Have taken the plunge and taken out a subscription for Office 2016, but am having trouble with Word.

My large document, about 450 pages in .docx format, opens okay but is not very editable. It has both text and images throughout. The text flow is interrupted by broken sentences and paragraphs. In trying to edit the text, it becomes a series of text boxes that don't cover the original paragraphs. Each text box finishes with a carriage return.

Following advice found within the forum {select text box, place curser near edge to show cross hairs*and double click} does not allow the carriage return to be deleted,
although other editing can be done.

Is there any way to delete the carriage returns or any way these separate text boxes can be combined? Or, is there some way to merge all the text?