Extract Text Box info

[Guest]

I've read a number of previous posts about removing text boxes but none seem
to apply.

I have many files where I need to extract the information that's in the text
box and integrate it with the other text on the page - not just change the
properties of the box.

Basically, I have a doctor typing notes who put in the patient information
in a text box and wrote the care note in the word document. I'm further
trying to convert this file into Excel for later inclusion into an EMR
database. The box carries over as a unacceptable floating item not associated
with the note information.

I have about 300 word files with about 15 patient notes on each with the 15
text boxes.

Thank you,
philr

 

[Guest]

Using Office 2003.

Thanks again,
philr

 

[Graham Mayor]

Text boxes are essentially graphical elements in the drawing layer of the
document and are not part of the document text. To integrate their content
with the document text, it is necessary to convert the text box to a frame
(which is in the text layer). You can then remove the frame. However removal
of the frame (even the conversion of text box to frame) will affect the
formatting and layout of the document. This is not going to be a five minute
job!

Discourage the doctor from formatting documents in this manner or you could
make this a full time job

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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[Guest]

Thank you Mr. Mayor.

Your suggestion was great. I made a mistake calling the shape a Text Box.
When selected it calls itself an Auto Shape.

I followed your directions for the Auto Shape and it still worked. I also
reassigned the command button "Convert Text Box to Frame" to the toolbar to
make the operation easier though I still have to select each shape and
slightly reformat the pagination. Could be worse.

I'll talk with the doc to create a new template using a frame box instead -
or something else.

Thanks again,
philr

 

[Stefan Blom]

Note also that you can add frame formatting to a paragraph style, which
makes it easy to apply the frame to text.

Getting rid of the frame would also be easy: just clear it from the
style definition.

Where the "framed" text ends up after deleting the frame is still a
complex issue, though.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


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