ADOBE ACROBAT WINDOWS 80 HOW DO I CHANGE FREE TEXT TOOL S PROPERTIES
From: dagmara_lewkowicz@no-spam
Subject: How do I change Free Text Tool's properties?
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 10:47:58 -0800


I have Acrobat 5 and Win XP. When I select the free text tool from the toolbar to add comments I get a grey box. I want to change the color to none (it used to be transparent). Don't know what changed and properties option under the Edit menu is greyed out. I couldn't find anything under Preferences that applies.


Does anyone have any idea how to fix?























From: Ian_Burton@no-spam
Subject: Re: How do I change Free Text Tool's properties?
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 12:54:50 -0800

Select the hand tool, click on the grey free text box to get highlights at each corner. Right click on the grey box of your Free text and uncheck the fill color. This sticks for all future Free Text boxes.

Cheers Ian

From: dagmara_lewkowicz@no-spam
Subject: Re: How do I change Free Text Tool's properties?
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 13:43:02 -0800

Thanks Ian - I'm so grateful!


From: Mark_T_Gregory@no-spam
Subject: Re: How do I change Free Text Tool's properties?
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 14:38:41 -0800

You've answered my question as well...however...how in the world do you change the font COLOR...not the FILL..not the BORDER, but the FONT Color?? I would be ever so appreciative!!!



From: Ian_Burton@no-spam
Subject: Re: How do I change Free Text Tool's properties?
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 15:42:21 -0800

The font color and the border color are the same and there's no way I know to separate the two. Could be Adobe's idea of color coordination.

Cheers Ian

From: Jonathan_H@no-spam
Subject: Re: How do I change Free Text Tool's properties?
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 15:45:05 -0800

There is more control - including this option in Acrobat 6.


From: Ian_Burton@no-spam
Subject: Re: How do I change Free Text Tool's properties?
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 16:11:04 -0800

"There is more control - including this option in Acrobat 6"

Go on then I am still learning 6 but I can't find anyway to separate Border color from text color in any dialog box concerning Free Text (aka Text Box in 6) The only "more control" seems to be the opacity control for the box fill. But I am willing to learn about "including this option"

Cheers Ian

From: Mark_T_Gregory@no-spam
Subject: Re: How do I change Free Text Tool's properties?
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 17:33:06 -0800

Thanks, Ian...if I select a Black Border with "0 pt" thickness------within the Appearance option, I get black text (or whatever color Border selected) with NO border. I like this forum!!



From: Jonathan_H@no-spam
Subject: Re: How do I change Free Text Tool's properties?
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 22:41:49 -0800

Ian
Have the Proprtties Bar open.

When you first select the Text Box tool you will see these options in the Properties bar - you can change border thickness and style, colour as well as the opacity and the fill colour.


As soon as you actually create the text box then the properties bar changes to reflect your otions for the text control - font, size, colour, justification even super- and sub-script etc.



From: Ian_Burton@no-spam
Subject: Re: How do I change Free Text Tool's properties?
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 01:16:20 -0800

Thanks Jonathan,
I finally found the properties bar in View>Toolbars>Properties Bar (CTRL+E). Coming from Acrobat 5 I was content just to right click to select properties of the text box, which also control text color but through the border selection. The other usability problem I encountered was selecting the text inside a text box to edit the characteristics of it. Whatever tool you choose, text select, hand, text box, it does not seem possible to get at the text inside a box, you get the box itself. That is, until you learn to double click inside the box to get at the text and change whatever you want in the text characteristics including a color separate from the borde color.


The deceptive part of this interface is that there are two ways to get to properties of an object - right click select properties and you get a certain dialog box, or CTRL+E to get the properties bar that adapts to whatever object you select. Even worse it appears that you have two different sets of properties - but this is not true you get the same choices in a different layout.


Then there's the question of finding the text properties. There's a select-right click model for accessing almost all properties, except text in boxes. Here the access model is different - it's double click then bring up the properties toolbar yourself - or have it open already.


It seems that Acrobat Pro 6.01 is another of those strange Adobe intrefaces that militates against intuitive learning. As in other Adobe products you need to know a service or object is available and know its Adobe name before you can find it in the documentation.


The more I explore this product the more I see that there are many more bells and whistles to be found than in AA5. I also have the impression that the bells and whistles are just that and that learning about them is an obstacle to getting at the fundamentals. The interface seems cluttered, with lots of features hidden in expanding toolbars. I appreciate that this is a very subjective position and when I have come to terms with AA Pro6.01, a couple of days befoer AA7 is launched, I will be a happy comfortable user. In the meantime I'll keep ringing and blowing.


Thanks for the help Jonathan Cheers Ian