editing on the screen. The tab hosts a hoard of text box formatting and style commands. Most of them are similar, if not identical to, the formatting commands used on images and graphics in Word. Indeed, text boxes are basically graphical elements, just like images and pictures.
If you prefer to create your own text boxes, choose the Draw Text Box command from the Text Box menu (refer to Step 2). Drag the mouse to create a text box at a specific location and size. The text box appears empty, ready for you to type something.
Text in a text box can be formatted the same as any text outside the box.
It’s common to copy and paste text from the document into the box, which is how pull quotes work.
Turn text sideways inside the text box by using the Text Direction button. Look in the Text group on the Text Box Tools Format tab.
To delete a text box, click it with the mouse and press the Delete button on the keyboard.
You can create a text box of any shape by inserting that shape into your document, right-clicking the shape, and then choosing the Add Text command from the pop-up menu.
