Working with text.
Most of Concept Draw objects, except guide lines, pictures and OLE objects, may contain text. If you select an object and start typing (or press F2), the text editing mode will turn on. If the document scale was less then 100%, the scale will be increased up to the normal automatically.When done editing, press Esc or F2 to quit the text editing mode.
All operations with text are made with the EditText tool 
. As soon as click
the button on the toolbar, the text editing mode is on. In this
mode, the lower line of the standard toolbar is replaced by the
text toolbar with a set of text editing tools, which you can use
for working with text.
Most of text editing operations involve wide usage of selected text blocks. Any formatting or settings change affects selected blocks only. You can select text blocks either with the mouse, or with Shift+<Arrow Key>.
The way text is positioned in relation to the object is
determined by its text box. The Text box tool 
allows you to
resize, rotate and relocate the text, changing its appearance and
position independently of its object. When a new object is
created, its text box's dimensions coincide with those of the
Alignment Box.
Select the object and start typing in the text. Immediately, text editing mode turns on. When done editing, press the Esc key, or click outside the text box.
Note: There are some other methods for switching to the
text editing mode:
- double clicking an object.
- selecting an object and pressing F2.
- selecting the Edit Text tool.
To switch to the text editing mode, select the object and choose the Edit Text tool. The existing text of the object becomes selected. If you start typing the new text, the selected block will be deleted. To prevent this, click somewhere within the selected text or press an arrow key. This will unselect the text. After you make all changes you wanted, press the Esc key, or click outside the text box.
Note: There are some other methods for switching to the
text editing mode:
- double clicking an object.
- selecting an object and pressing F2.
- selecting the Edit Text tool.
A text object is an object which contains text only. To create a text object, choose the Edit Text or Text Box tools from the toolbar. Use the mouse to draw the text box on the page. On releasing the mouse button, the text editing mode turns on. Type in the text. When you finish typing, press the Esc key, or click outside the text box.
Changing text styles in selected blocks.
The following operations can be applied to selected text blocks:
- Changing the font
To change the font, click the down arrow by the Font Name box and then click the name of the font you want in the list. You can open the font list by pressing Ctrl+F(Win) as well.
- Changing the font size
To change the font size, click the down arrow by the Font Size box, and then click the size you want in the list, or type a custom size. You can open the size list by pressing Ctrl+S(Win) as well.
You can also use Increase Font Size 
and
Decrease Font Size 
buttons on the Text toolbar to
increase/decrease the font size gradually.
Ctrl+>,Ctrl+<(Win)/Cmd+>,Cmd+<(Mac) have the same
effect.
-Changing text color
Click the Text Color 
button on the toolbar. On the button menu, click one
of the given 16 colors, or click More Colors for extra colors.
This will bring up the Choose Color dialog box, where you can
choose among 256 colors of the current palette of the document.
- Changing font attributes
Font attributes, such as Bold, Italic or Underlined can be set
by clicking respective buttons on the text toolbar, or by using
keyboard shortcuts(Win): Ctrl+B for Bold (
), Ctrl+I for Italic (
), Ctrl+U for
Underlined (
).
Each text consists of one or more paragraphs. Each paragraph begins from a new line and is separated from the other with line feed symbol (which is inserted each time you press the Enter key). For each paragraph, you may set the alignment and the indentation.
Horizontal alignment
Can be applied to paragraphs only. You can align text on the
left side of the Text Box, on its right side, or on its centre.
To align a paragraph, click somewhere within its bounds and
choose one of the alignment tools on the toolbar: Left Align
Text, Centre Align Text, or Right Align Text. You can also use
Ctrl+L,Ctrl+E,Ctrl+R(Win)/Cmd+L,Cmd+E,Cmd+R(Mac) shortcuts
respectively.
Several selected paragraphs can be aligned likewise.
In the MacOS
version of ConceptDraw, you can't see the results of paragraph
alignment when in the text editing mode. The alignment will be
applied after
you leave the text editing mode.
Vertical alignment
Vertical alignment determines position of the whole text with respect to its Text Box. You can align the text at the top, middle or bottom of the Text Box. Use the following toolbar buttons: Top Align Text, Middle Align Text or Bottom Align Text.
Cutting, copying and pasting text.
When working with text, you may cut, copy and paste text blocks as you do in most other Windows applications.
The Copy command copies selected text onto the
clipboard. (choose Edit/Copy or use
Ctrl+C,Ctrl+Ins(Win)/Cmd+C(Mac) shortcuts)
The Paste command pastes text from the clipboard in the
pointer position (choose Edit/Paste or use
Ctrl+V,Shift+Ins(Win)/Cmd+V(Mac))
The Cut command removes selected text from its place and
puts it on the clipboard (choose Edit/Cut or use
Ctrl+X,Shift+Del(Win)/Cmd+X(Mac) shortcuts)
Text box is a dashed line with handles that selected objects display when the Text Box tool is chosen. You can move, rotate and resize an object's text box, modifying thus position of the text in relation to the object.
When you move or resize an object, you move and resize its text box either.
Moving a text box
To move the text box, click its boundaries or the text inside, hold down the mouse button and then drag. When over the boundaries, the pointer changes into a double box, indicating that you may click there and drag.
Rotating a Text Box
To rotate the text Box, drag any of the four rotation handles, located in its corners. The Text Box rotates around its rotation centre, which looks like a grey circle.
Sizing a Text Box
To resize the Text Box, drag one of its square handles. The mouse pointer will change into a double-headed arrow when it's over a handle.
Margins
You can set margins for the whole text with respect to the Text Box borders. Open the Text Properties dialog box (Format/Text), then select the Text Block tab. Under the tab, modify the values in the Margins fields. Here you may specify the values for left, right, top and bottom margins. By default, you input the values in the current measurement system. If you want to use another measurement system, specify proper abbreviation for the chosen unit of measure after the number. For example: 2,4 pt, 3.3 in, and so on.
Indents
Indents are paragraph properties. For each paragraph, you may set right, left and first line indents. These settings can be modified in the Indents subsection of the Text Properties dialog (Format/Text, Paragraph tab).
By default, you input the values in the current measurement system. If you want to use another measurement system, specify the proper abbreviation for the chosen unit of measure after the number. For example: 2,4 pt, 3.3 in, and so on.
The changes will affect the paragraphs, where the pointer was or some text was selected.
Note: the resulting indent value includes the margin value as well.
In the MacOS
version of ConceptDraw, you can't see the results of paragraph
alignment when in the text editing mode. The alignment will be
applied after
you leave the text editing mode.
By default, text has no background and text boxes are transparent (except text boxes of connectors). You may enable the background color for a selected text block in the Text Properties dialog (Format/Text). Under the Text Block tab, uncheck the Transparent option, and click the Text Background button to choose a color. Click OK.
To disable the background color, check Transparent.
The Text Properties dialog has three tabs:
The Font tab.
Here you may change the font properties.
- The Font Name box lets you choose a font from the list
of available fonts.
- In the Font Size box, you may select a font size from
the list or enter a custom value.
- Font Color determines the font color.
- The Style section contains a group of options, that
change the font style attributes:
Bold - determines whether the text is bold
Italic - changes plain text to italic and vice
versa
Underlined - underlines the text
Strikeout - displays crossed out text
The Paragraph tab.
Specifies properties for the paragraph in the cursor position, or for all paragraphs of a selected object.
- The Horizontal Alignment section specifies how the
paragraphs are aligned with respect to the text box:
Left - on the left side,
Centre - by the centre,
Right - on the right side.
- The Indent section specifies the paragraph
indentation:
FirstLine - for the first line,
FromLeft - for the left indent,
FromRight - for the right indent.
Note, that the indents values are displayed in the currently used measurement system. If you want to use another measurement system, specify the proper abbreviation for the chosen unit of measure after the number. For example: 2,4 pt, 3.3 in, and so on.
The Text Block tab.
Under this tab, you may set properties for the entire text box.
- The Vertical Alignment sections determines the
position of the whole text with respect to the text box.
Top - aligns text at the top of the text box
Middle - aligns text at the middle of the text
box
Bottom - aligns text at the bottom of the text
box
- The Margins section specifies the distance between
the text and the edges of the text box.
Left - sets the left margin
Right - sets the right margin
Top - sets the top margin
Bottom - sets the bottom margin.
Note, that the margins values are displayed in the current measurement system. If you want to use another measurement system, specify the proper abbreviation for the chosen unit of measure after the number. For example: 2,4 pt, 3.3 in, and so on.
- The Text Background section specifies the color for
the text background.
Transparent - sets whether the text background
has color or is transparent.
Color - sets the background color, if Transparent
is unchecked.
Unlike other objects, a group doesn't have text associated with it. The text you type in appears on the frontmost object in the group. If you want to change another object's text, select the object and select the Edit Text tool (or press F2).
Note, that it's possible to change the display order of objects using the SendTo... operations.
By default, the Smart Connector's text appears:
- on its central segment, if the number of the segments is
odd.
- in the place where to middle segments meet, if the number of
the segments is even.
Note: use the Text Box tool for repositioning the text.