Text Size Too Small Message

[Guest]

Several people have asked the question "Why do I always get that annoying dialog which says 'Text size too small for editing... zoom in.'" so I wanted to post the answer here:

In VW9 you are restricted to editing legible text. This was done for two reasons:

1. The biggest reason is accuracy and precision. Editing a text block while zoomed out (or text that is not legible) can introduce small errors which become very visible in large text blocks. These errors could be in the form of a text block appearing to become longer just by opening it or they could be seen in two font sizes (i.e. 9pt and 10pt) becoming the same size.

2. The second reason is that editing small text does not give you much benefit. VW8 allowed you to go smaller, to about 3 or 4 points. Text this small is not legible on a computer screen so there is little you can do to edit it. Text can be entered and attributes changed, but you still need to zoom in to make sure things look correct.

These were the motivations behind the change. Basically we value accurate and precise text because our users want and need it far more than the ability to edit text they can't read.

Hope this helps,

Robert McBride

NNA

[jfmarch]

I find this commend change annoying. Sometimes I simply want to add some test to the end of a text box. You should let the end users decide whether or not they want "accuracy". Its very presumptuous of NMA to assume that we shouldn't be able to edit a small text box- are you going to tell us how to draw too?

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Jim McAuliffe, RA