Box (Box Text)

Box creates a Text item with text enclosed in a rectangle with"handles" at each corner and another handle in the box middle.

These handles can be used to pick up and move the BoxText item.

To insert box text, select Create > Text > Box.
Now start typing in the field. You can enter one or more lines of text; just press Enter to start a new line.
Click OK when you have finished.
Now click a point on the screen where you want to locate the text. This point now becomes the current alignment point and the BoxText item is justified both horizontally and vertically about this point.
If needed, enter a second point to rotate the box. Else press Enter.

TIP: To resize the BoxText, hold down the CTRL key as you click.

Text Properties

Select Box to open the Properties window:

Font

Select the font to apply to the text from the drop-down box.

Height (pts)

Select the text height in points.Text height is set in point sizes, the same as text in word-processing. There are 72 points to the inch. One point is approximately 0.01389 inches, or 0.353 millimetres.

Markup

The Markup option allows a single text item to have multiple styles, e.g. Bold, Italic, etc., and/or multiple colours; and/or multiple fonts.

These states are:

bold	This is bold text will display: This is bold text
_italic_	_This is italic_ will display: This is italic
^superscript^	Area = 25^2^ will display: Area = 25² (bold and superscript)
~subscript~	~This is subscript~ will display: _{This is subscript}
-strikeout-	-This is strikeout- will display: ~~strikeout~~

Note: The font size cannot be changed using Markup.

Multiple text colours in a text item:

The code to set text colour is: %{fill:#RGB values} text to be coloured%

This is%{fill:#00AA00} green% and this is%{fill:#0000FF} blue% text

will be displayed as:

This is green and this is blue text

Multiple fonts in a text item:

The code to set a font is: %{font-family:FontName}

This font is %{font-family:Gothic} Gothic% whereas this font is *_%{font-family:Times}Times in bold italic%_*.

will be displayed as:

This font is Castellar whereas this font is Times in bold italic.

Defining Outline text:

The code to set Outline text is: %{fill:Fill Brush colour; outline:Outline Pen colour}required text%

%{fill:#FF0000; outline:#0000FF}red fill blue outline%

will be displayed as:

Escape characters

Characters can be "escaped" (i.e. have their markup meaning ignored) by prefixing with a \

*This text is bold* but \*this text isn't (it has an asterisk before and after it instead)\*

will be displayed as:

This text is bold but *this text isn't (it has an asterisk before and after it instead)*

Justification: Left, Centre or Right

Set the text justification as required.

Vertical alignment:Top, Middle, Baseline or Bottom

Set the text vertical alignment as required.

Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough

Any combination of Bold, Italic, Underlined and Strikethrough can be selected.

Opaque, Box, Outline, Rounded rectangle

If creating Outline Text use any of these options.

Fill Brush

Select the required brush to set the text colour.

Implicit brushes may also be defined. The facility of copying and pasting the brush specification in JSON is also available.

Outline Pen

This field will become active if the Outline text A button is selected: Not available for simple text

Text window

Type in the required text (if required use the syntax as described in Markup if required, press Enter for a new line.

You can also paste text into this box using the Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V key combination, or Paste on the local menu.

Click OK when finished entering text.

The box text item is attached to your cursor. If the zoom factor allows it, you will see a rectangular box on the cursor which is of a size sufficient to encompass the text item.

Click the screen position where you want to place the alignment point of the text item.

The alignment point is indicated by a butterfly shape.

TIP: If the text item is not visible, it may be too small or too large for the current display scale. Try Home > Zoom > Selection to display the text or try redrawing your screen (Home > Map > Redraw).