I'm always so pleased when I find a way round some exasperating computer problem that I thought I'd share my moments of triumph ...

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Mac - Preview annotations options

Do you drive a Mac? If so you probably find Preview extremely useful. Here's how to do some extra smart things.

More options for the appearance of annotations - text, oval, rectangle, line:
  • Click Tools > Annotate > Add text
  • In the menu at the bottom of the screen, click on the little Text square
  • Click and drag on the screen and type the text.
  • Next, here is the magic bit, with the text box selected, go to Tools > Show inspector (or cmd-i)
  • At the top of the Inspector box, click the pencil icon top right
  • The pull-down list next to Text style then offers various options - Outline, Bordered, Speech bubble, Thought bubble
  • You can adjust the line thickness, line colour and fill colour if you select one of these.
You get similar choices if you click Show inspector for other annotation choices such as Rectangle or Oval, and indeed Line - at last, how to get rid of the arrows.

6 comments:

  1. when I go to annotate, only the red oval appears. How can I get the add text to appear?

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  3. First make an oval with the fill and frame colour you want, then type your text. Then you can move the text over the top of the oval. You have to do it in that order, whatever you make first is at the back, as far as I can tell.

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  4. I'm unable to get the "add text" or the "pencil" to show up in the annotate tool icon area. the red oval is the only option. When I click on annotate under tools no other options appear : (

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  5. This is EXACTLY what I needed!! Thank you for your post!

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    Replies
    1. Glad it helped. Of course, it's all change with Lion and Mountain Lion, and not for the better ...

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