Family Historian User Group

I must be doing something wrong?

I want to add a title to a diagram. I have inserted a text box but it won't allow me to add any text to the box. I am sure it's something simple. I never had problems when I used FH a few years ago.

Any ideas please?

After inserting the box you need to right-click in it and choose Format (or just double-click in the box). You can then type text in the Text tab, as well as choose the font and size of text, alignment and margins.

LornaCraig wrote: ↑

20 May 2022 18:25

After inserting the box you need to right-click in it and choose Format (or just double-click in the box). You can then type text in the Text tab, as well as choose the font and size of text, alignment and margins.

I have never added a title to a diagram, but have to say that method is counter intuitive!
In most applications if you add a text box EG Word/Excel/Paint etc as soon as you create the text box it is live and you immediately start typing with opportunity to format it for font, size, colour etc.
I can totally understand why the OP posted this!

It may have been set up this way so that it is consistent with the behaviour of other elements of a diagram. For inserted lines, shapes and pictues, as well as text boxes, a single right-click opens a menu of options, one of which is Format, and a double click opens a Format dialog directly. Similarly a right-click on an individual's box in the diagram opens a Format dialog. It's just that with a text box (and a pie shape with text) one of the things you do with formatting is the wording of the text itself.

(Incidentally I still have a very old copy of Paint Shop Pro which works this way when you want to insert text.)

Oddly enough, I think I prefer it the way that FH does it. I've just tried adding text boxes in Excel and FH and the first thing I do is give the box the right placement, size and shape. Only then do I start wanting to add text. Mind you, I think that Excel gave the opportunity to type first, even though I ignored it. I guess we all have different mental maps of the order to do things.

As for invoking the text insertion, I'd long forgotten how to do it - when doing that trial, I just double clicked and got the text entry facility. I didn't know that it would give me text entry, but it's always a good thing to do in FH - double click it. Again, it's just how your mental map works.

neil40 wrote: ↑

21 May 2022 08:28

I have never added a title to a diagram, but have to say that method is counter intuitive!
In most applications if you add a text box EG Word/Excel/Paint etc as soon as you create the text box it is live and you immediately start typing with opportunity to format it for font, size, colour etc.
I can totally understand why the OP posted this!

I tend to agree. I could understand if the right click option was ‘Edit’, as one is editing the text, but not ‘Format’, which seems to imply one is formatting the text, e.g. changing font/size of text, or adding bold or underline.
I too was caught out by this, and took.me a while to figure it out