Text Frame

Parent page: Sch Dialogs

The Text Frame dialog

Summary

This dialog provides controls to specify the properties of a Text Frame object. A text frame is a non-electrical drawing primitive and is used to define an area on a schematic to contain textual information. The frame is a resizeable rectangular area that can contain multiple lines of text and can automatically wrap and clip text to keep it within the bounds of the frame.

Access

The Text Frame dialog can be accessed during placement by pressing the Tab key.

After placement, the dialog can be accessed in one of the following ways:

• Double-click on the placed text frame object.
• Place the cursor over the text frame object, right-click then choose Properties from the context menu.

Options/Controls

• Border Width - the width of the border used to draw the outline of the frame provided the Show Border option is enabled. Available widths are: Smallest, Small, Medium, and Large.
• Text Color - click the color sample to change the color used for the actual text entered into the frame using the standard Choose Color dialog.
• Alignment - specifies the alignment of the text contained within the frame. Choose from Center, Left, and Right alignment.
• Location X1/Y1 - the current X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) coordinates for the bottom-left corner of the frame. Edit these values to change the position of this corner in the horizontal and/or vertical planes respectively.
• Location X2/Y2 - the current X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) coordinates for the top-right corner of the frame. Edit these values to change the position of this corner in the horizontal and/or vertical planes respectively.
• Show Border - enable this option to have the text frame enclosed in a border drawn in the current Border Color and in accordance with the specified Border Width.
• Border Color - click the color sample to change the color used for the border around the frame, if shown, using the standard Choose Color dialog.
• Draw Solid - if this option is enabled, the frame is filled with the color set in the Fill Color field. If this option is disabled, the rectangle is drawn in outline only.
• Fill Color - click the color sample to change the fill color for the frame using the standard Choose Color dialog. The Draw Solid option must be enabled for the rectangle to be filled.
• Text Margin - the amount of space (padding) between the text and the frame border. The value specified applies equally to Left, Top, Right and Bottom margins for the frame.

Properties

• Text - click the Change button associated with this field to access the TextFrame Text dialog in which text for the frame can be entered as required.
• Font - this control serves two purposes. First, it reflects the currently chosen font – applied to the text entered within the frame - in terms of Font Name, Font Size and Font Style. Second, when clicked it provides access to the standard Font dialog in which you can change the font as required.

• Word Wrap - enable this option to have the text within the frame area automatically wrap to fit the width of the frame.
• Clip to Area - this option comes into play if word wrapping is disabled. With this option enabled, text will be kept within the bounds of the frame. When disabled, text will spill out of the frame onto the schematic sheet.
• Locked - enable this option to protect the frame from being edited graphically.