Description: In Draw, there is an Insert->Text Box menu item but it either doesn't work or does something different than clicking the Text icon, but it's function is not obvious and seems to be undocumented. A check-mark appears next to "Text Box" in the Insert menu, but after clicking Insert->Text Box, dragging a rectangle does not open a text box into which text can be typed. Pressing ESC or doing something else does not make the check-mark disappear. Searching help for "Insert" or "Text Box" produces several seemingly-likely hits but they discuss the Text icon and say nothing about what Insert->Text Box does (presumably something different), what the checkmark implies, or how to exit that mode. Steps to Reproduce: . Actual Results: . Expected Results: . Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: No Additional Info: .
Can't confirm. Both the toolbar button and the Insert->Text Box menu item use the same .uno:Text command, and do the same thing. Clicking the menu item allows to draw a new text box, unless there's another shape or textbox selected (in which case it will just switch that shape into a text editing mode, however clicking it again will finally allow you to draw another text box). Same behavior can be seen also with the toolbar button. And the always visible checkmark is just a visual bug (which you can ignore for now), and doesn't affect functionality. All of this was already discussed in Bug 113171 and Bug 131764.
Created attachment 162771 [details] Video showing existing select removed but insert mode not entered
Wow. Lots of history there! Thanks for the references. Currently, if an existing object is selected, then doing "Insert->Text Box" appears to de-select the object, yet a new Text Box can not be inserted. Actually what happens is that the previously-selected text box object is opened for adding text to it. This is confusing because it is a wrong usage of English language: "Insert Text Box" means to insert a text BOX, not to insert characters (into an existing box). A possible solution might be to make the INSERT menu item label change depending on context: If an object is selected, make the label "Text into Object" If no object is selected, make the label "New Text Box"
(In reply to Jim Avera from comment #3) > This is confusing because it is a wrong usage of English language: "Insert > Text Box" means to insert a text BOX, not to insert characters (into an > existing box). True. In the distant past this command used to be called just "Text", and was only present in the toolbar, and not in the Insert menu, so there was no confusion back then. But at some point in time someone decided to add it to the Insert menu, and to rename it to "Insert Text Box". > A possible solution might be to make the INSERT menu item label change > depending on context: > > If an object is selected, make the label "Text into Object" > If no object is selected, make the label "New Text Box" Changing menu labels dynamically is against the HIG, and we try to avoid it as much as possible. Another solution I suggested in Bug 131764 comment 5 is to copy the behavior of Inkscape, and allow drawing new text boxes even when the edit mode of another text box is active.
Anyway, let's close as a duplicate, to have the discussion in a single place. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 131764 ***