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Course Designer 3
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Text

The Text shape draws text on the course, optionally with a box drawn around it. If you want to label obstacles with numbers or letters, use the Obstacle Label shape instead of the Text shape. For more information, see Obstacle Labels. If you want to show the location of a handler, judge, timer, scribe, ring steward, or other person, use the Person shape instead of the Text shape.

Course Designer 3 always displays the "Text Properties" dialog box when you create a new Text shape. Like all shapes, you can also change the properties of an existing text shape, after the text shape is already on the course. For more information, see Changing Shape Properties. The following describes how to modify the Text shape in the "Text Properties" dialog box.

To set the font size and type:

  1. If you want some existing text to be changed, first select that text as described later in this topic.
  2. Specify the font size and/or type.
  3. Click on the text area of the dialog box again. The font size and type of the selected text, if any, will be changed. If you start typing, the new characters will appear in the specified font size and type.

To change the alignment of one or more lines:

  1. If you want some existing lines of text to be changed, first select those lines as described later in this topic.
  2. Specify the alignment.
  3. Click on the text area of the dialog box again. The alignment will be changed for all lines containing some selected text, if any, and will be changed for the line containing the caret.
The width used for determining text alignment is the widest width of any line in the Text shape, not the wrap width.

Wrap width

Text is automatically wrapped such that no line is longer than the specified wrap width. If you want to force some text to begin on a new line, use the Enter key between the two lines of text.

Text on Course Borders

It is often desirable to put text on a border outside of the course itself, for example, to make the text appear as a header above the course. You can create a border to put the text shape on by using the "Edit / Border Size..." menu item. For more information, see Setting Course and Border Sizes. However, it is often more convenient to have the size of the border adjusted automatically to fit the size of the Text shape. To do this, selected the desired border in the "Resize border to fit text" selection on the "Text Properties" dialog box.

Context menu

To display the text shape's context menu, right click on the text area of the dialog box. The context menu will be displayed. The context menu contains menu items for Undo and Redo, and the standard clipboard operations Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete. You can also use the following keyboard shortcuts for these menu items:

Ctrl+Z Undo
Ctrl+Y Redo
Ctrl+X Cut
Ctrl+C Copy
Ctrl+V Paste
Delete Delete

Columns

You can use the Tab key to create columns of text that line up vertically. The tab stops are about a yard (about a meter) apart.

Positioning the caret and selecting text

The caret indicates where text you type will be entered. You can position the caret within the displayed text by clicking where you want the caret to appear.

To use the mouse to select some text, click at one end of the text to be selected, drag the mouse to the other end, and release the mouse button.

You can also position the caret or select text by using keyboard shortcuts. The following key strokes will reposition the caret as described:

left arrow Move one character to the left.
right arrow Move one character to the right.
Ctrl left arrow Move one word to the left.
Ctrl right arrow Move one word to the right.
up arrow Move up one line.
down arrow Move down one line.
Ctrl up arrow Move up one paragraph.
Ctrl down arrow Move down one paragraph.
Home Move to the beginning of the current line.
End Move to the end of the current line.
Ctrl Home Move to the beginning of all text.
Ctrl End Move to the end of all text.

You can extend the selected text by holding down the Shift key while using any of the keys in the above table.

Deleting text

You can delete text by selecting the text to be deleted, and then typing any of the following:

  • Delete
  • Backspace
  • whatever you want to replace the selected text with.

You can also delete text without first selecting any text, by using one of the following keys:

Delete Delete the next character.
Ctrl Delete Delete the next word.
Backspace Delete the previous character.
Ctrl Backspace Delete the previous word.

See also: Obstacle Labels, Setting Course and Border Sizes