.. |atilde| unicode:: U+000E3 .. |aacute| unicode:: U+000E1 .. |agrave| unicode:: U+000E0 .. |aring| unicode:: U+000E5 .. |euml| unicode:: U+000EB .. |oslash| unicode:: U+000F8 ******************* Selecting & Editing ******************* Editing text is quite different from other object types in Blender, and happens mainly in two areas. First, the 3D View, where you type your text, and have a few shortcuts, e.g. for applying styles (see :ref:`modeling-text-character`) -- note however, that most Blender hotkeys you know in *Edit Mode* do not exist for texts. The second place is the Properties Editor, especially the *Font* tab. Selecting & Cursor ================== .. figure:: /images/modeling_texts_selecting-editing_cursor.png :width: 340px Text in Edit Mode. In *Edit Mode*, your text has a white cursor, and as in any text editor, it determines where new chars will be inserted. Next/Previous Character You can move the cursor with the arrow keys :kbd:`Left` or :kbd:`Right`. Next/Previous Word To move the cursor on a word's boundary, use :kbd:`Ctrl-Left` or :kbd:`Ctrl-Right`. Line Begin/End :kbd:`Home` and :kbd:`End` move the cursor to the beginning and end of a line respectively. Next/Previous Line To jump between lines, use :kbd:`Up` or :kbd:`Down`. Next/Previous Page To jump back/forward ten lines at a time, use :kbd:`PageUp` or :kbd:`PageDown`. Hold :kbd:`Shift` while using the arrow keys to select a part of the text. You can use it to specify different materials, the normal/bold/italic style, and not much more. Editing ======= The menu of the 3D View header offers few options, and there is no *Specials* menu. You have no transform nor mirror tools, and so on. However, you can apply to texts the same modifiers as for curves. Basic ----- Editing *Text* is similar to using a standard text editor but is not as full-featured and has some differences: Exit *Edit Mode* :kbd:`Tab` does not insert a tab character in the text, but rather enters and exits *Edit Mode*, as with other object types. Copy To copy text to the buffer, use :kbd:`Ctrl-C` or the *Copy* button in the Tool Shelf. Cut and Copy To cut and copy text to the buffer, use :kbd:`Ctrl-X` or the *Cut* button in the Tool Shelf. Paste To paste text from the buffer, use :kbd:`Ctrl-V` or the *Paste* button in the Tool Shelf. Delete all text To completely erase or delete all text, use :kbd:`Ctrl-Backspace`. The text buffer is in sync with the desktop clipboard. But if it is used within Blender the text formatting will be copied as well. For other ways of inserting a text, see `Inserting Text`_ below. Special Characters ------------------ .. admonition:: Reference :class: refbox :Mode: Edit Mode :Menu: :menuselection:`Text --> Special Characters` If you need special characters (such as accented chars, which are not on your keyboard) you can produce many of them using a combination of two other characters. To do so, type the main char, press :kbd:`Alt-Backspace`, and then press the desired "modifier" to produce the special character. Some examples are given below: .. list-table:: :widths: 20 80 * - |atilde| - :kbd:`A`, :kbd:`Alt-Backspace`, :kbd:`~` * - |aacute| - :kbd:`A`, :kbd:`Alt-Backspace`, :kbd:`'` * - |agrave| - :kbd:`A`, :kbd:`Alt-Backspace`, :kbd:`\\` * - |aring| - :kbd:`A`, :kbd:`Alt-Backspace`, :kbd:`O` * - |euml| - :kbd:`E`, :kbd:`Alt-Backspace`, :kbd:`"` * - |oslash| - :kbd:`O`, :kbd:`Alt-Backspace`, :kbd:`/` Inserting Text -------------- You can insert text in two ways: from the internal text buffer (as described above), or from a text file. To load text from a text file, use the :menuselection:`Text --> Paste File` tool. This will bring up a :doc:`File Browser ` for navigating to a valid UTF-8 file. As usual, be careful that the file does not have too many characters, as interactive response will slow down. Converting Text Objects ----------------------- Converting to Text Object ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Using an existing text data-block, you can convert it to an object from the Text editors header, select :menuselection:`Edit --> Text to 3D Object`, *One Object* or *One Object per Line* depending on your needs. It is also possible to paste from the clipboard or a file from the *Edit* menu, while editing 3D Text. Converting to 3D Mesh ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It is possible to convert a Text Object to a 3D Mesh object. This can be useful so that you may edit the vertices in *Edit Mode*, but you will lose the ability to edit the text itself. To do this, go to *Object Mode* and select your Text Object. Press :kbd:`Alt-C` and select *Mesh From Curve/Meta/Surf/Text*. Now you can return to *Edit Mode* and manually edit the vertices. They are usually a bit messy, so it may be useful to use a *Limited Dissolve* deletion or *Remesh* Object :doc:`Modifier ` at a low threshold to clean up your mesh. Assigning Materials ------------------- .. admonition:: Reference :class: refbox :Mode: Edit Mode :Panel: :menuselection:`Properties editor --> Materials` Each character can have a different *Material index* in order to have different materials on different characters. You can assign indices either as you type, or after by selecting blocks of text and clicking on the *Assign* button in the Materials panel. .. _fig-texts-edit-rgb: .. figure:: /images/modeling_texts_selecting-editing_material-index-example.png Red Green Blue. For example, to create Fig. :ref:`fig-texts-edit-rgb` you would need to create three separate materials and three separate material indices. Each word would be assigned a *Material index* by selecting the characters for each word and clicking the *Assign* button. Fig. :ref:`fig-texts-edit-rgb` is still one single *Text* object.