Topic: Mtext Editor is too hard to see

[MSTG007]

a machine just got acad installed on it, and when you go to edit some mtext... the colors green yellow red become really really faint. you can hardly see.

any ideas? i didnt know if its a windows setting or what?

thax

[Keith™]

I don't know about XP boxes, but on Win9X/NT/2000 turn off font smoothing and the view improves

[nivuahc]

Same thing for XP. Font Smoothing. Right-click on the dektop, select 'Properties'.

Select the 'Appearance' tab and select the 'Effects' button.

Adjust to your font smoothin' hearts desire.

[VerticalMojo]

I have Windows 2000pro and I still (occasionally) get the faint yellow text..... Never figured out why that happens.  

[sinc]

Sometimes my Mtext window itself appears translucent, and whatever is on the screen behind it shows through.  Grabbing the edit window near the ruler and moving it on the screen fixes it.

Mtext also has an annoying tendency to randomly appear either zoomed way in, so only about 10 letters total fit on the entire screen, or zoomed way out, so that all letters are incredibly tiny.

[Jassper]

There is a variable to turn off the transparancy of the M-text window - I keep searching my scattered brain this evening and can't seem to recall it. When I get to work I'll look it up and post if someone has not already posted it. (Different time zone ya know)

As far as the text lettering I find it is in relation to the zoom factor I'm in - I know that sounds weird but I haven't seen it change other than at those times of zoom.

HTH
Little

[sinc]

I've tried setting the zoom to all kinds of different settings, and it may have an effect, but it's a weird one.  When I get an mtext editor that is unusable because of the scale, I exit it and change the zoom, then try again, and eventually I get a usable text editor.  There's no consistency to it, though; it seems to happen at all sorts of zoom settings, not just when zoomed way in or way out.  It's like Autocad uses some (incorrect and/or buggy) mathematical function to figure out what size to make the text in the text editor, based on text size vs. current zoom setting and maybe other factors, so it crops up when things are in the right relative relationship to each other, but I haven't quite been able to discern any sort of pattern.

And it's possible, but I don't really think the transparency thing isn't due to a setting.  Like I say, nearly all the time, the text edit window isn't transparent.  It's just occasionally, and then simply moving the text editor window fixes it.  This wouldn't happen if I had set something that caused my text edit windows to be displayed transparently (although this causes everything to become so unreadable, I don't know why anyone would ever WANT it to happen...)

[hendie]

can't you just zoom in the mtext editor ?  = CONTROL + scroll mousewheel

[sinc]

Well, by golly, I can!

Wow, thanks.  That will prevent some future headaches!

[Kate M]

MTEXTFIXED

[Darryl]

Thanks everyone - finally a fix for my MTEXT.  Now maybe I'll use it more often.  I mostly use DTEXT because I can't see the text in the MTEXT window.  After reading this thread today, I tried fixing mine (using ACAD 2005 on Windows XP).  I found that 'Font Smoothing' made no difference.  Our text color is #134 (lighht cyan) on a black background.  So when the MTEXT editor dims the text it's almost impossible to see.  Zooming also makes no difference in the brightness for me.

But Sinc has found the answer - at least for me.  Just click on the bar at the top of the editor window (next to the ruler) and PRESTO - the text is the correct color and brightness. (You don't even have to move the window.)  Why didn't AutoDesk document this in their help screens?

[VerticalMojo]

can't you just zoom in the mtext editor ?  = CONTROL + scroll mousewheel

very cool... didnt know that. thanks

[sinc]

can't you just zoom in the mtext editor ?  = CONTROL + scroll mousewheel

Drat!  It doesn't work!

I just had it happen again, where text in my mtext window is zoomed to the point where it initially can display a max of about 8 characters at a time.  I can CTRL + mousewheel, which makes the text smaller, but the line length stays where it was at - as the text gets smaller, more and more text fits on a single line.  So, I can zoom until the text is normal height, but then what used to be a paragraph is all on a single, long line, stretching way off-screen to the right!

Does 2005 have this problem, too?

When it occurs, I've discovered that I can exit the mtext edit window and try again; eventually I get an edit window that has readable text.  It's pretty annoying, though.