8.5

The blend-related controls available in this tab and palette are as follows:
• Style: Lets you control the type of blend.
• Angle: Lets you control the angle of the transition from one color to the other.
Blends have two colors, each of which can have its own shade and opacity. In the Box
tab of the Modify dialog box, the color in the Box area is the first color and the color in
the Blend area is the second color. In the Colors palette, click #1 to set up the first color
and #2 to set up the second color.
You can also specify blends in an Item Style. For more about Item Styles, see "Item Styles
XTensions software."
Merging and splitting boxes
Options in the Merge and Split submenus (Item menu) let you create complex Bézier
boxes from existing boxes. For example, if a rectangular box overlaps an oval box, you
can select the Item > Merge submenu and choose an option that will create a single box
with the same content. If you merge two picture boxes, one picture will display in the
combined box. If you merge two text boxes, the text flows as one story through both
boxes.
To use the Merge feature, select two items and then choose one of the following options
from the Item > Merge submenu:
• The Intersection command retains any areas where items overlap the back item, and
removes the rest.
• The Union command combines all the items into one box, retaining all overlapped areas
as well as nonoverlapped areas.
• The Difference command deletes the front items. Any overlapping areas will be cut out.
• The Reverse Difference command deletes the back item. Any overlapping areas will be
cut out.
• The Exclusive Or command leaves all of the shapes intact but cuts out any areas where
there is overlap. If you want to edit the points surrounding the cut-out area, you will notice
that there are now two points at every location where two lines originally crossed.
• The Combine command is similar to the Exclusive Or command, but if you look at the
points surrounding the cut-out area, you will notice that no points were added where two
lines intersect.
The Split command either splits a merged box into separate boxes, splits a complex box
that contains paths within paths into separate boxes, or splits a box that contains a border
that crosses over itself (such as a figure eight). To use this feature, select two items and
then choose one of the following options from the Item > Split submenu:
64 | A GUIDE TO QUARKXPRESS 8.5: PLUS EDITION
BOXES, LINES, AND TABLES