Patent ID: 7423659

Claim:
A method in a computer system for editing a word processing document having text boxes, the method comprising: displaying on a display device the text boxes of the word processing document, the text boxes each having one or more edit regions, wherein an edit region includes an insertion area and text bounded by a rectangular box having a height and a width, and wherein the insertion area allows for an insertion of text by extending the width of the rectangular box of the edit region; and in response to receiving from a user a selection of a location on the display device, determining whether the selected location is within a void region of the word processing document, wherein a void region is any area of the word processing document that is outside of an edit region within the text boxes; when the selected location is not within a void region of the word processing document, entering an edit mode so that the user can edit the text within the selected edit region; and when the selected location is within a void region of the word processing document, inserting a new text box at the selected location, the newly inserted text box being independent of the other text boxes, wherein when the newly inserted text box is larger than the void region, decreasing the width of at least one edit region of a text box so that the newly inserted text box does not overlap the boundaries of the at least one edit region; and entering an edit mode so that the user can enter text for the newly inserted text box so that new text boxes can be inserted at any location on the display device that is a void region of the word processing document.