THE TOOLS

Object Tool: This tool moves objects and resizes and reshapes them: when you place this tool on the control points of a text or pix box, it changes into a pointing finger. At this point, clicking and dragging the mouse will resize/reshape your box.

Content Tool: This tool deals with the contents of boxes. It is both the text tool (see the I beam to the left?) when you are typing, and an image adjusting tool when you are dealing with an image. It can also be used to resize objects. (It, too, changes to a pointing finger at certain points). You must select text and pix boxes with this tool before you can use the "get text" or "get picture" commands from the file menu.

In addition, by holding down the command key it changes to a mover tool which allows you to move the element from one place to another on your page without having to choose the object tool.

To delete whole objects (not just their contents) while this tool is active, you must type command K.

Rotate Tool: Using this tool, you can rotate text and images to any degree desired by clicking and moving the element around its axis. Text which has been rotated can still be edited without reversing or undoing the rotation.

Zoom Tool: This will enlarge (or reduce by holding down the option key while clicking) the page view of your window. It enlarges (and reduces) in 25% increments.

The keystroke shortcut to enlarge is control click.

To reduce your view, option control and click. You can also use the little box in the lower left of the window to change your view manually.

Text Box Tools: These are what you would use to create, by clicking and dragging, a box in which you can type from scratch, or "get" text (from the File menu) created in a word processing document.

After you create the box, you can manipulate its size and position by using either the object tool, the content tool, typing in new dimensions and placement information in the measurement window, or by using the modify (command M) command under the item menu.

Picture Box Tools: There are several, all of which should be familiar; rectangle, rounded corner, ellipse and polygon. Constrain to perfect geometric shapes by holding the shift key while clicking and dragging the tool.

The only exception is the polygon tool, which places corner points, much like the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. Click to place points. You must close the box before it becomes real. If you don't get back to the beginning, you'll end up drawing lines all over the place. Double clicking will close the box for you (when you get into trouble).

To edit a polygon pix box, select it and choose "reshape polygon" from the Item menu. The control points you placed will become active and you can click and drag them to a new shape.

Table Tool: Click and drag to create a rough rectangle for your table. Specify how many rows and columns you want in the table, the contents of the cells (which you can change later) and the tab order.

Line Tools: the first line tool only creates perfectly vertical or horizontal lines. The other line tools draw lines at any angle, and curved lines as well. For curved lines, just click and draw with the freeform tool, or use the pen tool.

Text Path Tools: create paths along which you can place text. Draw your path—either as straight lines or curves. When you're done, select the content tool and type your words.

Text Link Tool: When you import more text than will fit into a single text box, you can link the text box to others and the text will flow from one to the next and so on.

Text Unlink Tool: Use this tool to break links between text boxes: select the box you want to unlink, position the tool over the tip of the arrow and click.

Scissors Tool: Click on the edge of an object or path to cut it into separate shapes. You can use this tool to cut up text and picture boxes, but then you can’t put anything into them.

Star Tool: This draws stars with any number of points. Double click on the tool to set the number of points and the relationship between the outer and inner points. The shape is a picture box by default, and you can change that by choosing Item > content.