There are two styles of text in ShareDraw: Paragraph text or Caption text. A Paragraph text object is one with a set width. The text in a Paragraph object will automatically wrap to the next line when the width of the line of text exceeds the width of the paragraph setting. A Caption text object has no set width. The width of Caption text continues to expand until a Return key starts a new line. Each text object in your document can have up to 4000 characters.
To create text, select the Text tool from the Tool palette. When this tool is over your document the pointer may appear in one of two forms: one form lets you create a new text object, the other lets you know that the pointer is above a text object.
 
For Caption text, click in your document when you see the Create Text pointer and begin typing. The width of the Caption will continue to expand until you press Return or complete the object by selecting another tool or pressing Enter.
For Paragraph text, click with the Create Text pointer and drag out a rectangle that is the width you wish your paragraph to be, then begin typing. When your text exceeds the width of the rectangle, it will automatically wrap to a new line. The height of the paragraph will continue to expand as you enter text. To complete text entry, click on another tool or press the Enter key.
To release Grid Snap when creating a text object, hold the Command key down. To temporarily revert to the Arrow pointer, hold the Option key down.
Text objects always have a transparent background fill by default. To add a fill texture to your text objects, use any of the fill texture methods described in Section 4.5 “Graphic Attributes.”
5.1.2 Editing a Text Object
To edit existing text objects, select the Text tool. When the pointer is above a text object it will change, indicating that you are able to edit text.
• Click in the text object to set an insertion point. Typing will add text to your text object.
• Click and drag in the text object to select some or all of the characters in the text object.
Typing will replace the selected text.
• Double-click on a word to select that word.
• Triple-click in the text object to highlight all of the text in the object.
Typing will replace the text.
• Hold down the Shift key when clicking or dragging in a text object to extend
the current selection range.
Once you have set an insertion point or selected text in a text object, all basic Macintosh text edit features are available.
A locked text object cannot be edited.
5.2 Text Attributes
Text has default values or attributes that are used when a new text object is created. When these default attributes are changed, all selected text objects are also changed. Individual text attributes can be changed by using menu items in the Text menu. Several attributes can be changed at the same time by using either the Type dialog, the Text palette, or the Grab Attributes Tool (discussed in Chapter 7 – “More Draw Features”)
5.2.1 Font
The Font submenu lists all of the fonts currently available in your System. You may use any available font or combination of fonts in a text object.
5.2.2 Size
The Size submenu lists 13 standard font sizes for your use. You may also set your text to be any font size from 1 to 255 by choosing the Other menu item. The Other menu item will open the Font Size dialog.
5.2.3 Style
The Style submenu offers you a choice of seven different font styles such as Bold or Underline. You may use one or several of the different options. Choosing Plain removes all other styles from your selected text.
Choosing Other from the Style submenu opens the Font Style dialog. This dialog allows you to set multiple styles all at once and provides a preview for you. A small rectangle in the lower right corner of the preview will display as solid black if the selected font and style are available as an ATM (Adobe Type Manager) font.
5.2.4 Color
To apply color to the characters in your text objects, select the text object or highlight text using the Create Text pointer and choose a color from the Color pop-up in the Text menu. The palette available for your use depends on the settings in your Monitors control panel and on the selected menu item in the Color submenu in the Edit menu.
To apply a fill color to the background of your text, use the Color palette or the Textures dialog as described in Chapter 4.5.4 – “Textures and Gradients.”
5.2.5 Justification
The Justification submenu allows you to set your text to be left aligned, right aligned, or center aligned. Each text object may only have one justification style.
5.2.6 Line Spacing
The Line Spacing submenu provides three standard settings for the spacing between lines of text: Single, 1-1/2, and Double.
You can also choose to use Custom Spacing . The Custom Spacing dialog allows you to set the line spacing based on the largest character in each line or on the largest character in the text object. Sample text in the Custom Spacing dialog lets you preview the effects of the various settings. To learn more about Custom Spacing, turn on ShareDraw Help before opening the dialog.
Each text object may only have one line spacing value applied to it.
5.2.7 Case
The Case submenu allows you to change selected text to be all lowercase, all uppercase, or to have the first letter of each word capitalized (Title text).
5.2.8 Blend Colors
The Blend Colors menu item creates a smooth transition of the color of text between the first selected character and the last character in the selection. If text is selected for editing, Blend Colors applies only to the highlighted text. Otherwise, for each selected text object, the colors are blended from the first character to the last character in each object.
To create a color blend in a text object:
1. Create a text object.
2. Highlight the first character in the object.
3. Use the Color pop-up palette in the Text menu to set it to a color.
4. Highlight the last character in the object and set it to a color.
5. Triple-click in the text object to highlight all of the text.
6. Choose Blend Colors from the Text menu.
You can have multiple color blends in a single text object.
 
5.2.9 Type Dialog
The Type dialog lets you change all of the various font attributes, including color. A preview area in this dialog shows you the font attributes you have selected. A small rectangle in the lower right corner of the preview will display as solid black if the font and style you have chosen are available as an ATM font.
To open the Type dialog, choose Type in the Text menu or press Command-T. You can also double-click on the Text tool, double-click in the document with the text pointer, or double-click on a text object with the arrow pointer.
5.2.10 Text Palette
The Text Palette is opened from the Tool menu. It lets you set all text attributes just like the Type dialog. The Text Palette can be left open to view and set values while you work in your document.
5.2.11 Grabbing Text Attributes
You can grab text attributes, including color, from any character of any standard text object in your document. To grab text attributes:
1. Select the Text tool.
2. When the pointer changes to indicate that it is above a text object, hold down the Command key. The pointer will now change to the Grab Attributes pointer.
3. Click on the character in the the text object that has the desired attributes.
 
This will change the default text attributes to match those of the character clicked on. The next text object you create will now use those attributes. You can control what attributes are grabbed by holding the Shift and/or Option keys while using the Grab Attributes pointer. See Section 5.3.5 for more information.
5.3 Bound Text
In Bound Text, the characters in a text object are positioned along the path of a polygon. All of the original attributes of the text characters are preserved including font, size, style, and color.
To create Bound Text:
1. Select one polygon, line, rectangle, rounded rectangle, oval, or unfilled arc.When an object other than a polygon is selected, it will be automatically converted to a polygon.
2. Shift-Select one paragraph or caption text object.
3. Choose Bind Text from the Text menu. The Text Binding dialog will appear.
Your selected text object will be placed along the boundary of the graphic object. The text will be placed on the outside of polygons that were created in a counterclockwise or left-to-right direction and along the inside of polygons that were created in a clockwise or right-to-left direction. You can flip the polygon (using the Orientation submenu in the Graphic menu) before binding to reverse the direction of the text binding.
5.3.1 Text Binding Dialog
The Text Binding Dialog appears each time you choose Bind Text or Rebind Text from the Text menu. This dialog lets you set and modify the binding attributes for each Bound Text object.
Alignment lets you position the text at the start, center, or end of the polygon. When the alignment is set to Justified, the text is spread evenly along the entire polygon.
Tracking lets you add or subtract space between all of the characters in the text object. Tracking is useful for text along a curve, or to spread out characters for a headline. Adjustments are based on an ‘em,’ which is approximately the width of the capital letter ‘M.’
Rotate 90° rotates the individual characters 90°. This can be useful for book binding labels.
Stretching elongates or squashes the character height.
The polygon used for binding is normally hidden, but you can choose to have it display with the Show Polygon checkbox.
Clear Kerning lets you clear all pairwise kerning adjustments made to the Bound Text object.
5.3.2 Pairwise Kerning
Pairwise Kerning lets you adjust the spacing between two characters of bound text to achieve the best aesthetic effect. To achieve professional-looking results, pairwise kerning is almost always required.
To use pairwise kerning, you must first have a bound text object in your document. Next, select the Arrow tool and double-click on the Bound Text object you wish to adjust with pairwise kerning. It is best to double-click directly on the character pair you wish to kern, but you can double-click anywhere in the bound text object and use the kerning dialog to reposition to the desired character pair.
The Pairwise Kerning dialog displays the characters, of your bound text object as large it possibly can. The Previous and Next buttons let you backup or advance in the sequence of characters.
When the highlight in the dialog is over the character pair you wish to kern, use the ‘>’ and ‘<’ buttons to adjust the spacing between the characters by 1% of an em. The ‘>>’ and ‘<<’ buttons adjust the spacing by 10%.
Each pair of characters is kerned individually. You can clear all pairwise kerning values using the Clear Kerning checkbox in the Text Binding dialog.
5.3.3 Rebind/Unbind
When you select a Bound Text object, the Rebind Text menu item becomes available (it is no longer dimmed) and Unbind Text replaces Bind Text in the Text menu.
Choosing Rebind Text reopens the Text Binding dialog and lets you change the binding attributes without losing any kerning values you might have set for that object.
Choosing Unbind Text reverses the binding process by restoring the original objects and removing all binding attributes and pairwise kerning values.
5.3.4 Modifying Bound Text
Bound Text objects cannot be edited without unbinding. However, you can change attributes of font, size, style, and color and you can change graphic attributes such as fill texture directly on a Bound Text object. The polygon used for binding can only be modified by resizing, rotating, flipping or scaling.
5.4 Flow Text
With Flow Text, text from selected text objects are ‘flowed’ into selected polygons. To create a Flow Text object:
1. Select any number of text objects, including grouped text objects.
2. Select any number of polygons, including grouped polygons. You can also use rectangles, rounded rectangles, or ovals. These graphic objects will be automatically converted to polygons.
3. Choose Flow Text from the Text menu. This will bring up the Flow Text dialog which allows you to set the Flow Text attributes.
5.4.1 Flow Text dialog
Instead of using the justification settings of each text object, the Justification for the Flow Text object can be forced to left, right, center, or full. With full justification, words space is added between words to make the left and right edges of the text line up with the polygon edges.
The Blend checkbox overrides the color of each character and each individual text object in the Flow Text. When Blend is selected, the first character of the frontmost (in the text stacking order) text object specifies the starting color of the Blend. The color of the last character of the backmost text object in the stacking order is used as the ending color of the Blend. The color of the whole Flow Text object will then transition line-by-line from the top of the Flow Text object to the bottom.
The Show Polygon checkbox allows you to display the polygon(s) used to flow the text.
Visible or not, the pen width of the polygons is subtracted from the area available for text filling. This means that more text will fit into a polygon with a 1 point pen width than the same polygon with a 12 point pen width.
When multiple text objects are flowed, the text placed into the polygons based on the front-to-back stacking order (see Chapter 2 – “Basic Editing Techniques”) of the text objects. Polygons are filled with the text based on the front-to-back stacking order of the polygons.
The original attributes of the text are preserved, including font, size, style, color, line spacing, and justification. The resulting Flow Text object can be resized, scaled, rotated, and flipped but cannot be edited nor can any of the text attributes be modified.
5.4.2 Reflow/Unflow
When you select a Flow Text object, the Reflow Text menu item becomes available (it is no longer dimmed) and Unflow Text replaces Flow Text in the Text menu.
Choosing Reflow Text or double-clicking on a Flow Text object reopens the Text Flow dialog and lets you change the flow attributes.
Choosing Unflow Text restores the original objects.
