2013

Getting Started 21
Page & Layout Designer provides vector drawing tools, which means you can resize,
edit the outline shape and re-color with no loss of quality. You can zoom in to see
almost infinite detail, and all edits can be undone. For details on drawing
rectangles/squares, circles/ellipses and other shapes, see Drawing Lines and Shapes
and Shape Handling.
The SHAPE EDITOR TOOL allows you to create detailed vector based shapes,
and also to edit the outline of any shape.
Refer to the section
"THE SHAPE EDITOR TOOL" (on page 83) to learn how to use this
very powerful tool.
The
STRAIGHT LINE & ARROW TOOL adds arrow heads and tails to any type of
line as well as drawing single lines.
Shapes are an important part of any drawing, the other essential element
that we’ve ignored until now is freehand drawing. Click on the
FREEHAND &
BRUSH
TOOL. See the FREEHAND & BRUSH TOOL (ON PAGE 78) for more
information.
Current attributes
An ‘attribute’ is some characteristic of an object which you can modify in MAGIX
Page & Layout Designer 2013. For example a shape’s attributes include its color, its
outline width and its outline color.
As mentioned above you can change the attributes of an object after you’ve drawn it,
by selecting it and then changing its fill color, line width, or any of its other attributes.
But MAGIX Page & Layout Designer 2013 also keeps track of the ‘current’ attributes,
which are the attributes that get applied to newly drawn objects as they are created.
Setting current attributes manually
If, for example, you want the next rectangle you draw to be red, make sure you have
nothing selected (press "Esc" or click an empty part of the page) and then click red on
the color line. You’ve now set the current fill color attribute to red. Now when you
draw a new shape, it will be filled red. You can set other current attributes the same
way – by first making sure nothing is selected before changing the attribute’s value.
Setting current attributes automatically
By default, MAGIX Page & Layout Designer 2013 automatically updates the current
attributes for you, to match the object you last drew, or last selected. So for example if
you draw a rectangle and then make it green, the next shape you draw will also be
green. If you have a blue rectangle in your design and you wish to draw another one
just like it, first select the blue rectangle (this makes its attributes current) and then
the next shape you draw will also be blue. So by simply clicking an object, you set the
current attributes to match that object.