Working with Texts

Inserting Texts into a Layout and Editing Text

Most layouts do not contain text fields. You add your own text fields to add captions to images or add a title for a photo book page.
You can change this to add captions to images or add a title for a photo book page.

Inserting a new text box

You can create a new text box by clicking the "New Text" tool in the toolbar, or you can use the drop-down menu (right click on the workspace).

The new text box appears top left on the left page by default.
The text box originally contains a default text "- Your text -".
The text does not appear in the finished photo product unless you add your own text, or if the text box is empty.

Text selection features

The text box and text are completely different elements, just like images and layout frames.
While the text box is also a layout frame, and has an editing frame, the content of the text box (the text itself) has to be selected and edited differently.
If you need to edit the text box itself, simply click the text box’s editing frame.
To edit the text in the text box, click within the text box.
If the I-bar text cursor is flashing in the selected text box, you are editing the text; if not, you are editing the text box itself.

Editing text boxes

"More text settings..."

This command group is accessible by pressing a button in the object toolbar and via the text box drop-down menu (right click the text box).

"Set text box properties..."

This is where you set the distance between the text and the text box border.

Moving a text box

You need to select (activate) the text box, and position the mouse cursor above the editing frame. The mouse cursor becomes a cross with arrow heads.
You can then hold down the left mouse button and move the text box to the position where you want the text to appear; alternatively, you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard.

Scaling a Text Box

You can use the handles in the corners to scale the text box while keeping the aspect, or use the handles at the sides to change the width or the height. This does not change the size of the text itself.
To change the text size, format the font size in the text properties.

Rotating a text box

You can use the rotation handle, which lies slightly within the frame, to rotate the frame while holding down the mouse button.
Alternatively, to rotate in 90° steps, select the commands "Rotate frame counter-clockwise" and "Rotate frame clockwise" in the toolbar or the drop-down menu (right mouse button).

Deleting a text box

You can delete the active text box either by selecting the text box and clicking "Delete" in the toolbar, or pressing the "Del" key on your keyboard.
You need to do this twice.
The first action deletes the text, and the second action deletes the text box.

Entering and editing text is very similar to the corresponding
features in any word processor.

Entering text

Click on the text box and wait for the text cursor to appear (flashing I-bar); then use your computer keyboard to enter the text.
You can copy text from another source (Word file, webpage, etc.) using the operating system’s clipboard function and paste it into the text box.
This action will copy the text formatting in some cases, and the source code (HTML commands) from Internet pages in others. You will need to edit or remove this.
To add more text, place the text cursor at the position where you want to add more text and start typing.
To overwrite or delete text, hold down the mouse button to select the required text passage, and type over the selected text, or press the "Del" key on your keyboard to delete.
You can select all the content in a text field by pressing the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl" + "a".

Formatting text

When a text box is active additional text formatting commands appear in the toolbar and drop-down menu (right mouse button):

Font selection box

A list of the fonts installed on your computer is available in the toolbar. The font names and samples are displayed.

Font size selection box

A list of available font sizes in the toolbar.

"Set text color"

for setting the colour of the selected text.

"Set text box background color"

Applies the selected colour to the background of the text box.

"Bold text"
"Italic text"
"Underlined text"

for the font style (bold, italic) and for underlining the selected text

"Align text left"
"Center text"
"Align text right"
"Justify text"

Paragraph formats for aligning the text within a text box. They either apply to the whole of the paragraph in which the text cursor currently is, or to all (including partially) selected paragraphs.

Changing the text formatting

Text format changes only affect any new text you enter to the right of the text cursor, or to the currently selected text. Hold down the left mouse button to select text.

You can select a single word by double clicking the word.

You can select all the content in a text field by pressing the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl" + "a".

Then click the format command.  

Spellchecker

You can enable the automatic spellchecker in the options.

When the spellchecker is enabled, any words you may have spelled incorrectly are underlined in red. The red underlining is not printed.

Right clicking the underlined word pops up a drop-down menu with a list of suggested spellings. You can click a suggestion to insert it into the text to replace the word underlined in red.

If you are sure you have type the word correctly, but it is still marked as a typographic error, it may simply be missing from the spellchecker dictionary.

You can use the drop-down menu to add the word to the dictionary, or ignore the word, that is, the word will not be marked as a spelling error in future.