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• Anchor Point: Offsets the anchor point used for all layer transforms.
• Drop Shadow: Manipulates layer drop shadows in the Canvas.
• Distort: Stretches a layer into polygonal shapes.
• Crop: Cuts off pixels from any of the layer’s four edges.
• Edit Points: Manipulates control points on shapes, paths, and curves.
• Transform Glyph: Transforms individual letters in a text layer. The Transform Glyph tool
is also a 3D tool, using the same transform controls as the 3D Transform tool.
• Adjust Item: Moves onscreen controls such as gradients, center points of filters, emitter
attributes, and so on.
Note: Some of the tools are activated when specific layers are selected. For example, the
Edit Points tool is selected after you create a shape or mask layer, so you can immediately
adjust the Bezier or B-Spline control points.
To switch among tools
Do one of the following:
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Click the Select/Transform tool in the toolbar, then, while holding down the mouse button,
choose a tool from the pop-up menu.
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With a layer in the Canvas selected, press Tab. Pressing Tab repeatedly cycles through
the tools in order.
Note: When pressing Tab, the 3D Transform tool is activated between the 2D
Select/Transform tool and the Anchor Point tool. For more information about 3D transform
tools, see 3D Transform Tools.
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Control-click any layer in the Canvas, then choose a tool from the shortcut menu.
The options in the shortcut menu vary depending on the type of layer selected. For
example, a shape contains shape-specific options such as Stroke, Edit Gradient, and Edit
Points. Those options do not apply to an image.
Note: Press Shift-Tab to cycle through the tools in reverse.
Moving Layers in the Canvas
The simplest thing you can do to start arranging the layers in your project is to move
them around. Except for the Drop Shadow tool, all transform tools let you reposition
layers, so this is the one operation you can perform regardless of the selected tool.
The easiest way to reposition a layer is to drag it in the Canvas. If you want to make more
precise adjustments to a layer’s position, you can also change the numerical values of a
layer’s X and Y Position parameters in the Properties Inspector. For more information on
layer properties, see Parameters in the Properties Inspector.
266 Chapter 7 Basic Compositing