Adding and Formatting Text

To add text in AutoCAD, you use the Mtext command, otherwise known as the Multiline Text tool. When you start the command, you must first draw a window indicating the area where your text will appear. Once that's done, the Text Formatting toolbar and Text panel appear, allowing you to enter the text you want. Here's how this works:

1. Choose Draw è Text è Multiline Text, enter mt↲, or select the Multiline Text tool from the Text control panel.

   

2. Click the first point indicated in Figure 9.1 to start the Text Boundary window. You don't have to be too precise about where you select the points for the boundary because you can adjust the location and size later.

3. Click the second point to indicate the size of the text boundary. The Text Formatting toolbar appears with the Text panel superimposed over the area you just selected (see Figure 9.2).

4. Start typing, and the text appears in the Text panel. The size and formatting of the text is as it will appear in the drawing. The default font is a native AutoCAD font called Txt. You can also use TrueType fonts and PostScript fonts, but be aware that such fonts can slow down your work in AutoCAD, especially if you have lots of text.

5. Click OK in the Text Formatting toolbar. The text appears in the drawing.

Figure 9.1: Indicating the text location with the text boundary

Figure 9.2: The Text Formatting toolbar and the Text panel

The Text Formatting toolbar and text editor work like any text editor, so if you make a typing error, you can highlight the error and then reenter the letter or word. You can also perform other word processing functions such as font and format changes. AutoCAD also automatically wraps text as you type.

AutoCAD offers many of the same tools you expect to see in a word processor. You can format the text for height and font, or you can add bold, italic, or underline with the click of a button.

Adjusting the Text Height and Font

The most common text-editing features you'll want to know about are the text height and font controls. The following example describes how to change an existing Multiline Text object:

1. Double-click an existing Mtext object to display the Text Formatting toolbar and the text in a Text panel, as shown in Figure 9.3.

2. Select the text you want to reformat in the Text panel.

3. In the Text Formatting toolbar, click the Text Height drop-down list, and select a text height in drawing units. Or instead of selecting a value, click the current height value, and enter a smaller or larger one. The highlighted text changes to a smaller or larger size.

4. Click OK in the Text Formatting toolbar. The text appears in the new height.

Figure 9.3: The Text formatting toolbar and Text panel with selected text

To change the font, repeat these steps, but instead of using the Text Height drop-down list, select a font from the Font drop-down list shown in Figure 9.4.

Figure 9.4: The Font drop-down list in the Text Formatting toolbar

Using Color, Columns, Stacked Fractions, Alignment, Lists, and Special Symbols

A variety of additional formatting tools are available in the Text Formatting toolbar. Figure 9.5 shows where these tools are, and Table 9.1 describes their uses. They're fairly straightforward, and if you've used other word processing programs, you should find them easy to use. Most are common to most word processors, although a few, such as Symbol, Oblique Angle, and Width Factor, are unique to AutoCAD.

Table 9.1: Text Formatting Tools
Open table as spreadsheet

TOOL	USE
Bold/Italic/Underline/Overline	Select text, and then select one of these options to add bold, italic, or underline to the text.
Undo/Redo	Click to undo or redo current edits.
Stack/Unstack	Select a fraction, and then click this tool to either stack or unstack the fraction text.
Color	Select text, and then choose a color from this drop-down list.
Ruler	Click to turn the ruler at the top of the Text panel on or off.
Columns	Indicate the number of columns and how the columns are set up.
Paragraph	Set up the paragraph formatting including tabs, indents, and paragraph spacing.
Mtext Justification	Select the appropriate option to align the text to the top, middle, bottom, or other position within the text boundary.
Line Spacing	Set the line spacing within paragraphs.
Left/Center/Right/Justify/Distribute	Click the appropriate tool to align the text to the left, center, or right side of the text boundary.
Numbering	Select a list of text, click this tool, and then select Letter, Number, or Bullet to add letters, numbers, or bullets to the list.
Insert Field	Opens the Fields dialog box, allowing you to add a field text. See "Adding Formulas to Cells" later in this chapter for more about fields.
Uppercase/Lowercase	Select a single letter or set of words, and then select the Uppercase or Lowercase tool to change the selection's case.
Symbol	Place the cursor at a location for the symbol, and then click the Symbol tool to find and add a symbol. (See Figure 9.6 for the available symbols.)
Oblique Angle	Select text, and then enter an Oblique Angle value. The effect is to skew the text characters in a way similar to an italic formatting.
Tracking	Select text, and then enter a tracking value in the Tracking text box. A value greater than 1 increases the spacing between letters, and a value less than 1 decreases the spacing.
Width Factor	Select text, and enter a width value in the Width text box. A value greater than 1 stretches the text, including individual letters, horizontally. A value less than 1 compresses the text, including the letters.

Figure 9.5: Additional features of the Text Formatting toolbar

Figure 9.6: Symbols offered by the Symbol option. (See Symbol in Table 9.1 for information about how to use these symbols.)

Adjusting the Text Boundary

Once you've placed the text in the drawing, you might find that you need to adjust the text boundary or the area that it takes up in the drawing. For example, the text might occupy a space that is too tall, and you may want to widen the Text boundary window so it takes up less vertical space. The boundary window is the area within which the text is made to fit. To adjust the boundary, click the text you want to adjust. The grips appear indicating the corners of the boundary window, though you don't actually see the boundary window outline. Click a grip, and then drag to reposition the grip.

AutoCAD's word-wrap feature automatically adjusts the text formatting to fit the text boundary. This feature is especially useful to AutoCAD users because other drawing objects often affect the placement of text. As your drawing changes, you'll need to adjust the location and boundary of your notes and labels.

Setting Indents and Tabs

When you're editing text, you'll notice the ruler at the top of the Text panel. Figure 9.7 shows that ruler, including tabs and indent markers.

Figure 9.7: The ruler at the top of the text editor lets you quickly set tabs and indents for text.

If you need to set indents, do the following:

1. Double-click the text you want to edit to open the Text Formatting toolbar.

2. Highlight the text whose indent or tab spacing you want to affect.

3. Drag the top indent marker to adjust the first line indent. A note appears above the ruler showing the distance of the indent. The text at the first tab remains at its starting location.

4. Drag the bottom indent marker to adjust the indent of the body of the paragraph. The paragraph moves with the marker. You see a message at the ruler showing the distance of the indent for the body of the text.

5. Click the ruler to place tab locations. You can drag on existing tab locations to adjust them. Remove tabs by dragging them out of the ruler.

6. Click OK in the Text Formatting toolbar to accept your changes.

You can set paragraphs of a single Mtext object differently, giving you a wide range of indent-formatting possibilities. Just select the text you want to set, and then adjust the indent markers. You can also change the Tab Setting option to left, right, center, or decimal tabs. To select a Tab Setting option, click the tab symbol to the far left of the ruler. The symbol will change to indicate which type of tab will be placed in the ruler.

To set tabs, all you have to do is click the Text panel's Formatting bar (see Figure 9.7). An L-shaped marker appears in the Text Panel ruler, indicating a tab position. You can add as many tab markers as you like. Once placed, you can move the tab markers by dragging them.

Adding a Background Mask to Text

At times you'll need to add text over other graphic elements in your drawing. For example, you might need to place a label over line work or a hatch pattern. In this situation, you'll want to add a mask behind your text to make it more readable. You can do this using AutoCAD's Background Mask feature. To use this feature, double-click the text to which you want to add a background, and then when the Text Formatting toolbar appears, right-click the Text panel, and choose Background Mask from the shortcut menu to open the Background Mask dialog box shown in Figure 9.8.

Figure 9.8: The Background Mask dialog box for text

Turn on the Use Background Mask option, and then click OK. The mask will appear in the color shown in the Color drop-down list. Optionally, you can select a different color from the list or turn on the Use Drawing Background Color option if you want the mask to take on the current background color of the drawing. The Border Offset Factor option lets you control the distance beyond the text that the mask covers. The Background Mask is also available while creating and editing Multiline text. With the Formatting toolbar and Text window open, highlight the text, right-click, and select Background Mask to open the Background Mask dialog box.

Making Changes to Multiple Text Objects

If you want to make changes to the text, you must focus on the specific Mtext object you want to edit. You can't open one Mtext object and expect to be able to edit any text string in the drawing. This can make global changes to text a bit trickier than usual, but you can employ a few tools to make global changes easier.

Scaling Multiple Text Objects

You can quickly change the size of text using the Scaletext command. Choose Modify è Object è Text è Scale or enter Scaletext at the command prompt, and then select the text you want to scale. You can select multiple text objects. Press ↲ when you've completed your selection. You'll see the prompt:

 [Existing/Left/Center/Middle/Right/TL/TC/TR/ML/MC/MR/BL/BC/BR]<Existing>: 

Enter the letters that correspond to the base point location around which the text will be scaled. You can enter TL for top left, TC for top center, TR for top right, and so on. Once you've entered an option, you'll see the next prompt:

 Specify new model height or [Paper height/Match object/Scale factor] <Current height>: 

At this prompt you have three options. You can enter a new height; you can enter p↲, enter a different text height, enter m↲, and then select another text object whose height you want to match; or you can enter s↲ and then enter a scale factor to scale the text to a specific ratio.

Changing Justification of Multiple Text Objects

You've seen how you can change the justification of an individual text object. You'll often find that you need to change the justification of several text objects at one time. AutoCAD offers the Justifytext command for this purpose. To use it, choose Modify è Object è Text è Justify, or enter Justifytext↲ at the command prompt. At the Select object: prompt, select the text you want to change, and then press ↲ to confirm your selection. You'll see the following prompt:

 [Left/Align/Fit/Center/Middle/Right/TL/TC/TR/ML/MC/MR/BL/BC/BR] <current justification >: 

Enter the letters corresponding to the type of justification you want to use for the text. Once you've entered an option, the selected text changes to conform to the selected justification option.

Using AutoCAD's Spelling Checker

Although AutoCAD is primarily a drawing program, you will likely be including quite a bit of text in your drawings. If you're like me, you can make frequent spelling mistakes as you rush to finish a drawing. Fortunately, AutoCAD provides a spelling checker. If you've ever used the spelling checker in a typical word processor, such as Microsoft Word, the AutoCAD spelling checker's operation will be familiar to you.

1. Choose Tools è Spelling from the drop-down menu, or enter sp↲. The Check Spelling dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 9.9.

2. Click the Start button to check the spelling in your drawing.

3. If you want to limit the spell check to the current model or layout space, you can do so by selecting Current Space/Layout from the Where to Check drop-down list. You can further limit the spelling check to a single text object or a set of text objects.

   

Figure 9.9: The Check Spelling dialog box

You can choose Tools è Quick Select to select all the text in the drawing at once. Quick Select lets you select objects based on their properties or the object type, such as Line or MText.

In the Check Spelling dialog box, you'll see the word in question, along with the spelling checker's suggested alternate in the Suggestions input box. If the spelling checker finds more than one suggestion, a list of suggested alternate words appears below the input box, just like a typical spelling checker. You can then highlight the desired replacement and click the Change button to change the misspelled word, or you can click Change All to change all occurrences of the word in the selected text. If the suggested word is inappropriate, choose another word from the replacement list (if any), or enter your own spelling in the Suggestions input box. Then choose Change or Change All.

Table 9.2 describes the Spelling Checker options.

Table 9.2: The Spelling Checker Options
Open table as spreadsheet

OPTION	PURPOSE
Add to Dictionary	Adds the word in question to the current dictionary.
Ignore	Skips the word.
Ignore All	Skips all occurrences of the word in the selected text.
Change	Changes the word in question to the word you have selected (or entered) from the Suggestions input box.
Change All	Changes all occurrences of the current word when there are multiple instances of the misspelling.
Dictionaries	Lets you use a different dictionary to check spelling. This option opens the Change Dictionaries dialog box, described in the upcoming section.

The dictionary in the spelling checker feature includes types of notation that are more likely to be found in technical drawings. It will also check the spelling of text that is included in block definitions.

Using AutoCAD's Find-and-Replace Text Feature

Just as the spelling checker plays an important role in CAD drawings, the find-and-replace function found in most word processors is also a welcome tool. AutoCAD's find-and-replace function is similar to the same tool in other word processors. A few options, however, are unique to AutoCAD. Here's how it works:

1. Choose Edit è Find or enter Find↲ at the command prompt to open the Find and Replace dialog box, as shown in Figure 9.10.

2. Enter the text you want to locate in the Find Text String input box.

3. Enter the replacement text in the Replace With input box.

4. Click Find. When AutoCAD finds the word, it appears in the Context window, along with any other text next to the word.

5. If you have any doubts, click the Zoom To button to display the text in the AutoCAD drawing area.

6. Finally, when you've made certain that this is the text you want to change, click Replace.

Figure 9.10: The Find and Replace dialog box

If you want to replace all occurrences of a word in the drawing, click Replace All. You can also limit your find-and-replace operation to a specific area of your drawing by clicking the Select Objects button in the upper-right corner of the Find and Replace dialog box (see Figure 9.10).

When you click the Select Objects button, the Find and Replace dialog box closes temporarily to allow you to select a set of objects or a region of your drawing. The find-and-replace function then limits its search to those objects or the region you select.

You can further control the types of objects that the find-and-replace feature looks for by clicking the Options button to open the Find and Replace Options dialog box (see Figure 9.11). With this dialog box, you can refine your search by limiting it to blocks, dimension text, standard text, or hyperlink text. You can also specify whether to match case or find whole words only.

Figure 9.11: The Find and Replace Options dialog box

Importing Text Files from Other Programs

With multiline text objects, AutoCAD allows you to import ASCII text or rich-text format (RTF) files. RTF files can be exported from Microsoft Word and most other word processing programs and retain their formatting in AutoCAD.

To import text, first select the text from your document, and then choose Edit è Copy to copy the text to the Windows Clipboard. In AutoCAD, choose Edit è Paste Special to open the Paste Special dialog box. Click the Paste button, and then select AutoCAD Entities from the As list box. Click OK. You'll see the text drag into the drawing area as a bounding box. Click a location to place your text. The inserted text will use the current text-style formatting.

You can also import entire text files by doing the following: start the Mtext command, then right-click in the Text window, and finally select Import Text. The Select File dialog box opens and allows you to locate and select a text file. You can import plain-text files (.txt) or RTF files (.rtf).