One question I frequently hear from QuarkXPress users is: “Is there a way to anchor a picture box in a text box, yet have it hang outside the box and follow along when the text flow changes?”

Well, yes. I can think of two ways to do this. One trick would be to paste the picture box as an anchored graphic at the beginning of the paragraph, then type a space before it. You could then kern back over the space a considerable amount, putting the graphic outside text box.

Another trick would be to turn on the automatic Clipping Path for that picture, then turn off the checkbox labeled Restrict to Box:

You could then use the Arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the picture outside of its box. You then need to resize the picture box so that the text moves over to the left where you want it to be.

If you have a lot of these to format, you could copy and paste the beginning of your formatted text, including the hanging graphic, from one paragraph to the next. Then just replace the graphic in the box with a new graphic and press Command-Option-Shift-F. This will fit the new graphic proportionately into the existing picture box. (Windows: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F)

Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson is the editorial director of PlanetQuark.com, and the editor and publisher of Design Tools Monthly. He’s also the author of the QuarkXPress 8 and QuarkXPress 7 training titles at Lynda.com, as well as the training videos Quark includes in the box with QuarkXPress 7 . In addition, Jay writes regularly for Macworld and Photoshop User magazines and speaks at industry events.