MX

Table Of Contents
Shape Tool
The Shape Editor Tool
allows you to create detailed vector based shapes, and also to edit the
outline of any shape.
For preset shapes such as rectangles or ellipses, or if you want to edit the outline of your text character
shapes, you need to convert the object to an editable shape first. You can do this by selecting the "Ctrl +
1" key shortcut. You can then use the Shape Editor Tool to perform various advanced vector editing.
Refer to the reference section (Drawing Lines and Shapes, The Shape Editor tool
) on how to use this very powerful tool.
Straight Line and Arrow Tool
The Straight Line Tool
makes it easy to draw single segment straight lines and to add arrow
heads and tails to any lines.
Simply click and drag on the page to draw a straight line. You can click on any existing line to select it,
and once selected you can click-drag on either end to move the end of the line around.
Adding arrowheads and tails using the Straight Line tool
The infobar has two dropdown lists on the left which allow you to choose an arrow head or tail style for
each end of the selected line.
Arrow head
Arrow tail
Arrow head/tail size
Reverse path
The slider on the infobar allows you to change the size of the arrow head and tail on the current selected
line. Or you can enter a percentage value into the size text field to the right of the slider.
By default new arrowheads are created with a width of around 6 times that of the line width and that is
taken as the 100% size, as indicated by the size slider. If you make the line wider, the arrowhead width
also updates accordingly. Therefore enter a value less than 100% to reduce the size of the arrowhead
(and tail), or greater than 100% to increase. Although the slider only takes the size value up to a
maximum of 800%, you can enter percentage values larger than this into the size text field.
Reverse path
Press the Reverse path button on the infobar to switch around the
head and tail of the selected line.
Adding more line segments
Lines created with the Straight Line Tool are of course fully compatible with the other drawing tools.
So if you want to add more segments to a line, make it curved, or perhaps even turn it into a closed
shape, use the Shape Editor Tool
.
Rectangle Tool
Page 140