Text boxes, images (built-in
clipart or images you import), Smart
Shapes and tables are the types of objects you can work with in Swift
Publisher.| http://www.belightsoft.com/swiftpublisher/ | Start of Help > Working with Objects |
Text boxes, images (built-in
clipart or images you import), Smart
Shapes and tables are the types of objects you can work with in Swift
Publisher.
All operations on objects can be made using Inspector or the program menu. Some of them - using a context menu. The main thing - the object must be selected before you perform any operation with it.
To select an object, click it with the Selection tool. To select several objects, either click them holding down the Shift key - objects will be selected one by one. Or drag a rectangle around the objects you want to select with the mouse button held down. 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 (unless you've disabled the display of borders). Then move the mouse pointer over the object, click on it and drag the object to a new location with the mouse button held down.
For precise movement, select an object and use the arrow keys on the keyboard. For faster movement, press Shift-[Arrow key].
On the Geometry tab you can enter the coordinates of the object to place it into the exact location. The units of measurement 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). When an edge of the object you move aligns with another object, a smart guides is displayed (blue dashed line).
The commands Move to Center (Horizontally) and Move to Center (Vertically) from the Format menu move the selected objects to the page center along the horizontal or vertical axis.
The size of an object can be
changed with 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 the Inspector, you can enter the dimensions of the object to make it of the size you need. The units of measurement can be changed in the program Preferences.
When you set a new size and Fix aspect ratio is selected, the sides proportion will be preserved.
If the image size was increased or decreased, you can always restore the original one by clicking Original Size button.
Several images can be resized together. When you resize a group of selected images, they have a common selection frame that behaves like it is a single image.
To rotate the selected object, use controls from the Rotate section on the Geometry tab of the Inspector. Unlike text, images can be flipped vertically and horizontally. Text can not be flipped. To get text flipped in your document, convert it to an image.
Several objects can be rotated together. When you rotate a group of objects, they move around the center of the selection.
To edit text, double click on it. Or select the Text Box tool on the toolbar and click on a text box.
Double-clicking on a picture opens the Edit Image window. In this window you can crop the image or apply Core Image filters if you're using OS X 10.4 or higher.
Border lines can be made visible/invisible by using the Line checkbox on the Fill & Shadow tab of the Inspector.
Use the Color button to open the
standard Colors panel to change line
color and opacity.
Adjust the thickness of the line using the Thickness
slide bar.
You can tint (fill) an object using the Fill
checkbox on the Fill & Shadow tab
of the Inspector or using Tint
image on the Image tab.
Use the Color button to open the standard
Colors panel for changing tint (fill)
color.
Adjust the opacity of the tint using the Opacity
slider.
The result of image tinting 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.
If you select a text object and check Fill with some color, the background of the text will take on that color.
If Shadow is checked on the Fill & Shadow tab of the Inspector, a shadow of the selected color will appear for the selected object. The distance from the shadow to the object, its angle and blur can be also adjusted with the help of the respective controls. To change the color and opacity of the shadow, open the Colors panel by clicking on the Color button in the Shadow section.
A shadow can also be added to text (to the letters), if you select a portion of text and apply the 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.
The Alignment tab of the Inspector has several options for aligning objects. Select two or more objects and click one of the align buttons. You can align left edges, right edges, top edges and bottom edges. You can also align the centers of the objects vertically or horizontally.
If you need to align several objects, select them first. Open the Alignment tab of the Inspector and select the kind of alignment you need. The same commands can be found in the menu: Format > Align.
When the Align with first selected option is selected, the selected objects are aligned with the object that was selected first.
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 – move the middle object(s) horizontally to make the horizontal spacing between the edges of the objects equal.
Distribute > Spacing Vertically – move the middle object(s) vertically to make the vertical spacing between the edges of the objects equal.
Distribute > Centers Horizontally – move the middle object(s) horizontally to make the spacing between the vertical axes of the objects equal.
Distribute > Centers Vertically – move the middle object(s) vertically to make the spacing between the horizontal axes of the objects equal.
Objects in the same layer may form a stack, laying one over another. To change position of the object in the stack, 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 to the document, each subsequent object is located one level higher. The later added image will cover earlyer ones. The described here commands help to change the order in which objects are in the layout.
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.
In some cases you may need to select an object that is fully covered by another one and can't be seen. For instance, to resize or move an image used as the background for text. The easiest way to access lower objects is using the throughout selection.
Click several times on the pile of objects holding down the Cmd
key. Each time you click, the object one level lower will be selected.
If the upper object is not transparent (is a picture, for instance),
you will see only the selection border of lower objects.
Keep the Cmd key pressed to bring up the
context menu for lower objects.
If you need to bring a lower object to the front, select it as described above and choose the Format > Bring to Front menu command.