Each text string is attached to a text anchor. Each anchor is composed of a verti-cal line whose lowest point marks the precise cursor position and an arrow head pointing in the direction that text will move as you type.
There are three kinds of anchors: one for flush left text, one for centered text, and one for flush right text. Figure 23-13 shows the text anchors much larger than they appear on your screen.
<-1->
left centered right
Figure 23-13. Left, centered, and right text anchors
The text anchor is invisible as long as there are characters in the text string. If you delete the text characters, you will see the anchor on the screen. However, if you Cut the text string by executing the Cut command, you are cutting every-thing, including the text anchor. Text anchors do not print.
Each text anchor can have only one text string associated with it. If you enter text, press the TAB or RETURN key, and enter more text, you create two separate
text strings.
o
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c
Each text string can have only one font. Thus, each time there is a change of font in a line of text, there is a separate text string.
Editing Text Strings
While you are entering or editing a text string, the diagramming system will dis-play a message in the status line to indicate that you are working in a special mode. The exact wording of the message will depend on the alignment of the text string you are working on. Figure 23-14 shows the message you will see if you are working on a text string that is aligned flush left.
I entering flush left text (ctrl-R flush right, ctrl-C centered)
Figure 23-14. Status line when you enter a text string aligned flush left
If the mouse cursor is outside the diagram when you begin to type a text string, the diagramming system will position the anchor inside the border of the frame, as close to the cursor as it can get.
A text string you are entering is automatically selected, so that you can move it around or change its font if you want to. The text does not flash while you type.
If you stop typing and move the diagramming cursor, the text will begin to flash.
As long as the text string is selected, you can edit it.
All of the deselection methods you have learned will work with text strings. In addition, all of the keyboard editing commands described in the next section, ex-cept the DEL key and CTRL d, will also deselect the text string when applied.
Text String Editing Commands
All of the characters in each font are available to you in diagramming. However, in diagramming you can only use the keyboard editing commands listed below.
DEL deletes the right-most character in the selected text string. If you delete the last remaining character in the text string, the text anchor becomes visible.
CTRL d deletes the entire contents of the selected text string, but leaves the text anchor.
RETURN deselects the current text string and moves the cursor down to the next line. The diagramming cursor is vertically aligned with the anchor of the previous text string.
LINE FEED does exactly the same thing that RETURN does.
CTRL n does exactly the same thing that RETURN does.
CTRL P deselects the current text string and moves the cursor up the
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page a distance that is equivalent to the point size of the cur-rent font. The diagramming cursor is vertically aligned with the anchor of the text string below it. If no text string is se-lected, the cursor just moves up a distance that is equivalent to the point size of the current font.
TAB deselects the current text string and moves the diagramming cursor right to the next major grid point after the text string.
The cursor does not move up or down.
Font and Line Spacing
Each text string can have only one typeface and one point size (type size).
Font
The default font for a text string is the font that is displayed in the Font box in the document header. The default font changes every time you select a text string in a different font.
There are three ways to change the font before you enter a text string:
• select a text string of the correct font and deselect it
• use the Font submenu on the Defaults submenu
• set the font in the Font box in the document header
Figure 23-15 shows the Font submenu of the Create Mise Default submenu. All of the fonts used in text are available in the diagramming system through this submenu.
.. ..
OBoid ..
..
Figure 23-15. Changing the font before creating a text string There is no way to establish a font to which all newly created text strings will default. The Fonts submenu only sets the font for the next text string you create.
If, after you have changed the default, you select a text string that has a different font, you will have changed the default again to the font of the selected text string.
There is no default on the Fonts submenu. If you try to execute the Fonts
com-mand without displaying the submenu, nothing will happen. However, if you dis-
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play the submenu, Bold is the default.
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It is best to enter all text strings in a diagram first, and then adjust the line spac-ing so that it is the same for every text strspac-ing. If you enter and size first two and then three text strings, you cannot be sure that you have adjusted the line spacing of all five text strings by the same amount.
To increase or decrease the line spacing between text strings:
0ClI Enter all of the text strings.
".., Select all of the text strings.
".., Execute the Size Vertical command.
The Size Vertical command increases the amount of vertical space be-tween text strings rather than changing the type size of the text strings themselves.
Modifying Text Strings as Diagramming Objects
Not all diagramming commands have an effect on a single text string. You can Cut, Copy, Dup, or Paste a text string, and you can move it around, but you cannot size or rotate it.
You can Size or Rotate a group that contains text. You can also Size or Rotate two or more text strings. These commands do not affect the text strings them-selves, only their relation to each other.
Sizing Text Strings
When you execute Size Vertical a multiple selection of text strings, the space you add to the size is distributed between the text strings. For example, if two text strings are sized vertically a distance of two grid units, the two grid units will be added to the space between the two strings.
You can reverse the alignment of a left- or right-aligned text string by selecting it and executing Size Reflect Horizontal or Size Reflect Diagonal. If you horizon-tally or diagonally size a selection of objects that contains a left- or right-aligned text string, and the resizing causes the text to move fully past its anchor, the alignment of the text string will be reversed.
Rotating Text Strings
A single text string cannot be rotated. When you rotate a multiple selection of text strings, the text strings move, as shown in Figure 23-19.