Trick to help set a consistent padding margin

[Jonopen]

Hi all

I've been frustrated not being able to set (or see) a numerical value for padding margin within a rectangle that has text inside it. This is quite an oversight by the developers and is made worse because the padding margin attributes can not be copied and applied to another shape.

In most cases I would setup a rectangle with text just as I want it, then keep copying and pasting it for each new text box required, but sometimes you might want to change a layout or try a different amount of margin padding to a range of text boxes and this is where this trick might help.

Anyway, a quick way to check that your padding margin values are acceptably consistent between text boxes, is to use a rectangle with a border line width twice that of the desired padding margin. It has to be twice the width because lines can only be centre aligned (another development oversight) which means when aligning your guide rectangle to your text box, the border line will straddle either side of the edge.

This sounds quite long winded but it is actually quick and easy to do. Hopefully all will become clear when you see the attached diagram!



Meanwhile, Dear Xara...

[gwpriester]

I'm going to move this to Dear Xara where is may or may not get the attention of the developers.

[Acorn]

Surely this has been usurped with Text Inside. Select the shape with Txt Inside, right-click & pick Text Inside > Properties to set the Padding margin.

Acorn

[Jonopen]

Blinkin' heck, thanks Acorn! I never noticed that. It's even mentioned in Help!

Still, it would be useful to show the padding margin value when dragging an adjustment arrow and be have the option to copy and paste the attributes to another shape.

[gwpriester]

I'll send this back to Xara Graphics Forum.

[Acorn]

Blinkin' heck, thanks Acorn! I never noticed that. It's even mentioned in Help!
Still, it would be useful to show the padding margin value when dragging an adjustment arrow and be have the option to copy and paste the attributes to another shape.

Using the Line width is a useful approach.

I have tried using the same size Text Area and using the Margins and Space Before settings - too tedious.

My suggestion is a small rectangle (margins box) with twice the dimensions of the LR & TB margins, soft-grouped in the bottom right corner.
It is a quick matter to change its size and then place the text area from top left of big rectangle to top left of smaller rectangle using Alt+resize to keep the font sweet.
The last step is to align the text area bottom right to the centre of the margins box.

Slow but complete, accurate and visible control.



Acorn