Need non-printing text

[tobarstep]

Is there a way to get text to maintain it's place in the output file but not actually print? What I mean is this:

 

"This text prints. <this text doesn't print>. This text prints, but stays in this spot and does not collapse up to the first sentence."

 

I've been doing this up to this point by matching the "non printing" font color to the background color. This has worked great up until now when I suddenly have to print on top of a patterned background rather than a solid.

 

I've been doing this to print prices where I have a number in a large font, followed by a cent sign superscripted and the word "off" subscripted, but the superscript and subscript occupy the same horizontal space. I tried using tables but could not get the layout as precise as it needed to be. I may have to revisit the tables if there is no other solution though. I'm not really a prepress guy, so maybe there is just some old trick I'm missing here.

 

Using:

FusionPro 6.0P1e

Windows XP

Acrobat 8 Pro