topic How do those rulers at the top of the MTEXT box work? in AutoCAD Forum

How do those rulers at the top of the MTEXT box work?

KDAddison — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:31:22 GMT

Every now and then I accidentally mess something up on them and now it starts every new line with an offset or similar undesired behavior. (its supposed to be an indent I guess?) I just want it to work like a normal text editor again. I try to fix it by dragging the markers around but it never seems to get back to normal.

It seems a neglected topic in all the mtext how to items I can find.

Re: How do those rulers at the top of the MTEXT box work?

AllenJessup — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:44:42 GMT

Some of that is covered in this: https://www.augi.com/articles/detail/autocad-tricks-for-mtext-beyond-the-basics1

Re: How do those rulers at the top of the MTEXT box work?

pendean — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 17:10:01 GMT

@KDAddison wrote:
Every now and then I accidentally mess something up on them and now it starts every new line with an offset or similar undesired behavior....

Are you using TABS for spaces?
Do you have have these two checked inside your MTEXT editor?

Re: How do those rulers at the top of the MTEXT box work?

ChicagoLooper — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 01:33:36 GMT

Hi @KDAddison

Those 'L' shaped symbols in the ruler are TABS. If you want to your mtext to display with neatly arranged columns use Tabs. Create Tabs by left mouse clicking on the ruler. You may delete a Tab by dragging it to the left until it completely falls OFF the ruler. Careful, 2 or more Tab symbols might land on top of one another so you may have to drag multiple times to make each individual Tab symbol disappear.

At the far left of the ruler, there are TWO arrows. Look carefully and you'll see the upper arrow points down and the lower arrow points up. The arrows look like triangles. Don't accidentally move an arrow, leave them be, or you'll get unintentional indents and might make your mtext look wonky.

Dragging the upper arrow to the right makes Line 1 of the highlighted text align below it. Lines 2, 3, 4, etc. remain aligned with the lower arrow. Only the FIRST highlighted line is managed by the upper arrow. 'Notes' isn't highlighted so it's not affected by either arrow.

Dragging the lower arrow to the right makes Lines 2, 3, 4, etc. of the highlighted text align align below it. Line 1 maintains its original position because the upper arrow wasn't moved. The upper arrow only manages the FIRST highlighted line. 'Notes' isn't highlighted so it's not affected by either arrow.

Dragging both the upper and lower arrows makes ALL highlighted lines move to the right. Since both arrows are in the same position on the ruler, all highlighted lines will be aligned with the same ident. If you move the arrows to 2 different positions, Line 1 will will be aligned with the upper arrow and Lines 2, 3, 4, etc. will be aligned with the lower arrow. The upper arrow only manages Line 1 of the highlighted text. 'Notes' isn't highlighted so it's not affected by either arrow.

Re: How do those rulers at the top of the MTEXT box work?

CGBenner — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 12:25:05 GMT

@KDAddison

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