# Setting the Properties for a Frame

For each frame in your document, you can:

- Determine how &kword; handles full text frames

- Determine how text wraps around or through overlapping frames

- Determine the exact size of the frame

- Establish margins within a frame.

- Set a background colour and pattern for the frame.

All of these options can be altered using a set of dialogue boxes, or by using a previously defined framestyle.

A framestyle is a predefined set of frameset formatting options which is given a name. Once a frame has been assigned to a framestyle, any changes made to the framestyle will be reflected in all framesets which are assigned that framestyle.

You may be noticing that framestyles function in a way similar to text styles. The main difference, is framestyles control the look of the frame, and textstyles control the look of paragraphs within the frame.

## Using the frame settings dialogues

All of these settings can be determined in the Frame Properties dialogue box.

In order to adjust the properties of any frame, you must first select the frame you want to change.

Simply click once on the frame border of the frame you want to edit. (Or by holding down the &Ctrl; key and clicking inside the frame with the &LMB;.)

You can now edit the properties one of two ways:

- Select Frames Frame/Frameset... from the menubar.

- Place the mouse pointer on the border of the frame, and click once with the &RMB;. A small menu will appear. Select Frame/Frameset....

The Properties dialogue consists of one dialogue box, with five index tabs labelled Options, Text Run Around, Connect Text Frames, Geometry and Background.

### General Options

The tab labelled Options is used to determine how &kword; behaves when there is too much text to fit within the current bounds of the frame.

&kword; has three solutions to this situation:

Create a new page

- When a frame becomes full, &kword; automatically creates a new page. On this new page, it may create a new frame, of the same size and position, if you choose.

Resize last frame

- When a frame becomes full, &kword; automatically extends the bottom border of the text frame to accommodate the new text. It will continue to expand as new text is added. Conversely, it will shrink again if text is removed from the frame.

Don't show the extra text

- &kword; does not create a new frame or change the current frame in any way. You will need to manually resize the current frame, or add a new frame to the frame set.

Simply make your selection in the section labelled If Text is too long for Frame.

In the section entitled On new Page Creation, you have three options available. You must select one.

Reconnect frame to current flow

- Create a new frame, the same size and shape on a new page, and make it the last frame in the frameset.

Don't create a followup frame

- Creates a new page, but not a new frame.

Place a copy of this frame

- Creates a new page, with a new frame the same size, shape and position on the page. Additionally, &kword; copies the contents of the frame from the previous page.

  This is useful for title frames, headers and footer frames. Each page will have an automatic copy of the information on every new page.

If you place a mark in the check box labled Changes will be applied to all frames in the frameset, then any changes made in the frame properties dialogue box will automatically be applied to all frames within the frameset.

If you place a mark in the check box labelled Protect content, &kword; will not allow any changes to the text within the frame, or the formatting of the text within the frameset.

You can still reshape or even delete the frame, but the content within the frame is locked. To lock the location and size of the frame, see the Geometry tab.

To make changes to the text, you need to remove the mark from Protect content.

### Text Flow around frames

To adjust how text flows around overlapping frames, click the tab labelled Text Run Around.

When you overlay two text frames, and text from both frames is competing for the same space on the page, &kword; can (at your option), make sure that text from two frames does not overlap.

As you can see from the options in the dialogue box, there are three possible choices.

Text will run through this frames

- By selecting this option, &kword; will ignore this frame when it displays the text in overlapping frames.

Text will run around the frame

- By selecting this option, &kword; will wrap the text of other overlapping frames around this frame.

  If this option is selected, you can determine which side the text runs around in the section labelled Run Around Side. Simply choose Left, Right, or Biggest side.

Text will not run around the frame

- By selecting this option, &kword; will not wrap any text around the edges of this frame, but instead, will skip down below this frame before continuing to display text in overlapping frames.

You can also determine how close your frames appear by setting the Distance between frame and text in the text box provided.

### Reconnect frames

You can change which frameset the current frame belongs to by selecting the Connect text frames tab.

This dialogue consists of two radio buttons and a text frame.

Select Select existing frameset to connect frame to, to add the current frame to a previously created frameset. Choose one of the framesets listed in the table below to specify which frameset.

To create a new frameset, select Create a new frameset and type the name of the new frameset in the text box labelled Name of frameset. &kword; will create a new frameset with the current frame as the only frame in the frameset (for now).

It is helpful to name your framesets with descriptive names. Name the frameset with a description of the contents so that you can quickly refer to it again later.

### Frame size and position

You can adjust the size and position of your frame by clicking on the tab labelled Geometry.

This dialogue box allows you to specify exactly where the frame goes and how large it is.

If you put a mark in the check box labelled Frame is inline, the frame size and position will be determined by the location of the placeholder in the text. For a definition of inline frames, click here.

If you put a mark in the check box labelled Protect size and position, the frame size and position will be fixed at their current location. You will not be able to move the frame on the page until this box is unchecked.

#### Determine Size and Position

You can locate your frame on the page by first entering the Left: and Top: measurements. This determines where the top left corner of the frame will be. All measurements are from the top left corner of the page.

You can also determine the exact size of the frame by entering its Height: and Width: in the text boxes provided. These two measurements are relative to the top left corner of the frame you specified above. not to the size of the page.

#### Determine Size and Position

Using the boxes labelled Left:, Right:, Top: and Bottom:, you can establish margins within the frame. This should not be confused with margins for the page, which are defined in the page properties dialogue box.

If the Synchronise changes check box has a mark in it, &kword; will take any changes you make to one margin, and automatically apply them to the other 3 margins.

In other words, if this check box is selected, and you enter a margin of 1 cm in any of the 4 margin boxes, all 4 frame margins will now become 1 cm in size.

If this option is off, each text box can be given a different value.

### Frame Background

You can adjust the background colour of the text frame by selecting the Background tab.

The right side of the dialogue shows a preview of the current background.

Begin by selecting the colour of the background. Click on the button labelled Background Colour:. The colour is selected using the Colour selection dialogue.

Once the colour is selected, select the fill style from the combo box labelled Background Style.

Select OK to accept all of your changes.

Select Cancel to forget all of your changes.

## Using frame styles

### Formatting a frame with a framestyle

To format a frame using a predefined framestyle simply:

Select the frame(s) by holding down &Ctrl; and clicking within the frame with the &LMB;.

Select Frames Framestyle from the menubar. A submenu will appear, listing all the currently defined framestyles. Select the name of the framestyle you want and all selected frames will automatically be formatting using the options of that framestyle.

### Editing a framestyle

To change the options of a framestyle, you will use the framestylist.

Select Frames Frame Style Manager... from the menubar. A dialogue box will appear.

All of the currently defined framestyles are listed in the listbox on the left. The currently selected framestyle is highlighted, and the name of the currently selected framestyle is listed in the text box labelled Name. (In this example, the currently selected framestyle is Light grey.)

Select the name of the framestyle you want to change by clicking on the name of the framestyle in the listbox on the left.

There are three tabs in on the right side of the dialogue box: General, Borders and Background

In the General tab, you can change the name of the liststyle by typing the new name in the text box labelled Name. You can also see a preview of what your frame will look like in the preview box.

The Borders tab works the same as the tab of the same name when formatting a paragraph. For more specific information click here.

The Background tab operates identically to the same tab when it is used from the menubar. Click here for more specific instructions.

Once all changes have been made, click OK to save your changes. All of the affected framesets will be changed to reflect the new options.

### Creating a new framestyle

To create a new framestyle, select Frames Frame Style Manager... from the menubar. A dialogue box will appear.

Select a framestyle from the list at the left which most closely matches your new desired framestyle. The selected framestyle will be used as a template for the new framestyle. Select the framestyle by clicking once with the &LMB; in the list on the left.

Click on the New button. &kword; will generate a new framestyle, which is a copy of the previously selected framestyle.

Choose a name for your new framestyle, and type it in the text box labelled Name.

You can now change your frame border and background options. For details, see Editing a framestyle.

### Deleting a framestyle

To delete framestyle, select Frames Frame Style Manager... from the menubar. A dialogue box will appear.

Select the framestyle you want to delete from the list at the left. Select the framestyle by clicking once with the &LMB; in the list on the left.

Click on the Delete button.

&kword; will not allow you to delete the Plain framestyle.

### Changing the order of the framestyles in the list

To change the order that the framestyles are listed, select Frames Frame Style Manager... from the menubar. A dialogue box will appear.

The order the framestyles are listed in the menu is determined by the order of the framestyles in the list on the left.

Select the framestyle you want to move from the list at the left by clicking once with the &LMB;.

Now click on the up and down arrows located at the bottom of the list of framestyles. This will move the selected framestyle up or down in the list of framestyles.

When you are satisfied with the order of the list, select OK.

### Importing a framestyle from another &kword; file

To import a framestyle from another &kword; file, select Frames Frame Style Manager... from the menubar. A dialogue box will appear.

Click the button labelled Import From File. A dialogue box will appear allowing you to select the &kword; file using the file selection dialogue. Choose your file, and select OK.

A new dialogue box will appear listing all available framestyles for importing.

If &kword; encounters a duplicate framestyle name in the selected file, it will append a number to the end of the framestyle name to identify the imported style.

As an example, if you import the Plain framestyle from another &kword; file, &kword; will change the name to Plain-1.

Select all the framestyles you want to import. Then click OK.

The framestyles will now appear at the bottom of your list of framestyles. Click OK to save the framestyles in the new document.