Drawing and editing lines
PagePlus provides Pencil, Straight Line, and Pen tools for drawing freehand, straight, and curved/straight lines, respectively.
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Any curved line can be closed (by joining line ends) to create a custom shape (see Drawing and editing shapes for details).
Drawing lines
To draw a freeform line (with the Pencil Tool):
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Choose the
Pencil Tool from the Tools toolbar’s Line flyout.
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Click where you want the line to start, and hold the mouse button down as you draw. The line appears immediately and follows your mouse movements.
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To end the line, release the mouse button. The line will automatically smooth out.
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To extend the line, position the cursor over one of its square end nodes. The cursor changes to include a plus symbol. Click on the node and drag to add a new line segment.
To draw a straight line (with the Straight Line Tool):
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Choose the
Straight Line Tool from the Tools toolbar’s Line flyout.
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Click where you want the line to start, and drag to the end point. The line appears immediately.
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To constrain the angle of the straight line to 15° increments, hold down the Shift key as you drag. (This is an easy way to make exactly vertical or horizontal lines.)
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To extend the line, position the cursor over one of its end nodes. The cursor changes to include a plus symbol. Click on the node and drag to add a new line segment.
To draw one or more line segments (with the Pen Tool):
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Choose the
Pen Tool from the Tools toolbar’s Line flyout. On the Curve context toolbar, three buttons let you select which kind of segment to draw:
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Select a segment type, then click where you want the line to start:
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For a Straight segment, click again (or drag) for a new node where you want the segment to end. Shift-click to align the
segment at 15° intervals (useful for quick right-angle junctions).
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For a Bézier segment, click again for a new node and drag out a control handle from it. Control handles act like “magnets,” pulling the curve into shape. The distance between handles determines the depth of the resulting new curved line segment.
Click again where you want the segment to end, and a curved segment appears. The finished segment becomes selectable.
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Pressing the Shift key while you’re drawing causes the new node’s control handles to “snap” into orientation at 15-degree intervals with respect to the node.
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Normally, Bézier segments end in a symmetric (evenly rounded) corner, with control handles locked together. You can press C while drawing the segment to define a “cusp” or sharp corner. For more on line corners, see the subtopic on the Curve context toolbar.
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For a Smart segment, click again for a new node. The segment appears as a smooth, best-fitting curve (without visible control handles) between the new node and the preceding node. Before releasing the mouse button, you can drag to “flex” the line as if bending a piece of wire. If the preceding corner node on the line is also smart, flexibility extends back to the preceding segment. You can Shift-click to create a new node that lines up at 15° intervals with the previous node.
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To extend an existing line, repeat Step 2 for each new segment. Each segment can be of a different type.
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To select the opposite end node of the curve (i.e., to extend the curve from the other end), press Tab before drawing the next segment.
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To end the line, press Esc, double-click, or choose a different tool.
You can reshape the line after it’s drawn or apply different weight, color, or other attributes (see Setting line properties).
Editing lines
Use the Pointer Tool in conjunction with the Curve context toolbar to adjust lines once you’ve drawn them. The techniques are the same whether you’re editing a separate line object or the outline of a closed shape.
When selected, each line type shows square nodes which can be used for reshaping lines.
To move or resize a line:
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Select the line with the Pointer Tool and drag its bounding box to move or resize. When resizing, use the Shift key if you wish to keep the line constrained.
To reshape a line:
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Select a line segment with the Pointer Tool. You’ll see the
cursor.
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Drag the line to reshape it. PagePlus automatically applies curve-smoothing to help you achieve a pleasing result.
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Select one of the line’s nodes with the Pointer Tool (Shift-click or drag a marquee to select multiple nodes). You’ll see the
cursor.
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As a shortcut when selecting nodes, you can press Tab to select the next node along the line (following the order in which nodes were created).
Selected node(s) will turn orange, and control handles for the adjacent line segment(s) will appear. Note that each segment in the line has a control handle at either end, so when you select an interior node, as at left below, you’ll see a pair of handles at the selected node.
A – Interior node, B – End node, C – Control handles
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Drag the node(s). (Shift-drag to constrain the movement to 15° intervals.)
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Adjust one or both of a node’s control handles to change the profile of the adjacent segment(s).
To convert from straight lines to curves:
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Click
Fit Curves on the Curve context toolbar.
To add or delete nodes for more or less complex outlines:
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To add a node, either double-click at a chosen point on the line.
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Select a node and click the
Add Node on the Curve context toolbar. A new node is added half-way along the node’s segment.
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To delete, select a node and click
Delete Node on the Curve context toolbar.