There are no guidelines for specific uses of these tools. Nominally the left shape is a form of a "sticky-note" enhanced with the indicator tip. The oval shaped bubble is used to indicate speech in cartoons where the cloud shape indicates thoughts and the last shape indicating shouting.

These shapes are created in the same fashion as a Text Box : click on the tool, move the cursor to the drawing, click down and drag out an initial text box with appropriate size, lift the mouse button (not the mouse) and begin typing.

When selected, interactive resizing handles are provided to adjust the size and appearance of the text bubble. Several of these handles are exactly as found on a normal Text Box, these will define the shape and size of the interior text box, the rotation for the text and text bubble, and stretching if any of text. Four additional handles are provided for adjusting the call-out tip. You may adjust the length, base width, position on the perimeter, tilt angle, and the bend of the call-out tip. See illustration below.

Text is edited in the same manner as a standard Text Box, click once to select then double click to enter text editing mode. In text editing mode the un-rotated, un-stretched, unformatted text is presented for editing using the standard macOS text editing methods. Follow the link in this paragraph to learn these details.

All the outline (stroke) and fill parameters that apply to an oval or rectangle may be used with the graphic (non-text) component of the text bubble. This means the bubble may be filled with any color, pattern, or gradient fill; outline width and color are defined on the Color and Style palette.

All the details of text appearance (font face, size, color, shadow, ...) are inspected and set on the Graphic Details Inspector in the same fashion as standard text box. Notice there is an additional popup menu found just under the main text parameter section, this popup menu provides numeric access to the parameters that define the shape and position of the call-out tip.