Dims is easy - there is a switch for it in DDIM
Text is also easy - inthe express tools pull down menu go for text and "enclose text with object". Or use tcircle, which is the routine that the pulldown runs
It used to be called making a dimension a "Primary" dimension and the Setvar has been changed to DimGap. Setting dimgap to a negative number makes the box appear. You can type dimgap on the command line and set it to whatever you want. Paly and have fun.