| www.belightsoft.com/composer | Start of Help > Editing Business Cards |
Text fields, Images (supplied clipart or images you import) and Smart Shapes are the types of objects you can work with in Business Card Composer.
All operations on objects can be done using the Inspector window (menu: Window > Inspector), the program menu or via the context menu. The object must be selected before you perform any operation on it.
To select an object, click on it. To select several objects, either click them holding down the Shift key - objects will be selected one by one. Or with the mouse button held down drag a rectangle around the objects you want to select. All the objects touched by the rectangle will become selected.
To move an object with the mouse, click on it with the Selection tool. When the object is selected, it displays handles. Text objects also display the border. Then move the mouse pointer over the object, click on it and with the mouse button held down drag the object to a new location.
For precise move, select an object and use the arrow keys on the keyboard.
On the Geometry tab of the Inspector window you can enter the coordinates of the object to place it exactly where needed on the page. Measure units can be changed in the program Preferences.
When you move an object with the mouse, it snaps automatically to another object edge or guides. You may toggle the Snap function on or off if you hold down the Cmd key as you move the object. To turn it off permanently, use the Preferences dialog (uncheck the Snap box there). To position objects more accurately, smart guides are displayed automatically when an object is moved.
The commands Move to Center (Horizontally) and Move to Center (Vertically) from the Format menu move the selected object to the card center along the horizontal or vertical axis. For the same operation, use the "Move To" buttons on the Alignment tab of Inspector.
The size of an object can be changed using the mouse: select the object and drag one of the handles on its border. To resize an object preserving its aspect ratio, use the corner resize handles. Side handles resize that particular side only. To inverse the action of corner handles, hold the Shift key down.
On the Geometry tab of Inspector you can enter the object dimensions to make its size exactly as needed. Measure units can be changed in the program Preferences.
When you set a new size and Fix aspect ratio is checked, side proportion will be preserved.
If an image size was changed, you can always restore the original size using Original Size button.
For a selected object you can set the rotation angle in the Rotate section, and use vertical or horizontal flipping. Text cannot be flipped.
Several images can be resized and rotated simultaneously. When you resize a group of selected images, it behaves as a single image. When you rotate a group of images, they move around the center of the selection.
To edit text, double click on it. Or select the Text tool on the toolbar and click on a text field.
Double-clicking on an image opens the Edit Image window. In this window you can crop the image. If you're using OS X 10.4 or higher and Image Tricks is installed on your computer, you will also be able to apply Core Images filters.
Border lines can be made visible/invisible using the Line checkbox on the Fill & Shadow tab of Inspector.
The Color button opens the standard Colors panel to change line color and opacity.
Adjust thickness of the line using the Thickness slide bar.
To select the line type, use the Pattern drop-down list.
You can tint (fill) an object using the Fill checkbox on the Fill & Shadow tab of Inspector or using Tint image on the Image tab.
Use the Color button to open the standard Colors panel to change tint (fill) color.
Adjust the opacity of the tint using the Opacity slider.
The result of Tint depends on the object it was applied to.
Images look like they are tinted when Opacity is about 20-70%.
If Opacity is more than 95%, the image can be considered as filled. This is used mostly for Smart Shapes and Basic Shapes (from the internal clipart collection).
If you select a text object and check Fill with some color, the text background will take that color.
If Shadow is checked on the Fill & Shadow tab of Inspector, a shadow of the selected color will appear for the selected object. The distance between the shadow and the object, its angle and blur can also be adjusted with the help of the respective controls. To change the shadow color and opacity, open the Colors panel by clicking on the Color button in the Shadow section.
Shadow can also be applied to a text (to letters), by selecting a portion of the text and applying shadow as described above.
To set the same border line, filling or shadow attributes for several objects, apply the settings to a group of selected objects.
To align several selected objects, click one of alignment buttons on the Alignment tab of the Inspector.
You can align left, right, top and bottom edges of objects. You can also align their centers vertically or horizontally.
When the Align with first selected option is selected in the Inspector, the selected objects are aligned with the object that was selected first. To use this operation, select objects by Shift-click. The first object you click will retain its location. Others will move to align with it.
The alignment commands are available in the Format menu.
The commands from the Format > Distribute menu and the Distribute section of Alignment tab of Inspector affect how the selected objects are distributed on a page. These commands are used to create equal spacing between objects, and can only be used for three or more objects.
Distribute > Spacing Horizontally creates equal horizontal spacing between the edges of the objects.
Distribute > Spacing Vertically creates equal vertical spacing between the edges of the objects.
Distribute > Centers Horizontally creates equal horizontal spacing between the centers of the objects.
Distribute > Centers Vertically creates equal vertical spacing between the centers of the objects.
You can set horizontal and vertical space width in corresponding edit boxes.
Use the Bring Forward, Bring to Front, Send Backward, Send to Back commands from the Format menu to change the display order of objects.
When you add objects, each subsequent object is located one level higher. This is important when you move one object over another, the one that is higher will cover the "lower" object. These commands help to change the order in which objects are displayed.
Bring Forward places the selected object one level higher.
Bring to Front places the selected object above others.
Send Backward places the selected object one level lower.
Send to Back places the selected object below others.
Sometimes you may need to place one object behind another. This is especially convenient when you use an image as a background. Use the Send Backward/Bring Forward commands from the Format menu for this purpose. The Send Backward command puts the selected object behind all other objects. The Bring Forward command places it in front of all other objects.
The commands Move To Background and Move To Foreground from the Format menu move the selected object to another layer.