MText Basics and Beyond

Text is one of the most common annotations that you add to a drawing. Annotation is used to communicate important information and design elements that a drawing requires, making the design easier to understand. While creating text in AutoCAD might be easy and intuitive, editing and formatting text can take time. How much time do you spend formatting or updating text? In this Have You Tried, we’ll go beyond the basics of creating a multiline text object (also referred to as MText), and explore more options, including:

• Applying and removing text format
• Creating stacked text or fractions
• Changing text case
• Importing text
• Converting single line text to multiline text

Note: The video doesn't contain audio or closed captions.

Note: Steps, images, and videos may differ slightly from your version of the product.

Create Text

You can create single or multiline text. For simple single-line text, use the TEXT command. The MTEXT command is used to create a multiline text object (MText) which can handle richer formatting options.

Let’s create a multiline text object which we’ll then use in the following exercises.

1. Create a new drawing.
2. Click Home tabAnnotation panelMultiline Text. Find

   Alternatively, at the Command prompt, enter mt (MTEXT).

3. Specify the opposite corners of a bounding box to define the width of the multiline text object.

   The In-Place Text Editor and Text Editor ribbon contextual tab are displayed.

4. Type the text below as you would in any word-processing application (for example, Microsoft Word).
   Note: Some text can be difficult to read when it's very small, very large, or rotated. While editing multiline text, AutoCAD temporarily displays the text horizontally and at a legible size so that you can easily read and modify the multiline text. (MTEXTFIXED system variable)
   
   Tip: Double-click the width resizer arrow on the ruler to automatically confine the bounding box to the limits of the MText object. This method helps to better control the word wrapping of the MText.
5. To save your changes and close the editor, use one of the following methods:
   • On the Text Editor ribbon contextual tab, Close panel, click Close Text Editor.
   • Click in the drawing and outside the editor.
   • Press Ctrl+Enter.
   Note: Pressing Esc displays a message and allows you to close the editor without saving your changes.

Format MText

MText is ideal for general notes and other lengthy blocks of text. MText supports the formatting of individual characters, words, or paragraphs. You can also create bulleted or numbered lists or stacked fractions and tolerances in MText. In this exercise, let’s make some format changes to the MText.

Format characters in MText

1. Double-click the MText object created in the previous exercise.
2. Select the text as shown in the illustration.
   
3. On the Text Editor ribbon contextual tab, do the following to change the formatting of the characters in the MText:
   
   • Choose a font from the list. For example, Courier New.
   • Apply a color to the selected text.
   • Change the character height of the selected text.
   

Convert the selected text to a list

1. If the editor is still active, select the changed text. Otherwise, double-click the MText object and then select the changed text.
2. On the Text Editor ribbon contextual tab, Paragraph panel, click Bullets and Numbering. Choose Numbered.
   
   Note: List formatting is only available when the Allow Bullets and Lists option is selected.

   
3. To add new list items after text2, place your cursor after text2 and press Enter.
4. Type text2a for the list item. Press Enter and proceed to the next item, and type text2b.
   
5. Now, let’s create a sublist. Select text2a and text2b.
6. Press Tab.

   The list numbering automatically adjusts as you add an item or move items down a level.

   
   Tip: To move a list item back up one level, press Shift+Tab.
7. Close the editor to save your changes.

Change the Case of MText

There are times when you type or import text that’s not exactly in the case that you want. Instead of retyping the text, you can quickly change the capitalization, or case of the text.

1. Double-click the MText object with the list.
2. Select the numbered items in the list.
3. On the Text Editor ribbon contextual tab, Formatting panel, click Change Case. Choose UPPERCASE.
   
   Tip: You can use keyboard shortcuts to quickly switch between lowercase (Ctrl+Shift+L) and uppercase (Ctrl+Shift+U).
   

You might have observed that the text used in most drawings is usually in all uppercase. Writing notes in all capital letters is a standard for many fields like engineering and architecture. So, if you want to automatically convert all new and imported text to uppercase, do any of the following:

• At the Command prompt, enter textallcaps and then enter on.
• On the Text Editor ribbon contextual tab, Tools panel, click All CAPS.
Note: The All CAPS setting does not affect existing text.

Format fractions and tolerances

1. Create a new MText object.
2. In the In-Place Text Editor, type a numerator, for example, 1.
3. Type one of the following characters to define the fraction format.
   • Forward slash (/)—creates a horizontal fraction
   • Number sign (#)—creates a diagonal fraction
4. Type a denominator, for example, 2.
5. Press the Spacebar or another valid character.

   As you type, the fractions are stacked, and a lightning bolt icon is displayed near the stacked text.

   
6. To create a tolerance stack, enter a numeric character before and after a caret (^). For example, type 1 +0.05^-0.01 and then press the Spacebar.
   
7. If you want to align the decimal point of the upper and lower numbers of the stacked text, click the lightning bolt icon and do the following:
   1. Choose Stack Properties.
   2. In the Stack Properties dialog box, under Appearance, click Style drop-down list.
   3. Choose Decimal.
   4. Click OK.
8. To unstack the text, click the lightning bolt icon and choose Unstack.
   

For more information about stacked text, see To Work with Stacked Text.

Remove formatting from MText

1. Select just the text that you want to remove the formatting from, or press Ctrl+A to select the entire MText object.
2. On the Text Editor ribbon contextual tab, Formatting panel, click Clear and choose from the available options:
   
3. Close the editor to save your changes.

Import a Text File

Suppose you want to insert the standard notes that you’ve previously created using a text editor such as Notepad. You can import TXT or RTF files to your drawings. The difference is that the text imported from a TXT file is added as a multiline text object while RTF text file is imported as an OLE object.

In this exercise, we’ll import a TXT file using the MTEXT command.

1. Click Home tabAnnotation panelMultiline Text. Find

   Alternatively, at the Command prompt, enter mt (MTEXT).

2. Specify the opposite corners of a bounding box to define the width of the multiline text object.
3. Right-click in the editor. Click Import Text.
   Note: The size limit for an imported file is 256 KB.
4. In the Select File dialog box, double-click the file you want to import, or select the file and click Open.

   The text is inserted at the cursor location.

5. Change the text as needed.
6. Close the editor to save your changes.

You can also use the drag-and-drop method to import a TXT file.

1. Open File Explorer and make sure it does not fill the screen.
2. Browse to the folder that contains the TXT file you want to import.
3. Drag the TXT file onto the drawing window.

   A new MText object is created with the text in the TXT file and formatted using the current text style.

Convert Single-Line Text to MText

Occasionally, you might inherit a drawing from someone else containing single-line text objects that would be easier to manage if they were just one multiline text object. Let’s try converting the single-line text to MText.

1. Open a drawing containing single-line text. You can also use the TEXT command to create some single-line text as shown below.

   Compared to the several grips available on an MText object, a single-line text object has grips at its insertion and alignment points which are the same by default and in the lower-left corner.

   
2. Click Insert tabImport panelCombine Text. Find

   Alternatively, at the Command prompt, enter txt2mtxt.

3. If you want to specify the text conversion settings, at the Select objects or [SEttings] prompt, enter se.
4. Select one or more single-line text objects to convert to MText. Let’s select all three text objects.
5. Press Enter to combine the selected text objects.
Note: To convert MText to separate single-line text objects, enter x (EXPLODE) at the Command prompt and select the MText objects to explode.

Display the Text Formatting Toolbar

The Text Editor ribbon contextual tab is a handy tool and contains the different options for working with MText. However, if you prefer to use a toolbar to format text, do one of the following:

• At the Command prompt, enter mtexttoolbar. Enter 1.
• On the Text Editor ribbon contextual tab, in the Options panel, click MoreEditor SettingsShow Toolbar.

The Text Formatting toolbar displays whenever you create or edit an MText object. This toolbar is not available for single-line text.

Summary

Text annotations convey all relevant information in a drawing. While it’s easy to create text, editing MText objects can sometimes be tricky and more challenging. Hopefully, the techniques and tips in this article help you avoid mistakes and save time when working with MText.

Related Have You Tried Articles

• Have You Tried: What's Behind that Mask. Use wipeouts, background mask, and dimension breaks to reduce busyness around annotation and blocks in your drawings.
• Have You Tried: Multileaders for Labels and Callouts. Create and modify multileader objects and their styles.
• Have You Tried: Import Styles. Define or import styles for text, dimensions, table, and leaders.

Multiline Text Related Commands and System Variables

Here are some frequently used commands and system variables related to working with MText.

Command	Description
MTEDIT	Edits multiline text.
MTEXT	Creates a multiline text object.
TEXT	Creates a single-line text object.
TXT2MTXT	Converts or combines single-line or multiline text objects into one or more multiline text objects.

System Variable	Description	Default Value	Saved in
MTEXTAUTOSTACK	Controls autostacking for the MTEXT command.	1	Registry
MTEXTFIXED	Sets the display size and orientation behavior of the In-Place Text Editor for multiline text.	2	Registry
MTEXTTOOLBAR	Controls the display of the Text Formatting toolbar.	2	User-settings
MTJIGSTRING	Sets the content of the sample text displayed at the cursor location when the MTEXT command is started.	"abc"	Registry
TEXTALLCAPS	Converts all new text created by TEXT or MTEXT commands to uppercase.	0	Registry