Text on a path
You can place text along any path or shape in an Expression Design document, whether that's a B-spline curve, an ellipse, or even other text that has been converted to a path. There are two ways to place text on a path.
- Click the path When you select the Text tool and
position
the cursor on top of a path, the cursor icon changes to indicate
that text will flow on the path
. If you click on top of the path,
the insertion point will appear on the path at the position you clicked.
You can start typing to add text along that path.
- Attach text to path If you have already created some text with the Text tool, you can "attach" it to any path so that the text flows along the path. Use the Select or Group Select tool to select both the text and the path, and then point to Text On Path on the Object menu, and then click Attach Text. Expression Design places the text so that it begins at the starting point of the path.
When you place text on a path, Expression Design ignores all of the line breaks, and every character appears in sequence along the path (even if the text extends past the end of the path).
Moving text along the path
Once you place text on a path, you can move it to another location on the path by first clicking the text with one of the Selection tools (not the Text tool). Expression Design displays a vertical line before the first character of the text. Drag this line to move the text to another location on the path. You can also drag the line to the other side of the path to flip the text over.
You can drag the text along the path when the cursor icon changes to a double-arrowed I-beam.
Taking text off the path
To release the text from the path (so that it becomes its own text object again), point to Text On Path on the Object menu, and then click Release Text. You can also remove text from a path by selecting the text with the Selection or Group Select tool and then clicking Cut on the Edit menu (or pressing DELETE/BACKSPACE). When you cut or delete text, the path remains. Note that if you cut or copy the text to the Clipboard and then paste it elsewhere, the text will be converted to paths. Alternately, you can release text from a path by selecting the path itself with the Selection or Group Select tool, and then deleting it.