Text Box Resize

[Michael_Vestel@adobeforums.com]

When I resize a text box, I get two different types of reponses, depending on how the text box was made.

1) If I use the type tool and click and drag to form a box and then type the text, I can resize this to any size and the text automatically rearranges itself to fit the box. This sometimes causes text to not show if the box is not big enough. There is a small square in the center of this type of text box.
2) If I use the type tool and just click where I want the text to appear, I can then resize the box and this effects the text size and shape. There is NO small square in the center of this type of text box.

Question: How can I convert one type of text box to the other? I want to be able to make the text boxes change the way I want, sometimes like 1) and sometimes like 2).

[Philip_Peterson@adobeforums.com]

Cut and paste.

Maybe there is a clever way, but the brute force method of cut and paste works fer me...

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

Michael,

1) is called area type.

2) is called point type.

You can do anything with area type that you can with point type. If you want the text to scale rather than reflow when you drag handles, hit 'E' to get the free transform tool.

=-= Harron =-=

[Michael_Vestel@adobeforums.com]

Harron, thanks. How do you change the point type text box to an area type? I see now you can use the "free transform tool (E)" to take an area type box and resize the text, not reflow the text. But how do you take a point type box and reflow the text or change it to an area type box?

thanks.

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

Michael,

You're confusing the bounding box with the text box.

With area type, those two will be the same thing, assuming a rectangular text container.

With point type, there is no container. Turn off bounding boxes (Ctrl+Shift+B) and you'll see what I mean.

Without a container, there is no way Illustrator can read your mind regarding how you want the text to flow.

The bounding box is there -- not just for text but for all objects -- so you can do quick manipulations. Again, it is not a text container.

To put point type into a text container (i.e., convert to area type) in IL 10 and earlier, I know of no other way other than to cut and paste.

=-= Harron =-=

[Unregistered]

I have the same question as Michael, however, I don't think his question was answered. I have the same problem. I draw a text box with the text tool, type in the box, but if I haven't drawn the box large enough, cannot resize the box without the text scaling. I wish the type to remained unscaled, but just to open up the text box to reflow the text, exactly the same way a text box works in Quark. At times, I have the ability to do so, other times, I am unable to resize the text box, proportionately or skewed, doesn't matter. I want the text specs to remain unchanged within the text box. I've also tried this with drawing a textbox...by just clicking and typing, but then I am limited in that I am unable to create more than one column. I am thinking there is some setting that I may have accidentally turned on, because last week I could resize a text box without the text scaling/skewing, and this week, no go. VERY FRUSTRATING!!!

[DougK@iprint169.com]

I have exactly the same results as the previous two complainants. The toll is plain dumb. If I want to crate a text box I am not going to know exactly how much area I need until I see the text laid out.
ANY text box should be resizable, then I can decide if I decrease font size change faces etc. Cutting and pasting is such a pain in the button for something that should be totally natural to do with the box handles, rejavascript://scale should be the special request not the resizing of the box.