Tools

The eleven tools in the left toolbar, their shortcuts, and how to create objects with each.

Tool list

Switch tools with a single key. Press the key when you are not editing text.

In the toolbar, Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon and Line share one slot, and so do Text and Title text, and Bézier and Polyline. Click the slot's button again or right-click it (or click the small + in its corner) to open the tool list, and choose another tool there.

Related questions

• What are the tool shortcuts?
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Selection tool

1. Choose the Select tool (V).
2. Click an object to select it. Drag on an empty area to select every object the rectangle touches or overlaps. Shift+click adds to the selection; Shift+clicking an already selected object removes it.
3. Drag a selected object to move it; drag a corner or side handle to resize it.
4. Click an empty area to deselect.

Double-clicking an object enters its edit mode — text editing for a text frame, moving the image inside its frame for an image, point editing for a path (see “Path point editing” below), table editing for a table, and picking objects inside a group for a group. The others are covered in their own articles.

Related questions

• How do I select several objects at once?
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Shape tools — rectangle, ellipse, polygon

1. Choose the tool.
2. Drag on the canvas. When you release, the shape is created and selected. Hold Shift while dragging to make the width and height equal (a square or circle). The same applies when drawing frames with the image and text tools.
3. Change its fill, stroke and size in the Attributes tab.

For a shape made with Polygon, change the number of Vertices in the Polygon section of the Attributes tab, and turn on Star to make it a star.

Related questions

• How do I draw a rectangle?
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Line tool

1. Choose the Line tool (L).
2. Drag from the start point to the end point. Hold Shift while dragging to constrain the angle to 15° steps; the same applies when you drag an end-point handle of an existing line with Shift.
3. In the Line Ends section of the Attributes tab you can add Arrow, Open arrow, Circle or Bar ends to the Start and End. Open Bézier paths and polylines have the same section.

Related questions

• How do I draw an arrow?
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Bézier tool

The Bézier tool (P) draws curved paths.

1. Click to place a corner point. Click and drag to give the point direction handles, making a curve. Hold Shift while dragging to constrain the handle to 15° steps.
2. Keep placing points. Shift+click places the point at a 15° step from the previous point. While drawing, Delete or Backspace removes the last point.
3. With three or more points, click the first point to close the shape. Double-click or press Esc to finish as an open path.

Select an existing path with the Select tool and switch to the Bézier tool: click an end point of an open path to continue drawing (a polyline can also be continued with the Polyline tool), click another point to remove it, or click on the line to insert a point. A closed path with only three points cannot lose a point.

Rectangles, ellipses, polygons, lines and polylines can also become Bézier paths. Right-click the object and choose Convert to Bézier: it keeps its shape, position, stroke, fill and effects, and becomes a path whose points you can edit one by one. Rounded corners and stars carry over as curve points exactly as they look. You can convert several objects at once, and undo turns them back into the original shapes. Text frames, image frames, tables and objects inside a group can't be converted.

Related questions

• How do I draw a curve?
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Polyline tool

The Polyline tool (N) draws paths made of straight segments. It differs from the Bézier only in having no handles.

1. Every click places a vertex. Hold Shift to constrain the angle to 15° steps from the previous point.
2. Click near the first point to close the polygon (with three or more points).
3. Double-click or press Esc to finish as an open polyline. Click-drag and release to make the release point the last point and finish. While drawing, Delete or Backspace removes the last point.

Select an existing polyline with the Select tool, then switch to the Polyline tool: click on a segment to add a point, and click an inner point to remove it. A closed polygon with only three points can't lose any more.

Click an end point of an open polyline to keep drawing from that end. You finish the same way as when drawing a new one (double-click, Esc, or click-drag and release), and clicking the opposite end point closes it into a polygon. Continuing from the start point keeps the polyline's direction, so line-end shapes don't flip. While continuing, Delete or Backspace removes only the points you just added. To remove an end point itself, double-click the polyline to enter point editing, select that point and press Delete (see "Path point editing").

Related questions

• I want to draw a zigzag line
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Path point editing

Double-click a Bézier path or polyline to enter point editing. Its points (anchors) and handles appear.

• Drag a point to move it. Drag the segment between two points to move both end points together.
• Drag a handle to reshape the curve. On a smooth point the opposite handle turns with it along the same line. Hold ⌥/Alt while dragging a handle to move the two handles independently.
• ⌥/Alt+click a point to switch between a corner point and a curve point: existing handles are removed; with no handles, drag from the point to pull new ones out (Bézier paths only).
• Click a point to select it, then press Delete or Backspace to remove it. An open path can't go below two points, a closed path below three.
• With Snap to grid turned on in the View section of the Attributes tab (nothing selected), dragged points and handles snap to the visible baseline grid.
• Press Esc or click outside the path to finish. Every change can be undone.

If a path carries text, double-click on the line for point editing; double-clicking inside edits the text. For other ways to add or remove points, see the Bézier and Polyline tool sections above.

Related questions

• How do I move anchor points on a path?
• How do I convert a smooth point to a corner point?
• How do I delete an anchor point?

Text tool

1. Choose the Text tool (T).
2. Drag on the canvas to draw a frame. You can start typing right away.

Clicking inside an existing shape with the Text tool makes that shape hold text and starts editing immediately. Clicking on the outline of a shape places text on a path that follows the outline. Once editing starts, the tool switches back to Select automatically.

Related questions

• How do I make a text box?
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Title text tool

Creates a title whose letters are drawn as outlines. The frame always fits the text exactly.

1. Click the Text slot in the toolbar again and choose the Title text tool from the list that opens.
2. Drag up or down on the canvas. A frame shaped like a capital I appears, with the font size shown as a number at its top right.
3. Release the mouse to create it at that size; the caret blinks inside the frame. The frame widens as you type, and pressing Enter for a new line makes it taller.

• The letter outlines come from Stroke Style and the inside of the letters from Fill Style. As on any shape, gradient and pattern fills and dashes, caps, joins, alignment and opacity all apply to the letters (in PDFs, gradient and pattern fills and pattern strokes print as a single representative colour). By default there is no fill and a 1 pt black outline.
• While you type, the Attributes tab shows only the Character section. The stroke and fill set the colours, so there are no text colour, style or paragraph settings.
• Dragging a handle of the selected title changes the font size in proportion instead of stretching the frame. You can also change the font, size, tracking and scaling for the whole text in the Character section of the Attributes tab. Because the text sets the size, the W and H fields under Position & Size are locked.
• To edit the text, double-click it or click it with the Title text tool.
• Clicking inside a title text with the Image tool opens the Media Gallery; the chosen image shows only inside the letters (above the fill, below the outline).
• Convert to Bézier in the right-click menu turns the letter outlines into a path whose points you can edit. Holes such as the inside of O stay empty, and an image in the letters moves into the path. The outlines are traced from the screen, so they have many small straight segments instead of curves. The text can no longer be edited afterwards.
• Select a title text together with a shape (Bézier path, polyline, rectangle, ellipse or polygon) and choose Merge Text from the right-click menu to warp the letters so they fill the inside of the shape. The points of the shape nearest its four corners become the corners of the text, and the letters are stretched and squeezed between them. Editing the shape's points or resizing it bends the letters along. The letters keep the title text's fill and outline, and the shape's own fill and stroke are still drawn (remove the shape's stroke to hide its border). Double-click the warped letters to edit the text: it is laid out unwarped at the centre of the shape while you type and warps again when you finish (double-clicking outside the letters edits the shape instead). With the shape selected, the Attributes tab also shows the merged text's Character section for changing the font, size, tracking and so on for the whole text. To separate the text again, choose Release Merged Text. Merging is not available for a shape that already holds text or a merged title, for text or image frames, or for objects inside a group.
• Title text cannot be threaded to other text frames or placed on a path.

Related questions

• I want letters with only an outline
• How do I make a title bigger?
• Envelope distort: squeeze text into a shape

Image tool

1. Choose the Image tool (I).
2. Drag on the canvas to draw a frame. The empty frame shows a grey X, and the tool switches back to Select.
3. Click inside the frame with the Image tool to open the Media Gallery. Pick an image and it fills the frame. You can also select the frame and click Choose an image from the gallery in the Image section of the Attributes tab.

Clicking inside an existing shape with the Image tool also opens the Media Gallery, and the chosen image is placed inside that shape. Clicking a shape that already contains an image enters image editing mode.

Related questions

• How do I insert a photo?
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Table tool

1. Choose the Table tool.
2. Drag on the canvas. The size you drag determines the number of rows and columns (one cell is about 30 pt).
3. Afterwards, change the number of Rows and Columns in the Table section of the Attributes tab.

Related questions

• How do I create a table?
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