How to group text and rectangle?

[terrypin]

I made a red rectangle and then positioned white text over it. I'd like to repeat that a dozen or so times in the image, just changing the text.

Could someone step me through the easiest way to do that please? I assume I need to 'group' the text and rectangle so that I can move them together (I don't want to have to repeat the tricky positioning every time). And then just edit the text - but so far it's eluded me!



I'm using PSP8 but hopefully the approach is similar in later versions.

Even better, anyone know of a script I could download that would make this sort of 'boxed label' simpler please?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[LeviFiction]

I'm afraid I never owned PSP 8. And I've always been bad about keeping track of what items had what options between versions.

In X4, and let me know if there is anything similar in 8, I can select the vector layer itself and use either the Pick or Move tool to move the entire layer which includes the block and the text all at the same time. So from there all I have to do is create a new vector layer for each group of text and rectangle.

Now, if I actually group each item into a vector group under the same layer. So long as I'm selecting the group, not the individual items, I can use the pick tool to move each item. In your case I'm guessing the Object Selection tool is more appropriate than the pick tool.

Also because I'm able to select multiple vector objects at the same time all I have to do is select the two I want to move, grab the pick tool (again Object Selector for you) and move them together.

As for getting the text and the box to fit together, this technically doesn't work well in X4 because of that stupid "extra space" at the end of the text that always appears throwing off any size calculations. But I can use the commands found inside the Objects menu to get them to line up properly.

First I select the text, then I select any vector box. I go to the Objects Menu and select Make Same Size -> Both. This will force the box to be the same height and width of the text. Then I tell it to align the tops of the objects, and then the Left side of the objects. Since I selected the text first the box always matches to the text.

By doing these three simple things I can get the text and the box to size and line up perfectly. If I then record the steps of "Make same size" and "Align Top" and "align left" then any objects I have selected will perform the same matching. So you could easily make your own script.

But only if those commands exist in PSP8.

[terrypin]

Many thanks, I'll experiment along those lines.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[wds937]

Use the techniques LeviFiction suggested to size and align the text with its containing rectangle. Use the Object Selection Tool to select both the text and the rectangle, and group them by using Objects > Group. Then do Edit > Copy to place the object/rectangle combination on the clipboard.

Duplicate the rectangle/text combination the desired number of times using Edit > Paste > Paste as New Layer. In PSP 8 you can edit any of the resulting text items by selecting the Text Tool and the desired layer; hover over the text until the A in the mouse cursor shows brackets around it, then click the mouse. Edit the text in the resulting Text Entry box, then click Apply. It is not necessary to ungroup the text from its rectangle to edit the text.