Adding Text Objects to a Chart
Editing Text Objects
Saving Default Attributes for Text Objects
Tags in Text Objects and Frame Titles
Rotating Text
Reunion lets you add text objects to a chart. For example, you might want to add a...
You may add text objects anywhere in a chart, even directly on top of other objects. Text objects can be manipulated in the same way as other objects. For example, you can assign a background color or rotate a text object.
Each text object is limited to 50 lines of text and a maximum of 4,500 characters. You may add as many text objects as you want to a chart.
There are two ways to add text to a chart:
1. Click the text tool in the tool panel, and click any spot on the chart where you want the text to appear.
2. Select an item from the
submenu, shown below.Then simply type some text. Press the Enter key when you're done, or simply click elsewhere on the chart.
You can edit text objects (move, delete, duplicate, layer, align, change the style, etc.) using the same tools that you use to edit boxes in a tree chart. One additional option applies to text objects: text rotation.
Reunion will remember the attributes of five types of text objects...
You may apply the attributes of one type of text object to new text objects of the same type. For example, if you create a title for one chart and carefully edit the font, size, style, color, etc., you can save those settings as a default title and then quickly create the same kind of title in your next chart.
To save text as the default model for titles, return addresses, captions, signatures, or dates...
When saving default text attributes for a text object, Reunion remembers the text you currently see in the box, in addition to its attributes (i.e., its font, size, etc.). In other words, when you make a new title, return address, caption, signature, or date, the new text object will assume the default attributes for its particular type of text object and be filled with the same text.
Shortcuts For Adding, Deleting, and Saving Default Text Objects
You can Control-click a text object to see a context sensitive pop-up menu with commands to , , and .
Default text objects, as well as frame titles, support tags, enabling you to automatically include dynamic variables in text.
By default, the Title, Signature, and Date text objects already include tags in their text. Tags can be added to the Caption and Return Address text objects. The following table lists the supported tags...
Tag |
Description |
---|---|
[date] |
Today's date (using the format specified in the Date Settings). |
[dateFormat=...] |
Click here for more information. |
[chartType] |
Type of chart. |
[generations] |
Number of generations in a chart. |
[boxes] |
Number of boxes in a chart. |
[sourceBox] |
First line of source box (source person for a chart). |
Tags in frame titles behave slightly differently than tags in text objects.
In frame titles, tags are converted to a text string when the Frame Title window is closed.
In text objects (title, return address, caption, signature, date), the tags are used to define default text objects — so that new text objects will have the appropriate strings injected into them — but simply typing a tag into a text object will not result in the immediate conversion of the tag into a text string.
If you hold down the Option key and choose any item from the submenu, a new text object will be created that shows the actual tags in the box. I.e., none of the tags will be converted into text (it would look like the first box in the illustration above). This shortcut provides a simple way to edit and resave default text objects containing tags.
For example, when you choose
, a text box with something like "Created: Monday, 27 Nov 2021" will appear. But if you held down the Option key while choosing the same menu item, you'd see a box with text containing the actual tags: Created: [dateFormat=%A], [date]Note: this does not apply to text inside chart boxes.
Text objects in charts can be rotated by clicking and dragging one of the rotation handles at the top-left and top-right of the text object. As you move the cursor over this area, the cursor will change to a pointing finger with angled arrows. Text may be rotated in 1 degree increments for a full 360 degrees, in the form of +/- 180.
As you rotate the text on-screen, the rotation angle (35°, 36°, etc.) will appear in the left side of the status bar (the lower-left corner of the chart window).
Text Rotation Notes
The [dateFormat=...] tag may be used in two places...
Whereas the [date] tag simply inserts today's date in the format specified in Reunion's Date Settings, the [dateFormat=...] tag is a more diverse date and time format, drawing from the macOS date and time formatting.
The "..." part of this tag can be any combination of codes shown in the table below, with any optional free form text included among those codes.
Code | Description |
---|---|
%a | Abbreviated weekday name. |
%A | Full weekday name. |
%d | Day of the month (01-31). |
%e | Day of the month without leading 0 for days 1 through 9. |
%b | Abbreviated month name. |
%B | Full month name. |
%m | Month as a decimal number (01-12). |
%y | Year without century (00-99). |
%Y | Year with century (such as 1990). |
%Z | Time zone name (such as Pacific Daylight Time). |
%z | Time zone offset in hours and minutes from GMT (HHMM). |
%x | Date using the date representation for the locale. |
%X | Time using the time representation for the locale. |
%H | Hour based on a 24-hour clock. |
%I | hour based on a 12-hour clock. |
%M | Minute as a decimal number (00-59). |
%p | AM/PM designation for the locale. |
Examples of using the [dateFormat=...] tag:
[dateFormat=...] tag | result |
---|---|
[dateFormat=%A] | Thursday |
[dateFormat=%A, %B %e, %Y] | Friday, October 6, 2021 |
[dateFormat=Copyright 1988-%Y] | Copyright 1988-2021 |
Copyright 1988-[dateFormat=%Y] | Copyright 1988-2021 |
[dateFormat=%Y-%m-%d] | 2021-10-06 |
[dateFormat=%e %b %y @ %I:%M %p %Z] | 6 Oct 2021 @ 04:30 PM US/Eastern |