mycroft

Thanks for the suggestion, ABC, but I don't think so. I kept playing with it and exploring after I posted the above. I got into trouble again, and believe I triggered the “convert to text box” menu item while the shape and the text tool were selected. The shape immediately disappeared under the white text box, just what I remember from yesterday. Now I do not know how to turn off that “convert” selection when I create other shapes and try to put text in them. The text box is now always white again. How do I turn off the “convert to text box” control? I gave up a few minutes ago.....

Thanks MEB. I thought I had been trying this for several days with no success. Today, I tried again and it worked as I had expected and hoped! I have no idea what is different! The past few days, I would build my shapes, style them with stroke and color fills and so forth. Then the text box I created on the layer above showed my text within a solid white text box, mostly blotting out the my colored, styled shapes. I am not sure what is different today where my "text box background" is now transparent (showing the shape color inside the box as desired) as opposed to the ubiquitous white text box of the past few days. Can you point me to the setting that assures me I don't get the annoying white "text box" I had? What I have now has the Text "opacity 100% (the percentage controls the text only, as do the controls in the list). The text box and its white fill and black border are nowhere to be found. i am at a loss as to what is different from yesterday. I have been working my way through the excellent tutorials bit by bit, but the basic ones let me think I could do this simple test project. I really appreciate your help,

I am a rank beginner in midst of a trial for Designer. Could you give me a step-by step to create a simple piece. Shapes, filled in different colors, say identical rounded rectangles Inside these shapes, simple text in black. Text not to be shape fills or arty type, but plain, linear text. Alignment of these shapes, and the text within the shapes. Desired results: a set of colored shapes with the black text inside them visible over the colored backgrounds. What should be my sequence of layers? I would assume Shape(s) covered by transparent-background text layer(s), but I cannot seem to achieve this. The text layer obliterates the shape. I am clearly doing something wrong, but what? This software seems to be what I want, but I am having a struggle breaking into it.