The story assignment tool assigns a story to a shape in either of three ways:
A story is an element that can be added to any existing shape element. The same story can be assigned to multiple shape elements, or different stories can be assigned to some, or all shape elements. When a shape is initially created, it has no story assigned to it. A story is assigned to a shape with the Text tool.
The Assign Story tool
The story assignment tool assigns a story to a shape in either of three ways:
A story serves as a place holder for text elements that are subsequently supplied as body copy. When a story is assigned to a shape, the shape serves as the boundary for subsequent body copy. Although the initial assignment of a story to a shape creates a new story, an existing story can be assigned to additional shapes. When the same story is assigned to more than one shape, the order in which the body copy flows through the shapes is determined by the shape's story sequence number. When a story is assigned to a shape, the story sequence number of the shape is initially set to the end position, but can then be changed to any position in the sequence.
Along with reassignment of a shape's story and story sequence number, a
shape can revert to having no story by selecting the No
Story entry of the story option menu.
Text Flow page of Text palette
The Text Entry tool
When a story is created with the first click or drag of the text tool,
the text cursor remains at the start of the new story block.
When the text tool is clicked or dragged over an existing story block,
the text cursor remains placed beside the character closest to the
cursor at the time of button release.
The placement of the text cursor anywhere within, before, or after an assigned story allows the entry of text to the right of the cursor position. When the cursor is dragged across existing text, the text becomes highlighted, and the text cursor remains at the end of the selected span of text. All text highlighted in this way is deleted upon entry of new text, and the new text is placed to the right of the cursor.
Along with keyboard entry, text can also be applied to a story using the import option, the paste option, or the X Windows "Primary Copy" function.
When text is added to a story, its character and paragraph attributes are determined by the settings in the corresponding pages of the text palette, which may have been set independently or by the style menu.
Text in an enclosed shape
A new story can be created by either dragging to create a new story in a new rectangular shape, or by clicking in an existing arbitrary shape. When the dragged shape, or any other enclosed shape is assigned a story, the boundary of the shape serves as the margin for the text.
A story flowing from a dragged text box, to a second assigned shape.
Text in an open shape
While an enclosed shape serves as a margin for the body copy of an assigned story, an open shape serves as a baseline for a single paragraph of an assigned story. A story is assigned to an open shape in the same way as a closed shape, by clicking on the shape with the text tool. The body copy assigned to an open shape is then flowed along the path of the shape. Text assigned to a path in this way will flow until the end of the text, or the end of the path. If no hard return [CR} occurs before the end of the path, additional base lines are generated, offset by the current leading, and following the same path, until all the text in the paragraph is typeset. If one or more paragraphs remain in the body copy, the story will flow into the next open or closed assigned shape.
A story with paragraph delimited lines flowing from one open path to the next.
A shape remains editable, in both geometry and attributes, after the assignment of a story.
