All text in InDesign resides inside containers called text frames. (Text frames are similar to text boxes in QuarkXPress and text blocks in Adobe PageMaker.)

Like graphics frames, text frames can be moved, resized, and changed. The tool with which you select a text frame determines the kind of changes you can make:

• Use the Type tool  to enter or edit text in a frame.

• Use the Selection tool  for general layout tasks such as positioning and sizing a frame.

• Use the Direct Selection tool  to alter a frame’s shape.

Text frames can also be connected to other text frames so that the text in one frame can flow into another frame. Frames that are connected in this way are threaded. Text that flows through one or more threaded frames is called a story. When you place (import) a word-processing file, it comes into your document as a single story, regardless of the number of frames it may occupy.

Text frames can have multiple columns. Text frames can be based on, yet independent of, page columns. In other words, a two-column text frame can sit on a four-column page. Text frames can also be placed on master pages and still receive text on document pages.

If you use the same type of text frame repeatedly, you can create an object style that includes text frame formatting such as stroke and fill colors, text frame options, and text wrap and transparency effects.