Shape box vs. Text box?

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bcrider2000 Author

Level 1

35 points

Shape box vs. Text box?

Is there a functional difference?

You can add fill and picture frames to both, when would a user want to use one over the other?

TIA

Imac/Macbook Pro/FC2/Aperture/Shake/iPhone, Mac OS X (10.5.2), www.splitboard.com

Posted on Aug 20, 2008 8:42 AM

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Answer 1

Wyodor

Level 6

19,930 points

Aug 20, 2008 8:50 AM in response to bcrider2000

A shape box needs more movements of mouse and hand. Remove border, change border size, remove fill, etc.

With a textbox you have to do the opposite.

So it depends where you want to end.

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Answer 2

bcrider2000 Author

Level 1

35 points

Aug 20, 2008 9:14 AM in response to Wyodor

Thank you Wyodor.

I'm having some issues with spacing so I thought it might have something to do with this.

Back to researching that issue, I've found a couple threads but they are only slightly helpful. I'll probably have to post a new thread and include some screenshots.

Thanks again.

Anyone else experience functionality differences between the two or any other quirks?

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Answer 3

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Aug 20, 2008 10:37 AM in response to bcrider2000

If you create a shape in Keynote (using Draw a Shape) you can have your text following an irregular shape (like a big letter C filled with a bunch of tiny c's for example).

Using a shape (other than the rectangle) with no stroke and fill will give you the text converted to an image with a transparent background every time. This is useful when you want to make SURE the non-web font you picked gets rendered as an image.

A Text box will cause the footer to move downward, lengthening your page. A shape will simply cross the boundary to be pasted into the footer.

Shapes can have a "background" that's a gradient or an image in addition to colors. Text box backgrounds can only be colors.

Text boxes automatically grow to fit your text. Shapes have to be resized after you enter your text.

That's all I can find for now. I was actually surprised that the shape could handle some of the things I'd thought only text boxes could handle.

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Answer 4

bcrider2000 Author

Level 1

35 points

Aug 20, 2008 11:38 AM in response to Kyn Drake

Kyn Drake wrote:
If you create a shape in Keynote (using Draw a Shape) you can have your text following an irregular shape (like a big letter C filled with a bunch of tiny c's for example).

Using a shape (other than the rectangle) with no stroke and fill will give you the text converted to an image with a transparent background every time. This is useful when you want to make SURE the non-web font you picked gets rendered as an image.

A Text box will cause the footer to move downward, lengthening your page. A shape will simply cross the boundary to be pasted into the footer.

Shapes can have a "background" that's a gradient or an image in addition to colors. Text box backgrounds can only be colors.

Text boxes automatically grow to fit your text. Shapes have to be resized after you enter your text.

That's all I can find for now. I was actually surprised that the shape could handle some of the things I'd thought only text boxes could handle.

Awesome! That was extremely helpful Kyn! I suspect some of the shifting issues I'm having are due to the use of both and not fully understanding how they interact together. I'm going to post a thread soon on that, your knowledge and insight would be greatly appreciated! Thanks again.

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