Drawing and editing shapes
QuickShapes are pre-designed objects of widely varying shapes that you can instantly add to your page.
Once you’ve drawn a QuickShape, you can morph its original shape using control handles, and adjust its properties—for example, by applying gradient or bitmap fills (including your own bitmap pictures!) or transparency effects.
Another way to create a shape is to draw a line (or series of line segments) and then connect its start and end nodes, creating a closed shape.
QuickShapes
The QuickShape flyout contains a wide variety of commonly used shapes, including boxes, ovals, arrows, polygons, stars, cubes, and cylinders.
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You can easily turn shapes into web buttons by adding hyperlinks or overlaying hotspots. The “Quick Button” (indicated) is especially intended for creating stylish button outlines! |
It’s also possible to use the always-at-hand QuickShape context toolbar situated above the workspace to adjust a QuickShape’s line weight, color, style, and more. New shapes always take the default line and fill (initially a black line with no fill).
To create a QuickShape:
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Click the
QuickShape flyout on the Tools toolbar and select a shape from the flyout. The button takes on the icon of the shape selected.
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Click on the page to create a new shape at a default size.
– or -Drag across the page to size your shape. When the shape is the right size, release the mouse button.
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Normally, the tool reverts to the Pointer after you draw a shape. To draw the same QuickShape repeatedly, select it, then hold down the Shift key just before drawing your shapes on the page.
To draw a constrained shape (such as a circle):
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Hold down the Shift key as you drag.
All QuickShapes can be positioned, resized, rotated, and filled. What’s more, you can morph them using adjustable sliding handles around the QuickShape. Each shape changes in a logical way to allow its exact appearance to be altered. The ability to alter the appearance of QuickShape objects makes them more flexible and convenient than clipart pictures with similar designs. For example:
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Dragging the handles on a Polygon will change the number of sides to make a triangle, pentagon, hexagon, or other polygon.
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Dragging the handles on a Rectangle alters the box corners to make them more or less rounded.
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Dragging the handles of an Ellipse will convert it into a “pie” shape.
To adjust the appearance of a QuickShape:
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Click on the QuickShape to reveal one or more sliding handles around the shape. These are distinct from the “inner” selection handles. Different QuickShapes have different handles which have separate functions.
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To change the appearance of a QuickShape, drag its handles.
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To find out what each handle does for a particular shape, move the Pointer Tool over the handle and read the Hintline.
For more on editing QuickShapes, see “Editing shapes” below.
Closed shapes
As soon as you draw or select a line, you’ll see the line’s nodes appear. Nodes show the end points of each segment in the line. Freehand curves typically have many nodes; straight or curved line segments have only two. You can make a shape by extending a line back to its starting point.
To turn a selected line into a shape:
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Select the line with the Pointer Tool and then click the
Close Curve button on the Curve context toolbar.
– or -
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Select the line, then choose one of the line tools and position the cursor over an end node. The cursor changes to
. Drawing from this point will extend the line.
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Click and draw a line from one end node to the other. When you reach the other node, the cursor changes to
. Releasing the mouse button here will create a shape.
Closed shapes have an interior which is filled with the current default fill when the shape is closed.
Because a closed shape consists of line segments, it’s easy to adjust its contours by adjusting individual segments and nodes, using the Pointer Tool and Curve context toolbar. For details, see the subtopic Editing lines.
You can go the other way, too—break open a shape in order to add one or more line segments.
To break open a line or shape:
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With the Pointer Tool, select the node where you want to break the shape.
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Click the
Break Curve button on the Curve context toolbar. A line will separate into two lines. A shape will become a line, with the selected node split into two nodes, one at each end of the new line.
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You can now use the Pointer Tool to reshape the line as needed.
Polygon fill modes
When drawing complex polygons with self-intersecting outlines, it is possible to change the fill behavior, i.e. the Fill Mode, at each intersecting section along the outline’s path. Alternate switches between filling and not filling contiguous sections; Winding always fills any section encountered along the path.
To change fill mode:
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Select the polygon.
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From the Format menu, choose Fill Mode, then either Alternate or Winding. The former alternates between filling and not filling along the path. The latter fills all sections on the path.
Alternate vs. Winding fill modes
Editing shapes
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To move or resize a shape, select it with the Pointer Tool and drag its bounding box. When resizing, use the Shift key if you want to constrain the shape.
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Use the Lock Geometry button on the QuickShape context toolbar to ensure that certain parts of a shape remain unchanged when the shape is resized. Especially useful for maintaining a consistent look with rounded Quick Rectangles, Quick Arrows and Quick Buttons.
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Use Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical on the Arrange menu (or right-click menu) to reorient directional shapes like arrows or callouts.
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You can deform an object and (optionally) its fill using the Mesh Warp Tool on the Tools toolbar (see Applying a mesh warp envelope).
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You can adjust an object’s crop outline using either the Square or Irregular Crop tool on the Attributes toolbar, or crop a bottom shape to a top shape using Tools>Crop to Shape. (See Cropping and combining objects.)
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You can convert any shape (such as artistic text or a QuickShape) to editable lines and nodes using Convert To>Curves on the Tools menu. The converted object is grouped, but once ungrouped (click the
button), any selected character or shape—now a collection of line segments—can be edited. After conversion, you can’t change the font of text that’s been converted to curves.
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Combining joins two or more selected lines or drawn shapes (not QuickShapes) into a single group-like object, with a “hole” where the component objects’ fills overlapped. You can apply formatting (such as line or fill) to the whole object and continue to edit individual nodes and segments with the Pointer Tool.
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To create new outlined shapes from a group of selected shapes you can use the
Join Outlines flyout on the Arrange toolbar. Add, Subtract, Intersect, and Exclude operations can be performed.
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You can convert any shape into a text frame by either typing directly onto a drawn shape (this centers your text vertically and horizontally) or by using Convert to>Shaped Text Frame on the Tools menu (text is not auto-aligned). The former method is great for creating objects for diagrams.
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Use the Weight slider in the Line tab to change the weight (thickness) or type of the shape’s border. Click one of the drop-down Line options to apply it.
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Use the Swatches tab to change the shape’s line or fill color (solid, gradient or bitmap). For details, see Applying solid colors or Working with gradient
and bitmap fills. -
Use the Transparency tab to apply a gradient or Bitmap transparency effect. For details, see Working with transparency.
To access all Line, Fill, and Transparency properties:
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Right-click on the shape and choose Format>Line and Border…, Fill…, or Transparency…. The dialogs let you adjust all Line or Fill properties.
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You can also click the Edit Fill or Line/Border button on the Tools toolbar’s Fill flyout, or the Edit Transparency button on the Transparency flyout.
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You can use Update Object Default from the Format or right-click menu to set properties for any new graphics you create. See Updating and saving defaults.