Can't change shape text size

[rickscr]

I've created a custom stencil, but then I think I messed up a setting in the shapesheet so that I can not longer re-size the shape text using the Text block tool.  I can't figure out what I did.  I can resize the it by entering the shapesheet and changing the TxtWidth row, but need to be able to use the Text block tool.

Can anyone help?

[John Distai]

It resized for me.  I right clicked on the text and resized it using the popup.  Were you doing it some other way?

[rickscr]

I'm trying to change the text block size, not the font size.

[Yacine]

That's a nice challenging one. I did not find the failure.

[wapperdude]

In the shapesheet, scroll down to Text Transform section.  The TxtWidth and TxtHeight are slaved to the shape width and height.  That is effectively locking the text box size.

For more on text issues, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa200986(v=office.10).aspx.  It's for V2002, but should be valid for present versions.

[Yacine]

Sure, but they are not guarded, thus should respond to manual operation.

[wapperdude]

Well, that would seem to be the expected behavior, but it's not.  Try removing the formula.  The textbox will resize manually once you do.

Someone with better visibility into Visio workings can explain it, but, the unguarded formula is blocking the manual resize behavior.

This is probably a candidate for SETATREF function.  Yuk.

[rickscr]

That didn't seem to work.  I changed the formulas to 1 inch for each and the textbox resized, but it's still locked somehow when using the text block tool.  This is driving me crazy!  I may just have to rebuild the shape. 

I'm on Visio 2007, if that makes any difference.

[wapperdude]

I re-tried my steps.  This time, the text box does NOT respond to the text box tool.  Very strange.  It had corrected the 1st time I did this.  Sorry for the misinformation.  (Should've saved that 1st attempt.)

If you put the following formula in the txtwidth box, the box will resize to entered text:  =textwidth(TheText).  To constrain the box width, you could employ the bound functon.

Wapperdude

[wapperdude]

It appears that the shape has some corruption.  I duplicated the shape.  Re-confirmed the text box sizing problem.  Ungrouped.  Deleted existing text box.  Re-grouped.  Created control for positioning text box.  Added text.  The text block tool now functions as expected.

Compared both shapesheets.  Did not see anything unusual in either one, certainly not anything that would prevent textbox from resizing. 

Lacking an explanation, recommend taking the above stated steps.  At least you'll have a shape that works.

Wapperdude

[rickscr]

Well, looks like I'll be rebuilding the shape and others with the same problem.

Thanks everyone for your help.

[rezingg]

Even though this thread is many years old, I thought I'd post, as I just ran into the same (or very similar) situation.
I have a text-box of a shape that won't allow me to resize its width, even though there is no GUARD() in place for TxtWidth.
What I found is if TxtLocPinY contained "TxtHeight", I can't resize the text box width. But if I changed that to "TxtHeight*1" then all is fine!
Not intuitive at all, at least not to me. But it made all the difference.
I hope this helps someone.

[vojo]

textheight just defines a box...nothing to do with text size.

for that, use the fontsize cell in shapesheet.

For kicks...make a box shape...add text....change text size on home menu....text changes box stays the same

[wapperdude]

@rezingg:  I created a simple shape, basically, as Vojo describes.  And, that behaves as one would expect.  The width remains constant regardless of how much text is entered.  Visio automatically wraps the text and grows the height.  This is standard behavior.  Note, the actual boundaries defining the shape do not change.  The shape can be manually expanded in width and the wrapping will adjust to new width.

Out of curiosity, I modified the TxtLocPinY cell as per your description.  Had no impact upon behavior.  All above remain unchanged.

So, if the behavior you're seeing doesn't match the above, perhaps you can upload an example.  If otherwise, I couldn't replicate any abnormal behavior.

[rezingg]

Ok, try this:
1) draw a rectangle
2) use Text Block tool to verify you can change width of text block manually (text block of rectangle is by default size of the rectangle)
3) open ShapeSheet of rectangle
4) change TxtLocPinY from default "TxtHeight*0.5" to "TxtHeight"
5) use Text Block tool on the rectangle and find that you can not change the width of the text box anymore!
6) go back to ShapeSheet and change TxtLocPinY to "TxtHeight*1"
7) use Text Block tool on the rectangle and find that you now CAN change the width of the text box, thanks to adding "*1"!

I'm on Visio Version 1908.

Edit: it appears interactive text block resizing only works if the TxtLocPinY cell content has the format <SomeVariable>*<number>. Any other cell content causes issues, including a number by itself or multiplied by another number.