Dear Owen,
Thank you so much for your reply! I've followed your advice. However, opening the existing map to Map Viewer Beta did exactly the same thing (distorted the placement of the Map Notes text). I thought I might be able to use the Edit tool as well, but it would not work in the Beta Version (only allowing me to Edit the shapefile features, not the Map Notes, even though selected). Then, I thought to add a new Map Notes layer as one would do in the older version of Add>Add Map Notes -- but, that is not even an option in the Beta version (yet, maybe?)
At any rate, I've made the map public -- if you have any other thoughts, I'd very much appreciate it!
Thank you again,
Susan