Aligning Text Blocks

[ColsHub]

I've got to be blind 'cause I can't figure this out. Anyway...
I have a drawing with several text blocks scattered across it. When I click
on the text I get the "outline" box w/ handles, etc.. Very often this box is
smaller than the text. Width is usually OK but is usually less than the text
height, especially if there is more than one line of text. When I do
Tools/Align/Tops the top of the text boxes are aligned, not the text. So, how
do I...
1) configure the text block to automatically resize to its text? (like Excel
does)
OR
2) what do I do to align the *text* instead of the text block.

Thanks

 

[Paul Herber]

I've got to be blind 'cause I can't figure this out. Anyway...
I have a drawing with several text blocks scattered across it. When I click
on the text I get the "outline" box w/ handles, etc.. Very often this box is
smaller than the text. Width is usually OK but is usually less than the text
height, especially if there is more than one line of text. When I do
Tools/Align/Tops the top of the text boxes are aligned, not the text. So, how
do I...
1) configure the text block to automatically resize to its text? (like Excel
does)

menu Window -> Show Shapesheet
right-click on the background
set the width cell to =Guard(Max(TextWidth(Thetext),30mm))
and the height to =Guard(TextHeight(TheText,Width))

 

[ColsHub]

Paul-
I was OK until I got to entering the formulas for setting row & column
dimensions.
At this point I have 3 windows- Stencil, "drawing" and Properties?
Rt click on the "drawing" window and I get Cut, Copy, Paste, Dupe, View,
Format, Shape. Cut and Dupe are grayed out. None of these lead to cell
dimensions.
Rt click in the "Properties" window and I get Values, Formulas, View
Section, Insert Section, Delete Sec, Insert Row, Insert Row After, Delete
Row, Expand Row, Change Row Type. Delete Sec to Change type are grayed out.
None of these lead to cell dimensions.

Did I miss a step??

Thanks for helping me with this,
Paul

 

[Paul Herber]

Sorry, there was a line that shouldn't be there (I copied and pasted
from instructions I gave some time ago).
menu Window -> Show Shapesheet
in the Shape Transform section:
set the width cell to =Guard(Max(TextWidth(Thetext),30mm))
and the height to =Guard(TextHeight(TheText,Width))

 

[ColsHub]

Paul-
I'm not seeing a "Shape Transform" section.

I'm using Visio 2000 SR1
If I rtClick on the background of the <Page> window I get

Values
Formulas
View Section
Insert Section
Delete Sec
Insert Row
Insert Row After
Delete Row
Expand Row
Change Row Type.
The 1st 4 are "active", the rest are inactive (grayed out).

If I select "View Sections" I get a pop-up window with 3 columns of 3 checkboxes-

Page Properties
Page layout
Ruler & Grid
User-defined
Custom
Hyperlinks
Action
Scratch
Layers
I didn't see any cell settings in any of these.
If I select "Insert Section, I get a pop-up window with 13 checkboxes, none
are active.
Again, thanks for helping me out here.
Paul

 

[Paul Herber]

select the shape first..

Paul-
I'm not seeing a "Shape Transform" section.
Values
Formulas
View Section
Insert Section
Delete Sec
Insert Row
Insert Row After
Delete Row
Expand Row
Change Row Type.
The 1st 4 are "active", the rest are inactive (grayed out).
Page Properties
Page layout
Ruler & Grid
User-defined
Custom
Hyperlinks
Action
Scratch
Layers
I didn't see any cell settings in any of these.
If I select "Insert Section, I get a pop-up window with 13 checkboxes, none
are active.
Again, thanks for helping me out here.
Paul

 

[ColsHub]

Getting closer....
I selected the text block (not a shape, if that matters) then Window/ Show
Shapesheet. The Shape Transform Shape Sheet appears. I enter the Row Height
and Width formulas you gave me but nothing appears to happen. Will this set
the height and width globally or do I have to do it for each text block
(neither seems to do anything. Where can I find info on these Shape Sheet
formulas? I searched the Dizzio help but didn't see anything. I'll look in
Microsoft.com next.

Paul

 

[ColsHub]

More-
I did some experimenting and it appears you have to select block/ show
shapesheet and enter the formule for EACH text block. Is there a way to do
all blocks at once? Is there a way to make the Guard statements the default?

 

[Paul Herber]

More-
I did some experimenting and it appears you have to select block/ show
shapesheet and enter the formule for EACH text block. Is there a way to do
all blocks at once? Is there a way to make the Guard statements the default?

Yes, maybe.
You will now have to edit the Document Stencil.

menu File -> Shapes -> Document Stencil
this will now show the document stencil with all the shapes used in
the current diagram.
Double click the shape you want to change and change the Width and
Height cells via the shapesheet as before (ensuring you have the
master shape selected, otherwise you get the page shapesheet).
When you close the shape edit window you will be asked whether you
want to update all the shapes in the document.

 

[ColsHub]

Ugh. I'm about to give up on this. It's looking like it's time for a "Dear
Bill, WTF" letter. I think what you suggest will work for a *shape* but I'm
trying to do this for *text* entered using the Text Tool. I tried adding some
text to the document shapesheet then put your formulas in height and width
but, as before, it changed for one block but not the others.

Like I said, ugh. Thanks for all your help. I thought this was an easy one
that I just wasn't seeing. Looks like I was wrong.

Paul

 

[Doug.S]

In Visio 2003 you can search for a shape that fits box around the text to
fit,

make the shape line = no line,

save as your shape,

then use it for your desired text box.

Doug.S

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

There is subtle fact you may be overlooking. A Visio drawing contains shapes
and a Visio stencil also contains shapes (but they are called masters). A
master represents a shape (or usually a collection of shapes) that has been
placed on a page. Any change to a master can be automatically replicated to
any shape in their collection. So even though you may have hundreds of
shapes on your drawing, you may have only a couple of masters. Also any
future shapes created with these masters will have the same property.

So Paul's suggestion about using the stencil would be changes to a small set
of shapes (the masters) rather than all the shapes.
Doug's idea is similar, but he is talking about obtaining a modified shape
BEFORE it is used.

John... Visio MVP

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