Operation Manual

60 Working with Graphics, Animation, and Multimedia
Drawing lines and shapes
WebPlus provides several easy-to-use drawing tools. The three line-
drawing tools are located on a Tools toolbar flyout:
Freehand Line Straight Line Curved Line
With them, you can add both functional and decorative layout
elements—for example, clickable buttons or page dividers. To draw a
straight or freehand line, select the appropriate tool, then click and
drag. To extend an existing line, begin drawing from one of the line’s
end nodes. To close the line, creating a shape with a fillable interior
region, simply connect the line back to its starting point.
Curved lines allow you to adjust the curvature of each line segment
with precision. After choosing the Curved Line tool, use the Curve
Creation toolbar to select which kind of segment you’ll draw next:
Straight, Bézier, or Smart. Each Bézier segment has control handles
that act like “magnets,” pulling the curve into shape. Click to place a
starting node (1), then click again (2) where you want the segment to
end, and adjust the handles to tweak the segment’s curvature. As with
the other line tools, you can extend the line repeatedly. To end a curved
line without closing the shape, press Esc or double-click (or simply
choose another tool).
Smart segments are similar, but they appear without visible control
handles and use automatic curve-fitting to connect each node. They’re
especially useful when tracing around curved objects and pictures.
You can use the Pointer tool to adjust lines once you’ve drawn them.
The techniques are the same whether you’re editing a separate line
object or the outline of a closed shape. Simply select the line and drag
its bounding box to move or resize it. Drag a line segment to reshape it,
or select an individual node and drag to move it, or adjust the node’s
control handles to change the profile of the adjacent segment(s).
The Curve toolbar appears when you select a line or closed shape, and
provides a variety of adjustment controls for adding or deleting nodes,
closing or breaking curves, and changing node types, as detailed in
online help.