Text

The text toolbar enables you to customise the look and feel of the text on your page. You can also add special symbols, horizontal rules and scrolling text.

A note about text styles: One of the most important features of this toolbar is the P, H1, H2, H3 buttons. These let you switch the style of the current paragraph. Using them will help keep your text consistent across your site making the site visually more appealing. If you do not like the current settings for the headings or default text please let us know and we can modify them for you. It's much easier for you if we change the defaults than you having to continually pick individual options.

Tips: To make a selection click and hold down the left mouse button at the start of the selection then drag the mouse to where you wish to end the selection then release the mouse. After each icon (where applicable) we give the keyboard shortcut. For example, Ctrl-C is the shortcut for Copy and means simultaneously press the Control and X keys.

Where settings apply to paragraphs (e.g. P, H1, H2, H3) please note that a paragraph ends when you press the Return key (assuming that under the Text tab you have left the setting at the default rather than changing to New Line. Note if when typing you just want a new line then press Shift-Return).

Remove formatting from selection enables you to quickly get back to the default settings.

Usage: select the text you'd like to remove formatting from. Click Remove formatting.

 

Font selector (pick from the list of fonts).

Usage: to apply to text you've already typed simply select the text and then choose the font you want. To apply to text you are about to type click where you wish your text to appear. Select the font from the list then type your text. Note where possible we recommend you use P, H1, H2, H3 to set font styles on your site.

A note about fonts: Sometimes people ask why the list of fonts is quite small when they have hundreds of fonts on their computer. Whilst it is possible for us to let you pick any font you have on your system it would be unwise. The page would display on your computer just fine but what you wouldn't realise is that anyone else viewing the page without that font installed would be shown a page using their browser default font. The fonts in the list are the Web Safe fonts - that means that nearly all computers should have them and it is safe for you to use them.

 

Font size (pick from the list of sizes).

Usage: to apply to text you've already typed simply select the text and then choose the font you want. To apply to text you are about to type click where you wish your text to appear. Select the font from the list then type your text. Note where possible we recommend you use P, H1, H2, H3 to set font styles on your site.

 

Insert symbol provides a list of characters such as the © copyright symbol.

Usage: within the editable area click where you wish to insert the symbol. Click on the symbol button. From the box that appears click on the symbol you want.

 

Change text colour enables you to select the colour of your text.

Usage: to apply to text you've already typed simply select the text, click the Change text colour icon and then choose the colour you want. To apply to text you are about to type click where you wish your text to appear. Select the appropriate colour and then type your text. Note where applicable we recommend you use P, H1, H2, H3 to set colour styles on your site.

 

Insert horizontal rule creates a line across the page (running left to right).

Usage: click where you would like the horizontal rule to appear (often below or between paragraphs). Click Insert horizontal rule. Below is an example of what you should see:


Paragraph / New Line enables you to choose the function of the Return key. By default pressing return gives you a new paragraph which may leave a gap between lines. This is correct functionality. If you want to just go to the next line (without a gap) then we recommend pressing Shift-Return (hold down Shift whilst pressing the Return key). With the Paragraph / New Line feature you can set the action of the Return key to just give you a new line. However new lines do not give you new paragraphs and if your whole page is one paragraph then certain functions such as the Left Align function would apply to the whole page (as they action align a paragraph).

 

Text Styles
Text styles are the best way to format your page. By default when you are typing it will be set to P (for paragraph). If you want to have headings and subheadings then use options H1, H2 and H3 as appropriate. Generally speaking, H1 is the largest and H3 the smallest. We can set your styles to be any of the web safe fonts, any colour, any size, etc. Please contact us if you would like us to modify the default looks.

Usage: click within the paragraph you wish to apply the style to. Click on the relevant style. If you click on a style you didn't intend then simply select another heading style or the P to return to the default paragraph style.