AutoCAD LT - How to make global color changes to text, and when it won't work.

[Anonymous]

Hi, 

I am not the most proficient with AutoCAD so I apologise if this is a simple solution. I have looked for answers from similar questions but they don't seem to work.

I have two scenarios but the same problem:

I am doing an As-Built and have used the 'multiline text' tool to write in many places. During this I changed the colour and format of the text when writing it. Copied and pasted it, then double clicked and changed the contents and then repeated for other parts done on that day. The next days works I used a different colour, and so on and so on. 

When creating the pdf, I realised (sheepishly) that yellow isn't the best colour to have used so went to change the colour of the day I had assigned yellow to aswell as some dimensions that were already on the drawing. Not as simple as I first thought it would be.

• My As-built layer has been assigned the colour 'green' and when you click on any of the text it's property will be green despite the colour displayed is not. In properties it's 'style' is TEXT but there is MTEXT above that (see screenshot).
• I can change colour individually by double clicking the text but I am looking to change the colour of multiple text at the same time - is this possible? Changing it at properties once I have clicked on all that I want to change does not do anything.
• The other text I want to change seems to be a block as I click on one and they all highlight. I have never used block editor before but when I tried to change the colour through that, it did not work. The only way I got it to change was through changing the colour of the layer. But this is not ideal, surely there must be an easier way? Or perhaps I did it wrong through block editor?

I hope that explained my issue and thank you in advance for any help.

I cannot post the drawing due to copyright but can try and describe as much as possible!

Jake

[steven-g · Accepted solution]

If you made the changes inside the text editor (double-clicking) then that is an option that can only be undone in the same way, one at a time, unfortunately, and by highlighting all the text in the text editor first. Selecting multiple mtext's and changing the color in the properties will work on all selected items (but not if they have been changed at text editor level) and is probably the best way of doing what you are trying, in the future.

Changing the color of a layer, or assigning individual colors to objects in the properties is the only way to be able to make global changes (ie multiple objects).

[Anonymous]

Ah ok, thanks for that explanation. Is a shame that the text editor overwrites any proceeding changes from properties. I would have assumed that 'Properties' would have the final say as it were.

Would that perhaps be the same reason for the 'block' numbers that are in yellow? I had not done the original drawing, and block editor didn't change the colour nor could I figure out how to make the numbers individual items again, so I could only change via the layer colour. In this case there are no other items on that layer so that method is fine, but should that not be the case how would I change the colour without changing the other items?

Thank you again.

[steven-g]

No priority goes from global (layer) up to the individual and it is the individual that rules. As for the blocks, it is difficult to say without seeing the block. It is recommended to have everything inside a block created on layer 0 with the block then being placed on a layer that you can change the properties of (like color), but yes objects inside a block can be on different layers in which you would need to change the color of those layers in the layer manager, if that doesn't work then open the block editor and see if the individual objects have had the color property changed, and then finally open the text editor inside the block editor to see if individual items have their own color (which again would be one by one).

[MarkGunnAutodesk]

@Anonymous

Hi Taylor, thanks for responding and confirming that @steven-g's answer helped. I'm going to tweak your topic title, just to help other users find the answer.  Thanks, again, Mark.