Converting one column to two...

[Ewan]

Hi

I hope someone can help. I have a Pagemaker file which has been constructed in two columns BUT the writer has typed the first line of column one and then tabbed over and typed the first line of column two and so on with subsequent lines.

So I guess it's not real columns at all. Is there any way I can split this text down the middle so I can highlight the text in one of the so called columns? I am not an expert in PM at all but just facing the daunting task of retyping a 40 page document beacuse I can't do a cut and paste!!

Please help!

Thanks

Ewan

 

[zefir]

Ewan: the only solution I can see:
Cut once and paste twice per page (even outside) and delete
in the left copy the right part and right copy the left part line per line.
Then adjust the frame widths and arrange on the page. ----G.Hoffmann.

 

[carlow]

As far as I am concerned I don't beleive in predefined text. I think the person of the layoutshouldbe the master of the final view.
So, when Iget text from a person or company I only wa'ttext to be the plain as possible. The refining of the text and th choices madeare ot only text oriented but may e of a totally different nature.
This might be a non-informative reply but surely as hel it is a reply that concerns all people who are at the end of a circle.
Anyway, if you really wan't a resolution to your question there is only one way. Open up the text file in your pagemaker editor. Make sure you delete all the hidden paragraph styles of the original text file, then you can do the normal pagemaker things like creating colums, aso...
Take the text let it flow in the colums and the problem is gone.
For al persons who are working with a layout program, may it e, Pagemaker (my avorite) Indesign, Quark Express or whatever... Don't let text editing programs or databases take over on the freedom of a layout program. It's not the preformatted text that's important, it's the result that counts.

 

[zefir]

Grillhouse: I understood the question like this:
The text should be converted to two columns:

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa bbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
cccccccccccccccccc ddddddddddddddd

Looks like two columns, but is only one column,
so far. -----G.Hoffmann

 

[carlow]

if you wan't to have text like that, don't use the column utility in your text editor, just use the tabe to seperate a and b. use only one tab between the last word of the a-column an the b-colum, then adjust the tabs in Pagemaker.