Working with text

Creating line text

Creating paragraph text

Working with text styles

Creating paragraph text

Paragraph text consists of one or more lines of text or paragraphs that fit within a boundary width that you specify. Each paragraph text entity you create is treated as a single entity regardless of the number of individual paragraphs or lines of text it contains.

When you create paragraph text, you first determine the paragraphs boundary width by specifying the opposite corners of a rectangle. The paragraph text automatically wraps so that it fits within this rectangle. The first corner of the rectangle determines the default attachment point of the paragraph text. You can determine the direction in which text flows within the rectangle, and you can also select the text and paragraph format, text style, text height, and the rotation angle of the entire paragraph text entity.

When creating and editing paragraph text, the text can be checked for spelling automatically and incorrectly spelled words display with a dashed red underline.

To create paragraph text

1 Do one of the following to choose Multiline Text ():

On the ribbon, choose Home > Multiline Text (in Annotation) or Annotate > Multiline Text (in Text).

On the menu, choose Draw > Multiline Text.

On the Draw toolbar, click the Multiline Text tool.

Type mtext and then press Enter.

2 Select the first corner of the text area.

3 In the command bar or context menu, optionally choose the properties you want to set, or proceed directly to the next step. You can also choose these properties later for the resulting multiline text entity.

4 Select the second corner of the text area.

5 Type the text you want.

To create paragraphs, press Enter and continue typing.

6 On the ribbon (or floating toolbar if not viewing the ribbon), use the Text Editor tools to make your selections for highlighted text, or if no text is highlighted, the changes affect new text when you type it.

Text Editor tools display on the ribbon or a floating toolbar.
By default, the floating toolbar displays only if the ribbon is turned off, however, some users prefer to always use the floating toolbar. To enable the floating toolbar even when the ribbon displays, type cui, and on the Customize tab, select AcTextEditorInProgress in Contextual Ribbon States. On the right, choose True for the Disabled option, then click OK.

7 Click Close Editor to accept your changes and close the editor.

Tool	Name	Description
	Text Style	Select a text style.
	Text Height	Select or type the text font height.
	Annotative	Select or type the text font height.
	Bold and Italics	Click to bold and/or italicize text.
	Strikethrough	Click to strikethrough text.
	Underline and Overline	Click to underline and/or overline text.
	Uppercase and Lowercase	Click to make text uppercase or lowercase.
	Superscript and Subscript	Click to make text superscript or subscript.
	Text Font	Select the text font.
	Text Color	Select BYBLOCK, BYLAYER, the color of your choice, or choose Select Color to select from additional colors.
	Background Mask	Click to set the background settings for text. For more details, click Help in the dialog box that displays.
	Oblique Angle	Select or type the angle of text characters.
	Tracking	Select or type the factor representing spacing between characters.
	Width Factor	Select or type the font width factor.
	Clear Formatting	Choose whether to remove character formatting from selected characters, paragraph formatting or all formatting from a selected paragraph.
	Combine Paragraphs	Click to combine selected paragraphs into a single paragraph.
	Justification	Select the text box justification.
	List	Select the type of list for the text. You can also specify to continue or restart numbered lists.
	Line Spacing	Select the spacing between lines.
	Paragraph	Click to specify tab, indent, alignment, and line spacing settings. For more details, click Help in the dialog box that displays.
	Default, Left, and Center	Click to set the paragraph justification to default, left, or center.
	Right, Justify, and Distribute	Click to set the paragraph justification to right, justify, or distribute.
	Undo and Redo	Click to redo or undo the previous action.
	Symbol	Click to insert a symbol character where the cursor is located in the text editor.
	Insert Field	Click to insert a field where the cursor is located in the text editor. For more details, click Help in the dialog box that displays.
	Columns	Click to specify columns for the text, and options for the columns. For more details, click Help in the program.
	Find and Replace	Click to find and replace text in the text editor.
	Import Text	Click to select a file that contains text to import.
	AutoCAPS	Click to turn on or off capitalizing text automatically as you type.
	Check Spelling	Click to check text for spelling automatically. Incorrectly spelled words display with a dashed red underline; right-click to choose a correctly spelled word.
	Ruler	Click to show or hide the ruler in the text editor.
	Stacked Text	Click to stack or unstack selected text, for example, fractions can display as stacked text.
	More	Click to display a menu of additional options, including the character set, settings for the text editor, and online help.
	Done	Accepts your changes and closes the editor.

Access more options by right-clicking the text editor.
Right-click the text editor to access additional options, including Select All, Cut, Copy, Paste, and Paste Special. You can also use typical shortcuts such as Ctrl + V to paste text from the clipboard.

There are two multiline text editors.
To switch to a dialog box version of the multiline text editor, set the MTEXTED system variable to oldeditor.