'How to add padding to symbol text in Visio 2013?

In Visio 2013, I have a connector that is in a container that has a gray background color. I successfully changed the background color of the text block by following these steps:

  • Double-click the connector
  • Expand the font options by clicking on the icon in the lower-right portion of the 'Home > Font' ribbon area
  • Click on 'Text Block' tab in the 'Text' dialog
  • Select 'Solid color' and choose the background color that matches the gray container background color

That works as expected - my text background color is no longer the default white; it now matches the background color of the container.

However, I want to add spacing to the left and right of the text. I tried increasing the margins in the same 'Text Block' tab of the 'Text' dialog mentioned above. This increased the margins but did not extend the background color of the text. A also tried manually adding spaces to the left and right of the text. The leading spaces worked, but the trailing spaces where truncated. Is there any way to add left and right padding to the text (similar to css padding)?

visio


Solution 1:[1]

Modifying the text block location/size may give you what you want, combined with text margins.

To modify the text block location, you have to click the text block tool, which is on a dropdown with the text tool (at least in Visio 2003).

Solution 2:[2]

I know this is an old question, but I had the same question myself and wasn't able to (quickly) find an answer out there either. I finally hit upon a trick that'll get the result we're looking for:

  1. Instead of spaces, add leading and trailing characters to the longest line in the text box. (I use ".")
  2. Change the color of ONLY those added characters so it matches the text box's background.

The text box's background reaches to the furthest edge of the text within, and we're just using that to get what we want. Since it's just moving the edge indirectly, I consider it a "trick" that we can use instead of a "fix".

Quick list of Cons:

  1. The text box background color has to be solid, or close to it.
  2. The "invisible" text will still exist, so it'll show up in a copy/paste of the text.
  3. Similarly, it may make Searching/CTRL+F for things within the document/file more difficult.

Solution 3:[3]

You can use No-Break Space. Insert it from Insert > Symbol.

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 Jon Fournier
Solution 2 Wesley G.
Solution 3

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