Page 225 - Xara Designer Pro X17

Text Handling 225

Multi-column pages
You can use two or more text areas on your page, linked together as described
above, to make a multi-column page layout. But Designer Pro provides a much
quicker way to do this.
Select the text area that you want to make multi-column, or place the text caret
in it, then click the COLUMNS button on the TEXT TOOL InfoBar. Or right-click on
the text and choose COLUMNS… from the context menu.

The Columns dialog
appears...

Columns dialog
By default the number of columns shown will match the number of linked text areas you
have on the current page. But you can change this number to match the number of
columns you would like. So enter 3 for a 3 column layout. You can also specify the size
of the gap you would like between your columns. When done, press CONVERT. Your text
areas are transformed into a set of matching columns equally spaced.

The overall width of the set of text areas is maintained when you use the Columns dialog,
so if your original text areas cover only the left half of the page, so will the set of columns
created. Therefore if you want the columns to span the full width of the page, move
and/or resize the text areas so they do cover the full width and then use the Columns
dialog again to give them all equal size and spacing.

A 1 column page transformed into a 3 column page.