Drawing and editing shapes in slide shows and drawings
You can enhance Corel Presentations slides and drawings with seven categories of preset shapes: line, basic, arrow, flowchart, star, callout, and action.
In this section you'll learn about
drawing shapes
editing shapes
Drawing shapes
Line shapes can be everything from a simple line to a polyline. You can draw lines, polylines, and curves.
You can also draw closed curves and Bezier curves.
Other shapes that you can draw include basic shapes, such as rectangles and diamonds; arrow shapes; flowchart shapes, such as connectors and processes; star shapes; callout shapes; and action shapes, such as volume buttons and transition buttons. Certain shapes have more complex properties that you can modify to enhance a slide show. For example, action shapes can be linked to assigned actions that you initiate when displaying the slide show. For more information about assigning actions to objects, see "Creating SpeedLink objects."
To draw a line
1 Click Insert Shape Line shapes, and click a line shape.
2 Drag to draw the line shape.
Tips
You can also draw a precise horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line shape by holding down Shift while dragging to draw the line.
You can also draw line shapes by clicking the Line shapes button on the tool palette.
To draw a polyline
1 Click Insert Shape Line shapes, and click a polyline shape.
2 Drag to draw the polyline.
3 Double-click to complete the shape.
Tips
You can transform an elliptical arc polyline shape into a circle by clicking the shape and moving an edit point to the inside of the arc.
You can also draw line shapes by clicking the Line shapes button on the tool palette.
To draw a curve
1 Click Insert Shape Line Shapes Curve.
2 Click once in the drawing or slide show window.
3 Drag to start the curved line.
4 Click to create the first section of the curve.
5 Drag to continue the curve.
6 Double-click to complete the curve.
Tip
You can also draw line shapes by clicking the Line shapes button on the tool palette.
To draw a closed curve
1 Click Insert Shape Line shapes Closed curve.
2 Click once in the drawing or slide show window.
3 Drag to start the curved shape.
4 Click to create the first section of the curve.
5 Continue to drag and click to create the curved shape you want.
6 Double-click to complete the closed curve.
Tip
You can also draw line shapes by clicking the Line shapes button on the tool palette.
To draw a Bezier curve
1 Click Insert Shape Line shapes Bezier.
2 For each section of the curve, click to start the curved line, and drag to curve the line in another direction.
3 Double-click to finish the curve.
Note
The distance between the control points and the node determines the height or depth of the segment that you are drawing.
Tips
You can draw a cusp in the Bezier curve by dragging from the anchor point, sizing and curving the segment, then holding down Alt and dragging in the direction that you want the next curve. You can then release Alt and size and curve the next segment.
You can also draw line shapes by clicking the Line shapes button on the tool palette.
To draw a shape
1 Click Insert Shape, and click a shape in one of the following categories:
Basic shapes
Arrow shapes
Flowchart shapes
Star shapes
Callout shapes
Action shapes
If you want to draw a shape from the center, hold down ALT, and click where you want to create the center of the shape.
2 Drag diagonally to draw the shape.
Note
For more information about creating action shapes, see "Creating SpeedLink objects."
Tips
You can also create a shape with equal horizontal and vertical dimensions by holding down Alt + Shift as you draw the shape.
You can also draw shapes by clicking the Basic shapes button, the Arrow shapes button, the Flowchart shapes button, the Star shapes button, the Callout shapes button, or the Action shapes button on the tool palette.
Editing shapes
You can resize the shapes you add to slides and drawings by using a glyph.
You can also change the form, angle, or direction of a line or polyline by using the edit points. Edit points apply only to lines and polylines; however, you can access the edit points of other shapes by converting them to polygons. You can then shape the polygon.
This illustration shows how you can edit a shape by dragging a glyph.
To size a shape by using a glyph
1 Click a shape.
2 Drag a glyph until the shape is the size you want.
To change the shape of a line or polyline
1 Click a line or polyline.
2 Click Edit Edit points.
3 Drag the edit points until the shape is the size you want.
Note
Edit points are specific to lines and polylines. If you want to access the edit points of a shape other than a line or polyline, you must first convert the shape to a polygon. For information about converting a shape to a polygon, see "To convert a shape to a polygon."
To convert a shape to a polygon
1 Click a shape.
2 Click Tools Convert to polygon.
To change the shape of a polygon
1 Click a polygon.
2 Click Edit Edit points.
3 Drag any of the edit points.
Note
When you edit a polygon, it does not maintain its standard size or proportions. The shape is treated as a series of lines or polylines instead of a preset shape.
