To add to what Jezebel has said, frames are older than text boxes. When MS
introduced text boxes, they were expected to replace frames, and so Frame
was removed from the Insert menu (if you use frames often, you'll want to
put it back). As it turned out, however, text boxes do NOT replace frames
for several important purposes. The times when you need a frame instead of a
text box are specified in the Knowledge Base article "WD2000: General
Information About Floating Objects" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=268713. As Jezebel points out, the most
important of these is for any text that you want Word to be able to "see"
for purposes of a cross-reference, a table of contents, a table of figures,
or an index. Which is why it is especially frustrating that, if you use
Insert | Caption with a floating (wrapped) object selected, Word puts the
caption in a text box (you'll need to either convert that to a frame or pull
the text out, change the wrapping on the figure to In Line With Text, and
insert both figure and caption in a single frame).
Some differences between frames and text boxes:
1. The text in a text box is always in the Normal style (though you can
change it to some other style after inserting the text box). Since a frame
can be included in a paragraph style, you can use any style, and you can
insert the frame just by applying the style; for one use of this, see
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/MarginalText.htm.
2. Both frames and text boxes have a border by default. To remove the border
from a frame, you must use Format | Borders and Shading | None; to remove
the border from a text box, you must use Format Text Box | Colors and Lines
| No Line. If you want a border on a frame, you can have it on all or
specified sides, and you can use different borders (different style, weight,
color) on different sides; a text box border is all or nothing, a box.
3. Frames can be positioned almost as precisely as text boxes (relative to
page, column, margin, paragraph), but their wrapping limited to None
(inline) and Around (wrapped). Wrapping on text boxes can use any of the
styles available for any AutoShape or drawing object (Behind Text, In Front
of Text, Square, Tight, etc.). What this means in practical terms is that
you need a text box if you want to layer text over a picture, but a frame is
what you need for a figure and its caption, which you are not likely to want
to put in front of or behind text but do want to keep together and make
visible to the Table of Figures.
4. Text boxes, since they are in the drawing layer, are not visible in
Normal view. Frames are, but their positioning is not; that is, if they are
wrapped, they will still appear inline.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site:
http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
"Elmer" wrote in message
oups.com...
After having created a text box, if you right click on the box, a
"Format Text Box" window appears among the drop-down choices. One of
the tabs on this window is actually called "Text Box," and on this tab,
there is a choice to "Convert to Frame."
What does "Convert to Frame" actually achieve (aside from making the
text box no longer editable--believe me, I tried)? What exactly *is* a
"Frame," and why would a WORD user want to convert a Text Box to one?
Another question: What in the world does "Maintain Aspect Ratio" mean
when applied to a Text Box?
WORD is so much more complex than most WORD users ever think!
Thanks.