Title box Plot Items

This topic contains the following sections:

Adding Title Box Plot Items
Moving and Resizing Plot Items
Selecting Title Box Cells
Title Box Cell Contents
Formatting Title Boxes
Title Box Context Menu Options
Keyboard Shortcuts

Other information

Title Box Properties (external topic)

Adding Title Box Plot Items

You can create title boxes anywhere on the page. Plot items are inserted into any plot sheet using the Manage ribbon's Plot Items library.

Title boxes can be any size, with any number of rows and cells per row, and contain user defined text or fields supplied by the program (known as "Text Cells"). Rows and columns can be split, merged, inserted and deleted quickly and easily.

Moving and Resizing Plot Items

You must be in Page Layout mode (with the Plots window displayed, select the Manage ribbon and Layout Mode) to edit a title box plot item.

Plot items can be edited by dragging the resizer components shown when the Plots window is in Page Layout Mode.

Title boxes have a series of 'grab points' that let you interactively edit its position, size and the internal layout of cells. More details on these edit options are shown below.

By default, when you move a plot item or resize it, it will automatically attempt to 'snap' itself to the boundaries of another plot item. This makes alignment of these items simple. You can override this behaviour, and introduce a free-floating positional mode, by holding down the <SHIFT> key during mouse movement.

Title box plot items can be:

Moved as a whole by dragging one of the outer edges (that isn't a resizer point - see below)
Resized as a whole, changing the scale of all cells within it, maintaining the same overall proportions for all cells
Resized in length or width, changing the height or width of all cells correspondingly
Modified by adjusting their cell borders.
Modified by adding or deleting rows of cells.
Modified by adding or deleting individual cells (if possible)
Reformatted to show different borders (per-cell, if required)
Modified by changing cell contents and their formats

Rotating Plot Items

All plot items can be rotated, either during or after insertion, when in Page Layout Mode. Only plot items with a green rotation symbol can be rotated. This is done by using a click-and-rotate action on the rotation symbol when the rotation cursor (curved two headed arrow) is displayed. This symbol is shown below associated with a Scale Bar:

Releasing the left mouse button will set the plot item with the new orientation.

Selecting Title Box Cells

Before you adjust the dimensions of a title box cell, you need to select one or more cells. Other context-sensitive functions also rely on prior cell selection (one or more).

When performing some operations such as dragging cell borders, editing cell borders or clearing cell contents, multiple selected cells can be adjusted. These don't have to be next to each other (e.g. you could have some at the top and some at the bottom).

You can select cells by:

left-clicking a cell
pressing <CTRL> and left-clicking to add to the selection (or deselect an item if it is already selected)

Title Box Cell Contents (Plot Items)

A title box can be thought of as a container for other plot items.

It's ideal as the key identifier for a plot, although it can be used for any collection of plot items you wish to group together.

Each title box cell can contain a single plot item of any type. If you need to add more plot items (text boxes, scale bars etc.) to your title box, you can add more cells by inserting or splitting rows or columns. Providing you adhere to this "one plot item per cell" rule, you can lay your plot item out however you like. Inserting a new plot item into a cell will replace the one that is currently there.

You cannot merge cells if the resulting merged cell would contain more than one plot item.

To merge cells, you should remove contents using the right-click context menu (Right-click | Title Box | Clear Cell Contents) before merging. You can select multiple cells before clearing contents if required (see above).

Columns and row configurations are flexible; you don't have to adhere to a grid system if you need variable column or row widths throughout the plot item table. For example, in the image below, the second and third rows contain the same number of cells with differing cell widths:

By default, cell column and row dividers will remain aligned when they are moved, but you can pre-select a cell or cells to only adjust dividers attached to those cells. See below for more details on resizing title box cells.

You can add a plot item to a cell by:

selecting a cell, right-clicking and choose Title Box | Insert Cell Contents... to display the Plot Item Library. If a cell already contains something, it will be replaced with the new selection.

The Plot Item Library
double-clicking a cell

if a cell contains a plot item, its properties will be displayed for editing
if a cell is empty, the Plot Item Library (see above) is displayed to choose contents

Formatting Title Boxes

Title boxes can either be formatted as a whole or per-cell (or you can apply formatting changes to multiple selected preselected cells - see above).

By selecting one of the outer edges of the title box, you can see all global formatting options in the Properties control bar.

You can also double-click the boundary of a title box to display a standalone properties dialog.

The Title Box Properties dialog (and Properties control bar context options) display all editable formatting options for the title box, split into the following categories:

Appearance: manage cell borders, margins, internal colour and title box opacity
Font: for text-based items, manage the font face, height, weight, underline and italic status
Position: control where the plot item is positioned within the plot, and its overall dimensions
Location/Location 1/Location 2: if the plot item is locatable, you can edit its 3D world position using these properties, otherwise they will be empty.

Title Box Context Menu Options

Right-clicking a title box using one of its external borders provides access to a range of global title box options.

Selecting one or more cells provides a similar menu, with an added Title Box sub-menu, containing the following commands:

Split Cells into Rows	Split the currently selected cell(s) into multiple rows. If the cell(s) contain(s) a plot item, it will be replicated. Select a number from 2 to 10 using the secondary drop-down menu.
Split Cells into Columns	As above, but splits the currently selected cell(s) vertically.
Merge Cells	Only display if two or more cells are selected. Merging requires all cells to be contiguous, only one plot item in total to be contained across all cells and will result in a rectangular merged result.
Make Cells Same Size	Only available if more than one contiguous cell is selected on a row of the same height or column of the same width. Changes the cells to the same height or width depending on your secondary drop-down menu choice.
Delete Cells	Delete the currently selected cell(s), if possible. Neighbouring cells will be resized to accommodate the previous cell space. Resizing will be applied in the following directional order; right, left, top, bottom. Deletion will only be performed if the title box integrity will be maintained.
Change Cell Borders	Choose to enable or disable cell borders on any cell edge (or all of them), using the secondary drop-down menu.
Insert Cell Contents...	Either add a plot item to the selected cell (only one must be selected) or replace the one already in place with the new selection.
Edit Cell Contents	Only available if a plot item exists in the selected cell (and a single cell is selected). Displays the Properties dialog for the selected plot item.
Clear Cell Contents	Remove the plot item contained in all selected cells.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Double-click a cell to show the corresponding plot item properties, or show the Plot Item Library if the cell is empty.
<CTRL>+<A> will select all cells in the active title box.
Left-click then a subsequent <SHIFT>+ left-click can be used to select all cells between the two points.
<CTRL> can alternate the selected/deselected state of any cell. Can be used to select/deselect multiple cells.
<DELETE> will delete the selected cells (providing cells can be deleted whilst maintaining the integrity of the title box.
<DELETE> will delete the title box if no cells are selected.
<CTRL>+<DELETE> will delete the contents (only) of selected cells
<CTRL> can be held down while dragging to disable snapping

	Related Topics
	Title Box Procedures Title Box Properties Dialog