Is it possible to vertically center text in a rectangle text in ArcGIS Pro?

[ChrisDawson]

I am using ArcGIS Pro to update some of our old poster maps. I am trying to dynamically label individual detail maps on the poster. I have a title for each of the detail maps in a "rectangle text" item. I'd like the text in this item to be vertically centered. Based on the Format Text dialog, this seems to be possible. In fact, it works for regular text, say with a marker background, but not for rectangle text items. Am I missing something?

[TomBole]

Chris, 

A better solution may be to set a "Background" callout for the Text symbol.

Here, you can set a background, border and margin as you see fit.  This would replace setting a border and background for the element itself. Make sure that the the anchor point of the text element is set so that as the text size changes the element anchored correctly. You may have to experiment a bit here to see what works best for your layout.

Hope this helps.

Tom

[ChrisDawson]

Thanks for taking the time to think about this, Tom. I actually tried your suggested approach before I posted the original question. The only reason this doesn't work is that you can't set a maximum width for the callout to force text to wrap. Otherwise, it's a perfect solution.

[TomBole]

Chris, 

You can use a rectangle text element to control the width and set the callout on the text symbol to get something close to what you're looking for. The text should wrap around to a new line within the element and have the callout sized correctly for each text string.  With some tweaking you should be able to limit the width as you want. However, any Y offset will not be dynamic and will not change as the text changes. Not the solution you're looking for I know, but hopefully this helps.

Tom

[ChrisDawson]

Well, Tom, I will admit to having not done that. But I tried it this morning.

This does not really accomplish anything different than without a callout. Once you decide to use a "rectangle text" element, you lose the ability to vertically center in the area defined by the "rectangle text." If  you use just a "text" element and add a callout, you can get vertical centering, but you lose the ability to define the horizontal limits unless you add line breaks.

It's fine for now. I've got the "rectangle text" elements set up the way I need, and it should work for now. However, I hope this appears on ESRI's short-term list of fixes, as it is a necessity for making consistent map books.

Thanks again for all your help in trying to identify a workaround.

[BenVan_Kesteren1]

It has been some months now, I have just come across this issue in Pro 2.3.3 - Has anyone found a solution?

The vertical alignment still seems to have no effect in a rectangle box.

Here is my full workflow

Cheers

[TomBole]

Ben, 

There is an issue logged for this - BUG-000121263. Unfortunately, the priority of this issue was not high enough to get a fix into 2.4.

Tom

[MaryMo]

Will this be fixed in Pro 2.5?

[TomBole]

Hi Mary, 

Unfortunately there will be no change to this behavior in 2.5.

Tom

[TimWroblewski1]

PLEASE fix this!  Its very frustrating to not be able to control text like this - I'm facing the problem in layouts...

This has been an issue for 18 months now...!

[AlderMaps]

I'm working in Pro 2.6. For text boxes, the vertical option appears greyed out to me (possibly until they get it fixed?)

I'm working with a table frame, and would like to apply vertical alignment to both heading text and data text. So would prefer to have all these items aligned vertical center, or even vertical bottom (this is the table header):

Vertical alignment buttons (not greyed out) have no effect whatever. I've tried selecting the whole table, just heading text, just data text, a single field, etc. etc. Nothing. Closed and restarted and all the usual stuff, nothing.

It's not a show-stopper, but whenever this makes it to the priority list, there are those of us who will appreciate it.