334 Part II Drawing in Two Dimensions

Table 13-3 (continued)

Command	Menu	Description
ARCTEXT	Express Text Arc-Aligned	Aligns text along an arc.
	Text
TORIENT	Express Text Rotate Text	Rotates multiple text, Mtext, and attribute definitions
		to a specified angle without moving them or aligns
		them so that they’re horizontal or right-side up for
		easy reading.
TCIRCLE	Express Text Enclose Text	Encloses selected Text or Mtext inside a circle, a slot
	with Object	(a rectangle, but with arcs at each end), or a rectangle.
TCOUNT	Express Text Automatic	Numbers lines of text by adding a prefix or suffix,
	Text Numbering	or by overwriting the text.
TCASE	Express Text Change	Offers the following ways to change the case of text:
	Text Case	uppercase, lowercase, sentence case, title case, and
		toggle case.

Finding Text in Your Drawing

In a large, complex drawing with a lot of text, you may have difficulty finding specific text that you need to edit. The FIND command lets you find and replace text anywhere in your drawing — not only single-line text and multiline text but also text in block attributes, dimensions, and hyperlinks.

To use the FIND command, choose Edit Find to open the Find and Replace dialog box, as shown in Figure 13-32.

Figure 13-32: The Find and Replace dialog box finds text anywhere in your drawing.

Chapter 13 Creating Text 335

Here’s how to use the Find and Replace dialog box:

1.Type the text you want to find in the Find text string text box. Use the drop-down list to choose recently used text strings.

2.If you want to replace the text you find with new text, type it in the Replace With text box. This box also includes a drop-down list of recently used text strings.

3.If you want to limit or expand the scope of your search, use the Search In drop-down box. If you selected objects before starting the FIND command, this drop-down list displays Current Selection. You can choose Entire Drawing from this list. You can also click the Select Objects button to return to your drawing and select objects. The FIND command then limits its search to selected objects.

4.Choose Options to specify the type of text FIND will search. By default it searches all types of text. The command can find text in fields as well. You can also choose the Match Case and Find Whole Words Only options.

5.Click Find (Next) to find the next instance of the text string. The dialog box displays the text in the context of the text around it.

6.Click Replace to replace the text string with the replacement text. Click Replace All to replace all instances of the text string with the replacement text.

7.If the Search In drop-down list is set to Current Selection, you can click Select All to return to your drawing with all instances of the text string you’ve searched for selected. The prompt on the command line tells you how many objects it has selected. You can use this feature to delete all these objects, for example. Also, because the objects have grips, it is easy to locate them in your drawing — this is useful for a drawing large enough so that you can’t read the text when you have the entire drawing displayed on your screen.

8.Use the Zoom To button to zoom in to a selection that the FIND command has found. You can then edit the text. As with the Select All button, this feature is useful for large drawings where the text is not legible unless you zoom in.

9.After you’re finished, click Close to close the dialog box.

Checking Your Spelling

If you take pride in the accuracy of your drawings, you might as well make sure that the text is spelled correctly. Use the SPELL command to check your spelling. The spelling checker acts just like the one in your word processor.

Choose Tools Spelling and select some text objects to open the Check Spelling dialog box, as shown in Figure 13-33. You can type all to check the spelling for the entire drawing.

Note Spell checking also checks text inside blocks. See Chapter 18 for the full explanation of blocks.

336 Part II Drawing in Two Dimensions

Figure 13-33: The Check Spelling dialog box.

You have the following options:

Ignore: Choose Ignore to ignore the current instance of this word only.

Ignore All: Choose Ignore All to ignore all instances of this word.

Change: Select the suggested word you want and choose Change to change the current instance of the word to one of the suggested words.

Change All: Select the suggested word you want and choose Change All to change all instances of the word to one of the suggested words.

Add: Choose Add to add the word to the dictionary. The word will not appear again as misspelled.

Lookup: Use this if you type a word in the Suggestion text box and want to check its spelling. You then see a list of words similar to the word in the Suggestion text box.

The command automatically moves from word to word until you see the message Spelling Check Complete.

	Customizing the spelling dictionary
	You can change the main and custom spelling dictionaries. To change the spelling dictionar-
	ies, choose Change Dictionaries from the Check Spelling dialog box to open the Change
	Dictionaries dialog box, as shown in Figure 13-34.
Tip	Strangely enough, if you don’t have any misspelled words in your drawing, you cannot open
	the Check Spelling dialog box. You simply get the Spelling Check Complete message. The
	trick is to insert a misspelled word and then use the SPELL command. You can erase or cor-
	rect the word afterward.
	The main dictionary is not customizable. You can choose from various languages depending
	on your version of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT. For example, my list lets me choose from
	American English, British English (ise), British English (ize), French with unaccented capitals,
	and French with accented capitals.

Chapter 13 Creating Text 337

Figure 13-34: The Change Dictionaries dialog box.

	The custom spelling dictionary is the dictionary you add to when you click Add in the Check
	Spelling dialog box. It is a simple text file that includes words that you have added during
	spelling checks, as well as a list of drawing-related words that come with the file. To see these
	words, scroll down the list in the Custom Dictionary Words section of the Change
	Dictionaries dialog box.
	You can add words to the custom dictionary by typing them in the Custom Dictionary Words
	text box and clicking Add. This feature lets you add a number of words at one time.
Tip	Another way to edit the custom dictionary is to open the file directly with a text editor. The
	custom dictionary is called sample.cus. To find sample.cus, choose Tools Options and
	click the File tab. Double-click Text Editor, Dictionary, and Font File Names. Double-click
	Custom Dictionary File. Click the path list to view the location of sample.cus.

Figure 13-35 shows sample.cus opened in Notepad, the Windows text editor.

Figure 13-35: Open sample.cus in Notepad so that you can edit it directly.

You can use a different custom dictionary. It can be useful, for example, to use the same dictionary in your drawing as you use in your word processor. For example, here’s how to use the Microsoft Word dictionary: