Diplodocus

Thank you, MEB, for your clear and lucid explanation. Having searched for hours through the help pages, the official website and third party tutorials, I have at last discovered (thanks to you) what to do to contain text within a callout! THANK YOU. (I shall sleep better tonight!) In other software I have become accustomed to entering text into shapes without changing the properties of the shape so, obviously, I had thwarted expectations. However, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a callout to retain its special shape when it is used for the purpose it is designed – which is to contain text. I wish your few succinct sentences had been contained within the Help pages. I needed the callout to contain the words of Father Christmas in a card I am making for my grandson, so I send YOU the greeting too – "Happy Christmas"🎅

I can’t make both the callout shape and its text visible. This is what I have done:– 1 Selected Callout Rounded Rectangle Tool. 2 In the context bar, set stroke colour and size. 3 Drew the callout and it appeared on its own layer with nodes, the layer's icon showing the shape. 4 Changed the fill to transparent. 5 Selected the Frame Text Tool (not Artistic Text Tool). 6 Clicked in the shape. The cursor appeared and the name of the layer changed to Shape Text. 7 In the context bar, set font colour and size. 8 While entering text, the shape disappeared, the layer's icon changed to that of the text tool. 9 On moving the cursor, the outline of the shape reappeared with nodes (not the shape itself). 10 On clicking out of the shape, the text remained visible, the shape remained invisible, the outline of the shape disappeared. If I make the layer invisible and then visible again, its name becomes the text I have entered. I was hoping the text AND the shape would be visible, the text within the shape. Reselecting the shape shows its outline with nodes and the context bar refers to the text not the shape. Is this a bug? Or have I missed something blindingly obvious? Or is it a bug that is selective of its victims? Or what? Please help! NB I have achieved success with a work-around: entering artistic text on one layer and the shape on another, then aligning them – I can’t find this described in the Help pages.