4. In the Object Manager docker, click-and-drag your shape icon (not the shape on the page) from its current page and layer to any position under the Guides layer on the Master Page. As you drag, notice a horizontal I-beam cursor appears, shown next, indicating the shape’s current position as it is dragged. When your cursor is over a layer—ideally, the layer you want to move the shape to—you’ll see the default cursor replaced with a horizontal arrow “holding” a symbol of graphics content. The following illustration also shows a “before and after” of a star shape when it’s moved to the Master Page Guides layer. Unlike guidelines you drag from rulers, the look of a user-defined guide doesn’t have the dashed lines; it’s a solid line with no fill. Ill 7-13 Generally, after moving a shape to the Guides layer, it’s a good practice to lock the layer, as described earlier. A guide that moves when you don’t intend it to is as useful as a crepe paper umbrella in a storm. Using Guideline Presets CorelDRAW’s Guidelines feature comes with a group of presets that generate scripts to instantly add guidelines to your document. To use these scripts, press CTRL+J (Options); click to expand the tree directory under Document | Guidelines; and then click Presets, 194 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide Cursor between objects in docker indicates current position during the drag action. shown here. Click Apply Presets (you can add as many as you like in one fell swoop), and you have instant preset guides on the page. Basic Grid is a very useful preset because unlike with the Grid feature, you can move, and thus customize, any of the guidelines. Ill 7-14 Many of the presets are page margins, many are timesavers, but you can also create your own preset. To define guidelines that automatically populate the page, choose the User Defined Presets option in the Presets page of the Options dialog. This displays a collection of options for you to create your own custom Margins, Columns, or Grid guidelines. To activate any or all of these preset guideline effects, choose the corresponding options and customize the associated preset values. To open the Options dialog quickly to the Presets page while you currently have an unlocked guideline selected, click the Preset Guidelines button on the property bar. Altering Preset Guides and Saving Guides in a Template Although preset guidelines behave like guidelines you drag from the rulers, if you want to alter the preset arrangement by dragging one with the Pick tool, the action triggers an attention box. This attention box is equivalent in seriousness to the tag you get on new pillows—it’s for your own safety and is simply telling you that you’re modifying a preset, your own or a Corel preset for guidelines. You can check the “Don’t show warning again” box at the bottom-left of the Warning dialog box to avoid it in the future. Basically, you cannot destroy or modify a Corel guideline preset by moving one of the guides on the page—the option is always there from session to session. And there’s really nothing to mess up by altering a user preset guideline on the page after you’ve created one. There is no saved list of user presets; if you’ve created a user preset of grids, margins, or columns and want to save the modified or the original arrangement, you choose File | Save As Template. In the future, you can load a fresh, new document based on the template, and your guides are all in place. CHAPTER 7: Measuring and Drawing Helpers 195 7 Using the Dimension Tools If you need to annotate a drawing or an imported bitmap image with dimensions or labels calling out, for example, different parts of a machine, the dimension tools are expressly for this purpose. The lines you create with the four dimension tools will tag the bracketed area with units of measurement of your choice, and they dynamically update when you scale them. The 3-point callout tool is for adding text to a wide selection of arrowhead lines; you can choose a line style for the connector as well as width, a type of arrowhead, and any style of typeface that you have installed on your system. The text labels for callouts are also upright regardless of if you rotate the line, and a callout control line can be edited at any time with the Shape tool ( F10). Ill 7-15 Working with Callouts When using the 3-point callout tool, you produce two elements: a line composed of two segments (the callout, as it’s displayed on the status bar), and the control text. Callouts are not bound to an object; they can be moved anywhere on the page. But the text and the line are linked and cannot be moved independently of one another. You have a number of options on the property bar when the tool is active and also when a callout is selected (after one has been drawn): ● Outline width By default, you always begin a callout with a 0.5-point line width in black. It is not recommended to adjust the width before drawing a line; doing so triggers an attention box that asks whether you want the default line width—for any object you draw, not just callouts—to be changed. Instead, create your callout, and then adjust the width while the callout is selected. Because the callout belongs to the general class of line objects in CorelDRAW, you can change the color of the callout line by right-clicking a color well on the Color Palette while the line is selected. ● Start arrowhead This drop-down list will seem familiar if you’ve ever applied an arrowhead to a line by using the property bar. The same basic styles are available as on the Start arrowhead collection. You can even use an arrow tail for a callout. ● Line style Like any other line you draw with the Pen or other drawing tool, the callout can be solid, dashed, a series of dots—choose a style by clicking the pop-up box, and then click a style thumbnail. 196 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide Dimension Tool Group Parallel dimension tool Horizontal or vertical dimension tool Angular dimension tool Segment dimension tool 3-point callout tool ● Callout symbol You set the style for the callout text from this pop-up list of presets. The symbol doesn’t affect the font; it’s a style—a rectangle bounding the text, a straight line butted above or below the text—symbols add an element of polish to your presentation. ● Offset Sets the distance between the tail of the callout line and the beginning of the text. ● Character Formatting (CTRL+T) After creating a callout, you can select the text and use the property bar to change the font, font size, and so on, but Character Formatting also provides you with more controls and options. Clicking this button displays Character Formatting as a docker entry, persistent onscreen until you close the box. To use the 3-point callout tool: 1. Click-drag to create a point where you want the callout to end (the node will eventually have the arrowhead), move the cursor to where you want the “elbow” of the callout line, and then click. 2. Move your cursor to where you want the control text, and then click. 3. Begin typing what you want the callout to read. Ill 7-16 The following steps walk you through an imaginary assignment: you have an illustration of a custom bowling shirt, and you need to call out one or two selling points about the shirt. The shirt in League Shirts.cdr could use a callout for the name of the league that the vendor silk-screens on the shirt’s back. Also, the vendor offers to embroider the name of the player above the front pocket in case the bowler forgets his or her name. These steps are simply a demonstration, and your finished assignment is neither “right” nor “wrong,” but rather an exploration of the 3-point callout tool’s features and ease of use. CHAPTER 7: Measuring and Drawing Helpers 197 7 Callout Line Width Start Arrowhead Line Style Callout Symbol Character Formatting ( CTRL+T) Offset Drag (arrowhead added here) Click Click to finish and type text callout. Calling Out a Bowling Shirt 1. Open League Shirt.cdr. The layer with the illustration is locked so nothing can accidentally be moved. 2. Choose the 3-point callout tool from the Dimension Tools group on the toolbox. 3. Click-drag from “The Kingpins” logo on the back view of the shirt, and then release the mouse button inside the green bubble graphic. Doing this sets the first of two segments for the callout line. 4. Click below the shirt, and then type Your Team logo. 5. Choose the Pick tool. You cannot press ENTER to toggle to it, because technically, the Artistic text tool is being used by your cursor. 6. Select the callout line; notice that the options for the callout are now available on the property bar. 7. Choose 4 pt. from the Line Width pop-up list, and then choose a dashed line from the Styles pop-up. 8. Choose the third from the top symbol style for the callout. Depending on how the last node is positioned on the page for the callout, your text might have the bar for the symbol to the left or above it. Either is fine in this experiment, and you’ll see shortly how to change the symbol’s orientation. Ill 7-17 198 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide 9. Right-click over any color well you like with the callout line selected to change its color. 10. Choose the Shape tool (F10). Click anywhere on the line to select it. 11. Try moving one node of the line, and then another. Notice that the text is always oriented upright and adjusts to reflect changes you make to the connected callout line. 12. Click on the “elbow” node; let’s say you want a 2-point callout and not this 3-point guy. Either press the minus key on your numeric keypad, or click the Delete Nodes button on the property bar. Voila! You can add a node by clicking the segment and then pressing the + keypad key, and even add a few more nodes. The overall property of the callout isn’t destroyed by editing it. The text is still bound to the callout line. 13. Click a line segment, and then click the Convert To Curve button on the property bar. Then drag the segment with the Shape tool to create an arc. 14. With the Pick tool, select the text; the status bar should read “Control Text on…” Choose a typeface from the installed list of Fonts on the property bar. Try using a different size for the text you typed, and view how the symbol for the callout text adjusts to accommodate the new typeface size. 15. Finish up this assignment by adding a second callout to the front of the shirt, where the name “Spinny” appears. See Figure 7-12 for one of several graphical treatments you can now build with the 3-point callout tool. CHAPTER 7: Measuring and Drawing Helpers 199 7 FIGURE 7-12 Use the 3-point callout tool for fast, professional-looking labels for graphic designs. Using Dimension Tools Four Dimension line tool types are available, each of which creates a different type of line with a specific purpose. When the Dimension tool is selected, the property bar displays options to specify the style, precision, and unit values of your displayed dimensions, and to control the display and appearance of the labeling text, covered next. Figure 7-13 has the names of the areas you can access when using Dimension tools. ● Dimension Style This option is used to set decimal, fractional, or standard measuring conventions, the default of which is decimal. ● Dimension Precision This option is used to set a level of precision. While using Decimal as the measuring style, precision may be specified up to ten decimal places. While using Fractional, precision may be specified using fractions up to 1/1024 of a selected unit measure. ● Dimension Units Use this option to specify the measurement unit with which to display your text labels. You can choose any of the unit measures supported by CorelDRAW X5. ● Show/Hide Units This is a toggle button. If you don’t want units appended to a dimension, leave the button turned off before you create a dimension line. ● Prefix/Suffix For Dimension With this feature, you can enter your own text so that it appears before and after the text label for your dimension line. For example, styles of merchandise, such as “Plastic” or a “Children only” sized garment, are uses for this option. Prefix and Suffix text may be any character you want and may be applied before or after the dimension line has been drawn. 200 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide FIGURE 7-13 The four Dimension tools each share a common set of options. Style (Decimal, Fractions ) Precision Show/Hide Units Unit Style Prefix Suffix Show Leading Zero Dynamic Dimensioning Text Position Extension Options Arrowheads Width ● Show Leading Zero When a value of less than one is a resulting dimension, a tenth of an inch, for example, you can add a zero before the decimal, or choose to leave it off by toggling this button off (the non-depressed state). If you have a series of columns of dimension lines, adding the leading zero will help keep the values aligned to the left or right. ● Dynamic Dimensioning This option lets you specify whether your measurement values are updated automatically as the size of the dimension line is changed. By default, this option is turned on for all new dimension lines. If you plan on resizing or changing the drawing scale of your drawing after creating the dimension lines, disabling this option freezes the values being displayed so that they remain fixed, whether your dimension lines are resized or not. If, for some reason, resizing a drawing applied with dimension lines causes the measured values to change, you can right-click the dimension line and choose Break Dimension Apart from the pop-up menu as a workaround. ● Text Position To specify a position for the text labels applied to your dimension line, choose one of the options from the Text Position drop-down list. Choose from top-centered, middle-centered, or bottom-centered for Auto, Vertical, Horizontal, or Callout dimension lines. Checking Out Dimension Lines The following steps walk you through the use for, and the technique used to build, dimension lines. Let’s pretend in the “Urn While you Learn.cdr” file that the drawing of the antique urn is to size: it’s 6 ¾" tall in the real world. Your assignment is a response from the antique dealer that she wants to know the overall height of the urn, the height of the neck, and the angle of the bottom decal on the bowl of the urn, as measured from tip of the bowl where it meets the neck. Moreover, she wants the drawing marked with fractional values and thinks metric amounts are for nerds and scientists. People go a little overboard when it comes to cataloguing antiques, but your success is ensured because you have these steps to guide you. Using Dimension Lines 1. Open the Urn While You Learn.cdr file, and then select the Horizontal or Vertical dimension tool from the toolbox. 2. On the property bar, set the Style to Fractional. 3. Click-drag from the top of the urn to its bottom, where you release the mouse button. With this tool, direction is set to vertical or horizontal by the direction in which you first drag. CHAPTER 7: Measuring and Drawing Helpers 201 7 4. Move the cursor to the left without holding either mouse button. Doing this defines a position for the control text, so make sure your cursor position is not over the urn drawing. 5. Click. You’re done and the number value is called out now. 6. Choose the Parallel dimension tool; the neck of the bottle is slightly slanted, so this is the appropriate measuring tool. 7. Click-drag from the top of the neck (below the lip) to the part that joins the neck with the bowl; release the mouse button at this point. 8. Move the cursor to the right, away from the drawing, and then single-click to add the dimension line and number value. 9. Choose the Angular dimension tool. 10. Click-drag from the junction of the neck and bowl, and release the mouse button when your cursor is to the left of the bottom decal on the bowl. 11. Move your cursor to the right so it touches the right side of the decal. 12. Click. You’re not finished yet. You now have the opportunity to set the position of the arc. Move your cursor toward or away from the vertex of the two angular lines, and then click. 13. The measurement probably will not read, being black against the dark urn. No problem: with the Pick tool, select the number value, and then click the white color well on the Color Palette. Figure 7-14 shows the completed assignment. 202 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide FIGURE 7-14 Use dimension lines to quickly and accurately annotate drawings and images. Parallel dimension Angular dimension Horizontal or Vertical dimension Bottom decal Segment Dimensions Whether you need to discover a value for technical comparison’s sake, or want to make sure a part of a personal illustration is of an exact length, the Segment dimension tool is your ticket. This tool measures the distance between nodes on a path, whether the nodes are on a straight line or a curve. To use this tool, you first select a line in your composition with the Pick tool. Choose the Segment dimension tool, and then marquee-select the two nodes you want to discover the distance between. Move the cursor away from the selection to create handles that bound the selected nodes and then click. As you can see here, the illustrator was curious about the length of the tips of this cartoon character’s hair. We don’t ask why he wanted to know, but we do know that they are 0.65". Ill 7-18 An Exercise in Dimensioning to Scale All of the preceding info and examples are fine in theory; now, you’re going to put the theory into practice in the next tutorial. You’re handed a CorelDRAW document with a photo in it. Your boss—or any other person who is intimidating—wants the parts of the toy water pistol called out, but here’s the catch: the image of the water pistol is not 1:1. So how does one measure all the parts of a 7 ½" long toy that is 6.78" on the CorelDRAW page? As follows! CHAPTER 7: Measuring and Drawing Helpers 203 7 Marquee-select nodes Move and then click to finalize. . experiment, and you’ll see shortly how to change the symbol’s orientation. Ill 7-1 7 198 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide 9. Right-click over any color well you like with the callout line selected to change. appears. See Figure 7-1 2 for one of several graphical treatments you can now build with the 3-point callout tool. CHAPTER 7: Measuring and Drawing Helpers 199 7 FIGURE 7-1 2 Use the 3-point callout. dimension line, choose one of the options from the Text Position drop-down list. Choose from top-centered, middle-centered, or bottom-centered for Auto, Vertical, Horizontal, or Callout dimension lines. Checking