Converting a Text Box to a Frame

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated May 11, 2013)

6

All versions of Word support frames, but not all of them support text boxes. There may be times when you want to convert a text box to a frame. For instance, you might be preparing your document to be used on an older version of Word, or you need to take advantage of things you can do with frames that you can't do with text boxes. To make the conversion, follow these steps:

  1. Right-click on the text box. Word displays a Context menu.
  2. Choose the Format Text Box from the Context menu. Word displays the Format Text Box dialog box.
  3. Click on the Text Box tab. (See Figure 1.)

    4. Figure 1. The Text Box tab of the Format Text Box dialog box.

  4. Click on Convert to Frame. You see a dialog box informing you that some features of your text box may be lost in the conversion.
  5. Click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1823) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He  is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is 5 + 0?

2016-06-08 11:41:03

Charles Kenyon

If you can save your document in Word 2007 or earlier mode, you will have access to the convert to frame command.

Simplest would be to save as .doc format, do the conversion, and copy the converted frame back into the original .docx format document.

2016-06-08 11:20:11

Charles Kenyon

This does not work in Word 2010 (or later I suspect). There is no Format Textbox command in the right-click menu.

2016-03-05 19:23:48

Jay

serious problem with this that in Word 2013, there IS no "Format Text Box" option. So this is completely bogus.

2015-03-18 13:07:43

awyatt

Curt (and Jo):

I don't think there is a way to do this in Word 2013. That's why this tip says it is for older versions of Word where frames were actually supported.

-Allen

2015-03-18 13:01:29

Curt

Same here, Jo, and I'm using Word 2010. But since he hasn't answered your question from 2013, he obviously won't answer mine. Worthless website.

2013-08-04 22:21:34

Jo

Can you tell me how to do this in Word 2013? You can select 'format shape' and the margins and wrap text options are there, but there is no option to convert to Frame.

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