Editing Documents
Most of the text formatting tools are located in the Text tab of the Inspector.
Some operations common for different types of objects are described in:
Several text tools are stacked within the same button in the toolbar. To show all of them, click and hold the mouse button and you'll see the popup menu. Then choose the necessary tool. In the toolbar, the icon shown here is typically the one that was last used. You can activate that particular text tool by just clicking the icon.
To type text, you should add a text box, a container for your text.
To add a text box, activate the Text tool in the toolbar. Then click on the canvas.
To draw a text box:
To draw a text box of a particular size:
To edit text, double-click on it.
To exit the text editing mode, click outside the text box or press Cmd-Return.
To edit vertical text, double-click on it.
To exit the text editing mode, click outside the text box or press Cmd-Return.
While editing vertical text it is displayed horizontally.
Some text formatting tools (for instance, bulleted lists or spacing between lines) don't work with vertical text.
To edit circular text, double-click on it.
To reverse the direction of a circular text, use the Clockwise Direction check box in the text editor.
Some text formatting tools (for instance, bulleted lists or inset margin) don't work with circular text.
To remove a text box, select it and press the Delete key.
Text formatting tools are located in the Text tab of the Inspector window.
To change the font, select the text box or highlight a portion of the text, and click the Fonts button in the Inspector. Or, press Cmd-T.
To change the color, select the text box or highlight a portion of the text, and click the color button in the Inspector. Or, press Cmd-Shift-C.
To change the font size, use the Size slide bar or the "T" buttons. Alternatively, type the font size in the edit box.
To align text within the text box, use the Alignment buttons in the Text tab of the Inspector.
To outline a text box, select the Stroke check box in the Appearance tab of the Inspector. Here you can set up the line thickness, color, and choose a pattern.
To change the background color of a text box:
To add a shadow to text:
Shadows are applied to the entire text box.
You can change the default text spacing settings by using the Spacing parameters in the Text tab of the Inspector.
Between Characters – changes the distance between characters. This tool can be applied to the whole selected text box or to a selected part of the text.
Between Lines – the distance between lines. This tool can be applied to the whole selected text box or to a selected part of the text.
Before Paragraph – the space before the current paragraph (where the text cursor is).
After Paragraph – the space after the selected paragraph (where the text cursor is).
Inset Margin lets you control the spacing between the text and text box border. By increasing this value, you increase the distance between the text and its borders on all sides.
To create a list, select a part of your text or an entire text box. Then, in the Text tab of the Inspector, click on the Lists pop-up menu to select the list type (numbered, with bullets, etc.).
You can wrap text around images or text frames.
To make text flow around an object:
You may need to wrap text around an image with the transparent background. Since the program doesn't take transparency in account, the text would still wrap around the image border not around the visible part.
In such cases you need to outline the image using the Spline tool, and make the text wrap not around the image itself but around the created contour.
Once you satisfied with the result, turn off the Stroke of the contour to make it invisible.
To check the spelling and grammar, select Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Check Document Now (Cmd-:). If your text has misspelled words, the program will mark the first one with a red dotted line. Repeat this command to display misspelled words one after another.
To show possible corrections to a misspelled word, select Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar (Cmd-:).
To have misspelled words underlined when you type, select Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Check Spelling While Typing.
The program lets you find and replace a word, number or phrase.
Double click on a text box to enter the text editing mode and select Edit > Find > Find in the menu. Enter the word you are looking for in the Find text box and click Next.
If you need to replace the word, enter the new word in the Replace text box and click Next and Replace.
Select a word and choose Edit > Find > Use Selection for Find and the selected word will become the criterion for the search.
If you have selected a part of text, the option Jump to Selection will scroll down (if needed) to make the selection visible.
It is possible to create a PDF file with links to web pages. To do this:
Also, you can add an email address in this format:
mailto:support@belightsoft.com
The "mailto:" prefix must be in the beginning if you want a mail program open upon clicking the link.