When editing or creating unbound labels, or labels for physical or certain electrical properties (value, param, and other), there is provision for entering a block of text that will not be visible in the layout or schematic. This avoids cluttering the screen with labels containing large blocks of text. Rather, a symbolic form will be shown instead of the full text.
This same capability applies when adding or editing properties from the Property Editor provided by the Properties button in the Edit Menu.
This capability is useful for properties which require a large block of text, such as a long PWL statement in a value property for SPICE. It is not possible to edit a large text block in the prompt area, and if displayed would cause the screen to be obscured or cluttered. The full text is added to SPICE output, however, and is available as the property value in functions that query the value.
It is also useful for the spicetext labels, so that a block of text can be inserted into SPICE output, rather than one line. Remember that the text entered into the window must begin with ``spicetext'' and an optional integer, for the text to appear in SPICE output.
When entering a label where this ``long text'' capability applies, a small ``L'' button will appear to the left of the prompt line, and this will be active when the text cursor is in the leftmost column. Pressing this button will set the internal flag for ``long text'', and open the text editor window for the text. Any text that was previously entered in the prompt line will be added to the text editor window, or, if the label was already in long text mode, the existing text will be shown in the editor.
If preexisting text was present on the prompt line when the L button was pressed, that text will be loaded into the text editor, but any hypertext entries will be converted to plain text. The long text blocks do not support the hypertext feature.
Pressing Ctrl-t has the same effect as pressing the L button when the button is visible and active.
From the editor window, one can edit the block of text, then press Save in the editor's File menu to complete the operation, or Quit to abort. The on-screen label will simply say ``[text]'' for a normal ``long text'' property or non-associated label, or have the standard form for a script label (described below);
The long text labels can be edited with the label editor, as can normal labels, by selecting the label before pressing the label button. The prompt line will display ``[text]'' as a hypertext entry. Pressing Enter or the L button will bring up the text editor loaded with the text associated with the label, allowing editing.
To convert a long text label to a normal label, instead of bringing up the text editor, the hypertext ``[text]'' entry can be deleted in the prompt line. Deleting the entry will place as much of the text block as possible on the prompt line, and delete the text block and the association of the label or property as a long text object.