Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 7:46 am Post subject: Inserting edging lines round text boxes
Help, someone! I am doing family tree work on Draw that involves setting up a number of text boxes on the one sheet of paper which I can move about to make a good fit. I then need to put a visible enclosing box around the text in each of the text boxes before linking them with lines.
When I open Draw there are a number of icons above the main window (line style/line width/line colour) that would do this, but as soon as I click on T to open a text box a new set of icons replaces the old ones and the 'line' icons disappear. The only way I have been able to set up the boundary lines I require so far is to go View>Toolbars>Line and Filling but every time I set up a new text box I have to do this all over again. What I would like is for the 'line' icons that are present when I open Draw to remain while I am completing the text so that I can then select a suitable box format straight off the screen.
I think that the problem you are encountering is that text boxes have two modes: text mode and border mode and the Line and Filling toolbar only displays in border mode.
When you initially create a text box, the text box is in text mode. So, after you enter some text, click outside the text box to unselect it and then click once on the text in the text box. This should cause the border of the text box to be selected (that is, you will be in border mode).
Does that cause the Line and Filling toolbar to appear for you? If so, you can switch back into text mode by double-click on the text in the text box and press the Escape key or click on the text box border to switch to border mode.
Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 12:10 pm Post subject: Inserting edging lines round text boxes
Many thanks Patrick - that was magic and works exactly how you said it would, and just how I wanted it.
One final query before I get back to 'work' on my transcribing (Ribble Valley, West Riding of Yorkshire, the 1871 census in case anyone is interested). When I start composing an A4 page of family tree data it can take quite a while, and I often get only part-way through and then have to leave off and come back a day or two later. When I do, my previous work seems to be set in stone and I am unable to call up the text boxes and move them around or amend them to cope with further inputs of information.
Is there any way that I can leave my work in such a way that when I resume (even a day or two later after my Mac has been shut down) I can work on and amend the display that I started a day or a week ago?
Many thanks for any help you can give me on this one.
Bernard Watson
PS; Over here in the UK it is only Saturday 27th March, so I wonder why our interchanges seem to be dated Sunday 28 March.
Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 12:21 pm Post subject: Re: Inserting edging lines round text boxes
GeorgeB wrote:
One final query before I get back to 'work' on my transcribing (Ribble Valley, West Riding of Yorkshire, the 1871 census in case anyone is interested). When I start composing an A4 page of family tree data it can take quite a while, and I often get only part-way through and then have to leave off and come back a day or two later. When I do, my previous work seems to be set in stone and I am unable to call up the text boxes and move them around or amend them to cope with further inputs of information.
Is there any way that I can leave my work in such a way that when I resume (even a day or two later after my Mac has been shut down) I can work on and amend the display that I started a day or a week ago?
I don't understand what it is that you cannot edit when you reopen your document. Are you having trouble selecting an existing text box? If so, click one on the text the the border of text box should appear.
Then, if you position the cursor over the border (but not over the little blue squares in the border), drag the border using your mouse and the text box should following the mouse.
GeorgeB wrote:
PS; Over here in the UK it is only Saturday 27th March, so I wonder why our interchanges seem to be dated Sunday 28 March.
The times that you see are generated using the "Timezone" field in your account's Profile page. Mine is set to "GMT - 8 Hours" which gives me non-daylight savings time in California.
No, that does not seem to be working! I partially worked a page earlier in the week and then re-opened it yesterday, and no matter where and how I click nothing happens. I can add further text boxes as normal but cannot edit or move the existing ones. Did I close the file in the wrong way when I shut down earlier in the week? This is the file concerned
Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:57 am Post subject: Re: Inserting edging lines round text boxes
GeorgeB wrote:
When I do, my previous work seems to be set in stone and I am unable to call up the text boxes and move them around or amend them to cope with further inputs of information.
Is there any way that I can leave my work in such a way that when I resume (even a day or two later after my Mac has been shut down) I can work on and amend the display that I started a day or a week ago?
Hi Bernard,
The problem you have is that you created your chart on the Master Page, which acts as a kind of background template. Master Page elements can only be edited by selecting menu item View>Master.
Advice would be to Select All items while in Master View and Cut them, then switch to View>Normal and then Paste the selected items onto the page. You are then pasting onto the normal "editing layer" of the document.
To illustrate the result, I'm posting your file back to you after carrying out this manoeuvre. _________________ Ray Saunders
World Scout Bureau
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