Frequent tipster Leonid Nemirovsky demonstrates a method for displaying one set of notes in AutoCAD columns.

"If you have a drawing with general notes (or something similar with a lot of notes) and you need to put them in columns, type all of the notes in one long column. Right-click while inside the mtext editor — you will see something similar to the figure below — and set to Dynamic Columns.

"Right-click again, select Column Settings, and select settings as shown below. "Now you can control the number of columns and more over the height of each column to avoid stamps or part of the title block, for example."

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Patrol: I remember a time when all AutoCAD had was single-line text. Creating notes wasn't so bad, but editing them was time-consuming and frustrating. Mtext, or multiline text, has been one of the best additions to AutoCAD ever. Multiline text in AutoCAD today is nearly as powerful as a full word processor. Dynamic Columns is but one of its great features. Once turned on, users can grip-edit the width and height of the columns on the fly. Need the notes a bit wider? Select, click, drag — done.