Re-editing text boxes

[Stephen_A]

Have some text in boxes. Wish to edit it. Clicking on the text box simply opens a new text box. Clicking on the layers dialogue appears to do nothing. Read elsewhere that right-clicking on the layers gives you a box in which you can edit. Not so. Can only highlight different areas of the layers dialogue with the UP and DOWN arrow.
Any pointers appreciated. Thanks.

[Ofnuts]

(03-29-2018, 06:41 AM)Stephen_A Wrote: Have some text in boxes. Wish to edit it. Clicking on the text box simply opens a new text box. Clicking on the layers dialogue appears to do nothing. Read elsewhere that right-clicking on the layers gives you a box in which you can edit. Not so. Can only highlight different areas of the layers dialogue with the UP and DOWN arrow.
Any pointers appreciated. Thanks.

You can edit the text box only as long as Gimp sees it as a text layer and not a plain bitmap layer. In the Layers list, the "true" text layers have a T icon instead of the preview.

Furthermore, any edition of the text layer by any tool other than the Text tool transforms it into a plain bitmap layer (and therefore removes the possibility to further edit the text).

[Espermaschine]

Years ago there was a guy on GC who wanted to edit text, but couldnt.
It took days until we figured out that all he had was a jpg and it took more days to explain to him why Gimp does not work like a text editor on flattened images.

I almost went crazy

[Stephen_A]

I may be reasonably inexperienced on Gimp, but not so much of a total moron that I would assume a graphic editor can edit 'text' on a flattened image. I saved the file as an .xcf and then put the text on via gimp's text editor.

[Espermaschine]

So what are these boxes you talk about ?
Are they part of the design or part of the program ?

I get a new textbox when i click with the text tool on a layer that is not text.
Are you sure the textlayer is selected in the layerstab ?

[rich2005]

You saved as a Gimp xcf? Three possible scenarios.

1. The text is still a text layer. Use the text tool, click and edit

2. The text has been modified some way, scaled, layer to image size. 
Click in it with the text tool and if the text information is there, you get some options to recover the original unformatted text

3. The text information has been destroyed, this example merged down with a layer. Gone for good.

   

[Stephen_A]

(03-29-2018, 11:36 AM)rich2005 Wrote: You saved as a Gimp xcf? Three possible scenarios.

1. The text is still a text layer. Use the text tool, click and edit

2. The text has been modified some way, scaled, layer to image size. 
Click in it with the text tool and if the text information is there, you get some options to recover the original unformatted text

3. The text information has been destroyed, this example merged down with a layer. Gone for good.

Thanks for the useful information. I'll keep all this in mind.