Answered

Lock size and location of a box but enble text to be entered

  • 13 September 2020
  • 5 replies
  • 1133 views

Userlevel 2

Hi Mirobians

I’d like to be able to lock the size and shape of a box into which I want workshop participants to be able to type text.

At the moment I’ve created rectangle shapes, but if I lock them then they can’t have text added.

If I unlock the shape, then participants can move them by mistake.

 

I’m wondering is a locked grid is the best thing to use?

Cheers

Mike

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Best answer by Robert Johnson 13 September 2020, 16:13

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5 replies

Userlevel 7
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@Michael Dunlop - Some questions:

  1. Will the participants later be expected to move the object/box/shape in which they have typed in?
  2. How much text do you anticipate they will be typing? Is there a maximum length you could suggest they limit their entries to be?
  3. Will this box be inside any other objects/shapes? If so, will they be locked?
Userlevel 2

Hi Robert

Thanks for your rapid response.

  1. No the text will stay put. For a previous exercise they use sticky notes. Here they are constructing a table. They do drag the existing sticky notes into the table (first column) then add text, second and third columns.
  1. Text will be 200-750 characters. No real need for maximum size but happy if there has to be one.
  1. The table is in a locked frame.

This is my first board so I’m sure there are many things to learn in the future ...

I’ve linked a COPY of the board below. The frame in question is #9. Although I think I have solved my problem using a grid, see frame #6.  

Mike

 

Userlevel 2

Hi Again

 

Just making it clear I need to be able to have multiple participants entering text at the same time.

I just read this post which suggests my grid solution might not allow that

https://community.miro.com/got-a-question-ask-the-community-45/resize-table-columns-356

Cheers

Mike

Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @Michael Dunlop,

Thanks for popping in to my test board with me while you burn the midnight oil in Australia!

From the test you and I did, it seems that we could both type in a locked Grid at the same time - perhaps Miro made an enhancement since the post you referenced above. An alternative approach is also to create a number of single-cell Grids, so each user has their own. One thing I did note is that when the Grid is locked, you appear to lose the ability to click-to-select a single cell and the press Enter to get into edit/type mode - instead, you have to double-click a cell, but at least it works.

By the way, your board looks great! I especially like the Orientation frame.

Hi,

 

I would really really love to have this feature, because I’m doing a lot of exercises where I would like to provide a shape for people to write text into. Right now, as original poster mentioned, either I completely lock the shape and the people have to add whatever text they want on top of it (with stickies, shapes or text), or they can move and resize the object, too.

So, what I’d want is:

  • I can “Lock shape and location” instead of full Lock, so that the object can be written in but not moved or resized (or edited in any other way)
  • I can “Lock shape” so that the object can be written in and moved around, but not resized (or edited in any other way).
  • I can group multiple objects so that individual objects within the group can be edited for text as above

For example, I’m just at this moment creating an exercise (I’m a trainer, btw, and I use the tool in virtual trainings) where I would like the participants to write down three user stories. I’d love to have speech bubbles to represent the space to write the story in, and them to enter their user story right into the bubble.

Another example, I would like to create a “user story card”, with assigned spaces for the user story title, size estimate, risk estimate, value estimate, and criticality. I’d love to use a small PDF file as a background (with some logos and visual elements), and then place the fields as box shapes on top of it. Once I had the desired appearance, I would group the items and “lock shape”. The participants could then double-click on any of the text fields to enter the appropriate text or value, without breaking the visual layout. In this case, I would want the overall object movable, though, so that we can use the cards in planning exercises and sort the cards in different orders.

 

Thanks for considering, Petri

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