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...