Convert Text Box to Text Line and visa versa

[Ryd...@adobeforums.com]

I'm not sure if this would be useful to anyone, but I'm going to throw this out there anyway. Let's say you've got one string of text that is a "text line" and you want to make this into a "text box". There should be an easy way, aside from copy/paste, that would convert this text line to a text box. The same feature could also work in reverse. Let's say there is a string of text that is inside a text box that you want to convert to a regular text line. This was just an idea that hit me today at work.

[Scott_...@adobeforums.com]

How would this feature address different alignments in the same text object? Tricky, eh?

I think it's fine as it is. It's a little inconvenient for noobs and those that don't structure a file well. But hey, you learn by experience.

[Nini Tjäder]

Personally I would like to have that as well - converting from one to the other in either direction without having to copy and paste and manually delete the previous object afterwards. Have wanted that many times even though I very seldom work with text in Illustrator (I use InDesign when text is the main thing to work with). Different alignments is not an issue in this situation as I see it. Has nothing to do with being a noob (whatever that is - English is not my first language) or not having structured the file well. Has much more to do with changing needs of the use of the text you want to use/edit/present in a different way.

[James_...@adobeforums.com]

Adobe's other vector drawing program, FreeHand, does textframe handling better than Illusrator or InDesign.

The salient functional difference between Illustrator's cumbersome "PointType" and "AreaType" is horizontal auto-expansion. FreeHand addresses both horizontal and vertical auto-expansion with a single textframe object. Switching between the equivalents of Illustrator's cumbersome PointType and AreaType objects is accomplished by a simple doubleClick.

A FreeHand text object's frame displays side and top/bottom handles as do Illustrator's when, um...indirect selected. DoubleClicking the left or right side handle turns on/off horizontal auto-expansion (in other words, activates/inactivates fixed width line wrapping). Similarly, doubleClicking a top or bottom handle toggles vertical auto-expansion.

Vertical auto-expansion is a hugely advantageous behavior which both Illustrator and InDesign lack. With no more trouble than a doubleClick, you can set any fixed-width textframe to automatically fit neatly against the bottom of the contained text. There is no excuse for accidental overset text in FreeHand, nor for unnecessary textframe area getting in the way of making other selections as is so often a problem in Illustrator and InDesign.

DoubleClicking the text thread box of a text frame causes it to neatly hug the contained text in both horizontal and vertical directions.

You can always tell by looking at a selected textframe how it is set to autofit. You can toggle the autofit behavior of any number of selected textframe objects at once by simply toggling two buttons in the Properties palette.

Consider how invaluable this is in working with complex maps and CAD imports. You open a map file with hundreds of individual street labels. You Select All and instantly eliminate all accidental oversets with a single click. You decide to change the font used for all street labels. You select all text objects containing a particular text size by means of the Select tab of FreeHand's Graphic Find/Replace feature, change the font. A single click causes each object's text frame to neatly hug its content.

There are many other aspects of FreeHand's text object interface which blows the doors off Illustrator's. There's the oft-cited matter of top-bottom wrapping of PathType. There are special characters still missing from Illustrator, such as column breaks. Wrapping Tabs is to my knowledge unique to FreeHand and is an elegant solution to the common problem of tables in which the content of columns varies in number of lines from row to row. FreeHand's Text Rulers can be set to always attach and align to the textframe being formatted, and yet do not disappear from view when the top of the textframe is beyond the window at the current zoom.(Vastly superior to the treatments in Illustrator and InDesign.)

Text object handling is one of several areas that needs to be replicated as directly as possible from FreeHand to Illustrator (and in some aspects, InDesign too).

JET