Text Formatting Toolbar

Controls the text style for a multiline text object and character and paragraph formatting for selected text.

The toolbar is part of the In-Place Text Editor when working with multiline text. To display, right-click within the text area of the In-Place Text Editor, and click Editor Settings > Show Toolbar.

Style Font Annotative Text height Bold Italic Strikethrough Underline Overline Match Text Formatting Undo Redo Stack Text Color Ruler Save and Close Menu Options Columns Text Justification Paragraph Dialog Box Left Center Right Justify Distributed Line Spacing Bullets and Numbering Insert Field Uppercase Lowercase Superscript Subscript Symbol Oblique Angle Character Spacing Width Factor

Hover over the image to find clickable areas which jump to the Help section for those controls.

List of Options

Style

Applies a text style to the multiline text object. The current style is saved in the TEXTSTYLE system variable.

Character formatting for font, height, and bold or italic attributes is overridden if you apply a new style to an existing multiline text object. Stacking, underlining, and color attributes are retained in characters to which a new style is applied.

Styles that have backward or upside-down effects are not applied.

Font

Specifies a font for new text or changes the font of selected text. TrueType fonts are listed by font family name. Compiled shape (SHX) fonts are listed by the name of the file in which the fonts are stored. Custom fonts and third-party fonts are displayed in the editor with Autodesk-supplied proxy fonts.

A sample drawing, TrueType.dwg, showing each font is provided with the online sample drawings. To find the online sample drawings, click the Application button , and choose Open Sample Files Online Sample Files.

Annotative

Turns Annotative on or off for the current text object.

Text Height

Sets the character height in drawing units for new text or changes the height of selected text. If the current text style has no fixed height, the text height is the value stored in the TEXTSIZE system variable. A multiline text object can contain characters of various heights.

Bold

Turns bold formatting on and off for new or selected text. This option is available only for characters using TrueType fonts.

Italic

Turns italic formatting on and off for new or selected text. This option is available only for characters using TrueType fonts.

Strikethrough
Turns strikethrough formatting on and off for new or selected text.
Underline

Turns underlining on and off for new or selected text.

Overline

Turns overline on and off for new or selected text.

Match Text Formatting
Applies the formatting of selected text to target text.
Undo

Undoes actions in the In-Place Text Editor, including changes to either text content or text formatting.

Redo

Redoes actions in the In-Place Text Editor, including changes to either text content or text formatting.

Stack

Creates stacked text, for example, fractions, if the selected text contains stack characters. When the stack characters, caret (^), forward slash (/), and pound sign (#), are used, the text to the left of the stack character is stacked on top of the text to the right.

  • Forward slash (/) stacks text vertically, separated by a horizontal line.
  • Pound sign (#) stacks text diagonally, separated by a diagonal line.
  • Caret (^) creates a tolerance stack, which is not separated by a line.
Text Color

Specifies a color for new text or changes the color of selected text.

You can assign text the color associated with the layer it is on (BYLAYER) or the color of the block it is contained in (BYBLOCK). You can also select one of the colors in the color list or click Other to open the Select Color dialog box.

Ruler

Displays a ruler at the top of the editor. Drag the arrows at the end of the ruler to change the width of the text object. Also displays height and column grips when column mode is active.

You can also select tabs from the ruler. Clicking the Tab Selection button changes tab styles from left, center, right, and decimal. Once you make your selection, you adjust the corresponding tab in the ruler or in the Paragraph dialog box.

OK

Closes the editor and saves any changes that you made.

Options

Displays a list of additional text options. See the topic, Additional Text Options.

Columns

Displays the column menu, which provides options to set and modify columns. See the topic, Columns Menu.

Text Justification

Displays the text justification menu with nine alignment options available.

Paragraph

Displays the Paragraph dialog box where you can work with tabs, indentation, and spacing. See the topic Paragraph Dialog Box for a list of the options.

Left, Center, Right, Justified and Distributed

Sets the justification and alignment for the left, center, or right text boundaries of the current or selected paragraph. Spaces entered at the end of a line are included and affect the justification of a line.

Line Spacing

Displays suggested line spacing options or the Paragraph dialog box. Line spacing is the distance between the bottom of the upper line and the top of the lower line of text in a multiple line paragraph. Line spacing is set in the current or selected paragraph.

Numbering

Displays options for creating lists. (Not available for table cells.) The list is indented to align with the first selected paragraph.

  • Off: Removes letters, numbers, and bullets from selected text that has list formatting applied. Indentation is not changed.
  • Lettered: Applies list formatting that uses letters with periods for the items in the list. If the list has more items than the alphabet has letters, the sequence continues by using double letters.
  • Numbered: Applies list formatting that uses numbers with periods for the items in the list.
  • Bulleted: Applies list formatting that uses bullets for the items in the list.
  • Start: Starts a new letter or number sequence in list formatting. If the selected items are in the middle of a list, unselected items below them also become part of the new list.
  • Continue: Adds the selected paragraphs to the last list above and continues the sequence. If list items rather than paragraphs are selected, unselected items below the selected items continue the sequence.
  • Allow Auto Bullets and Numbering: Applies list formatting as you type. The following characters can be used as punctuation after letters and numbers and cannot be used as bullets: period (.), comma (,), close parenthesis ()), close angle bracket (>), close square bracket (]), and close curly bracket (}).
  • Allow Bullets and Lists: When this option is selected, list formatting is applied to all plain text in the multiline text object that looks like a list. Text that meets the following criteria is considered to be a list:
    1. The line begins with one or more letters or numbers or a symbol
    2. Followed by punctuation
    3. Followed by a space or Tab
    4. Followed by some text before the line is ended by Enter or Shift+Enter

    When you clear the check mark, any list formatting in the multiline text object is removed and the items are converted to plain text. All the Bullets and Lists options are unavailable except Allow Bullets and Lists.

Insert Field

Displays the Field dialog box, where you can select a field to insert in the text.

Uppercase

Changes the selected text to uppercase.

Lowercase

Changes the selected text to lowercase.

Superscript

Turns selected text into superscript, slightly smaller text set above the line of type.

Turns selected superscript text to ordinary text.

Subscript

Turns selected text into subscript, slightly smaller text set below the line of type.

Turns selected subscript text to ordinary text.

Symbol

Inserts a symbol or a nonbreaking space at the cursor position. You can also insert symbols manually. See Symbols and Special Characters.

Commonly used symbols are listed on the submenu, along with their control code or Unicode string. Click Other to display the Character Map dialog box, which contains the entire character set for each font available on your system. Select a character and click Select to place it in the Characters to Copy box. When you have selected all the characters that you want to use, click Copy to close the dialog box. In the editor, right-click and select Paste.

Oblique Angle

Determines the forward or backward slant of the text. The angle represents the offset from 90 degrees. Entering a value between -85 and 85 makes the text oblique. A positive obliquing angle slants text to the right. A negative obliquing angle slants text to the left.

Tracking

Decreases or increases the space between the selected characters. The 1.0 setting is normal spacing. Set to more than 1.0 to increase spacing, and set to less than 1.0 to decrease spacing.

Width Factor

Widens or narrows the selected characters. The 1.0 setting represents the normal width of the letter in this font. You can increase the width (for example, use a width factor of 2 to double the width) or decrease the width (for example, use a width factor of 0.5 for half the width).

Related Concepts

Related Reference