Formatting text
Impress provides
two separate dialogs related to text formatting.
To
modify the formatting such as font, font effects and so on, select
the text in the shape and then go to Format
> Character. This is covered in Chapter 3.
To
determine how the text which is added to a line or a shape behaves,
use the settings on the Text dialog, as described in this section.
Before
formatting text, add it to the object (a shape or a line):
Select
the object to which text will be added.
With
the green (or blue) resizing handles showing, double-click on the
object and wait for the cursor to become an I-beam or just start
typing.
Type
the text. When finished, click somewhere outside the object or
press Esc.
To
format the text in a shape:
Select
the object to which text was added.
Select
Format > Text
or right-click on the shape and select Text
from the pop-up menu. The Text dialog (Figure 108) is displayed.
The top section of
the dialog offers several options in the form of checkboxes. Some of
the checkboxes will be grayed out, depending on the object to which
the text will be attached.
Select
Fit width to text
to expand the width of the shape or line if the text is longer than
it.
Select
Word wrap text in shape
to automatically start a new line when the edge of the shape is
reached.
Select
Fit height to text
to expand the object height whenever it is smaller than the text
(set by default for lines.
Select
Resize shape to fit text
to expand a custom shape when the text inserted in the shape is too
large.
Select
Fit to frame to
expand the text so that it fills all the available space.
Select
Adjust to contour
to make the text follow a curved line.
In
the Spacing
to borders section, specify the amount of space to
be left between the border of the shape or line and the text; this
is similar to the settings for indentation and spacing for
paragraphs.
The
text anchor grid is used to decide where to anchor the text. The
Full width
checkbox determines if the anchoring should be performed to the full
width of the shape.
Text
animation
Use
this page to specify special effects applied to the text. Choose
between four options in the list and where applicable the direction
of the effect picking one of the four arrow buttons to the right.
The available effects are:
Blink:
the text will blink on the screen.
Scroll
through: the text will move into the shape and then out
following the chosen direction.
Scroll
back and forth: the text will not exit the shape border
and move first in the chosen direction.
Scroll
in: the text will scroll in towards the given direction
starting from the edge of the shape.
By
default no animation is applied.
The
other properties that can be set are:
Start
inside checkbox: when set the animation will start from
inside the shape.
Text
visible when editing checkbox: set this box to see the
text while editing.
Animation
cycles: includes three further options to set the
frequency of the animation, the increments between two positions of
the animation and finally the delay before the animation starts.
To
see some of the animations in action, it is necessary to start the
presentation. Press F9
or select Slide Show >
Slide Show from the main menu. To return to the edit
mode, press Esc.
