Drawing with the line or shapetools – Adobe InDesign User Manual

Page 592

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Drawing with the line or shape tools
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Note:

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Draw basic lines and shapes
Draw multiple objects as a grid
Draw a placeholder shape
Specify polygon settings
Change the shape of a path automatically

Draw basic lines and shapes

1. In the toolbox, do one of the following:

To draw a line or shape, select the Line tool

, the Ellipse tool

, the Rectangle tool

, or the Polygon tool

. (Click and hold the

Rectangle tool to select either the Ellipse or Polygon tool.)

To draw a placeholder (empty) graphics frame, select the Ellipse Frame tool

, the Rectangle Frame tool

, or the Polygon Frame tool

.

2. Drag in the document window to create the path or frame.

To draw from the center out, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS).

To constrain a line to 45° angles, or to constrain the width and height of a path or frame to the same proportions, hold down Shift as you
drag.

To create multiple shapes in a grid, press the arrow keys while holding down the mouse button. See

Draw multiple objects as a grid

.

To change the number of sides of a polygon, begin dragging, press the Spacebar, and then press the Up and Down arrow keys. Press
the Left and Right arrow keys to change the star inset. Press the Spacebar again to return to grid mode.

Dragging to create a basic circle

The result shown above displays a bounding box around the path. If the Selection tool was recently active, you’ll see this bounding box. If

the Direct Selection tool was more recently active, the path appears with anchor points instead.

Draw multiple objects as a grid

When using frame-creation tools such as the Rectangle tool or Type tool, you can create a grid of equally spaced frames by using modifier keys.

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