InDesign for QuarkXPress Users [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Reshaping Paths and Frames

InDesign uses the Direct Selection tool and several other dedicated tools for reshaping and editing the paths and frames which you've created with the Pen tool or any other method. You can use them immediately on any object without having to go into a special editing mode like QuarkXPress forces you to do.

Direct Selection Tool

Use the Direct Selection tool, not the Pen tool, to edit paths or frames. You can even use it while drawing: With the Pen tool selected, holding down the Command/Ctrl key gives you temporary access to this tool so you can move an anchor point as you're drawing.

When working with the Direct Selection tool, watch the cursors to see what part of an object you'll be affecting (see Table 12-2):

Table 12-2. Direct Selection tool icons

Add Anchor Point Tool

The Add Anchor Point tool, hidden under the Pen tool, is a tool dedicated to adding anchor points to an existing path or frame. When using this tool, to add an anchor point, simply select a path or frame and move over a straight or curved segment. When you see the small + cursor, click the tool. However, we never actually select this tool. It's much faster just to use the Pen tool. Whenever you move the Pen over a selected path or frame and see the same + cursor, clicking adds a point.

Delete Anchor Point Tool

The Delete Anchor Point tool, also hidden under the Pen tool, deletes anchor points on a frame or path. When you move this tool over an anchor point, you'll see a small (minus) cursor. Just click the tool to delete the anchor point. You can do the same thing with the Pen tool when you move over an anchor point.

Convert Direction Point Tool

The last in this group of tools hidden under the Pen tool is the Convert Direction Point tool. It's a very versatile tool which changes corner points into smooth points and vice versa, and which you can use to manipulate handles.

This tool has three modes:

• Clicking over a smooth point turns it into a corner point (it sucks in the control handles).




• Dragging from a corner point drags out control handles, making it a smooth point.




• Dragging on the control handles of a smooth point converts it to a corner point with independent handles.

Scissors Tool

Finally, almost as an afterthought, InDesign has hidden one more path editing tool, the Scissors tool (press C; see Figure 12-8), under the Gradient tool, of all places!

You can use the Scissors tool to split a path or a frame, whether or not the frame has any content. When you click on a segment of a path or frame, InDesign creates two anchor points at the cut, one on top of the other. If you want to cut a frame in two, you need to cut it twice; otherwise, you'll just create an single path which has a gap.

What's MissingMerge and Shape Commands

With all these tools for creating and editing shapes, there are two sets of shape editing commands found in QuarkXPress which are missing in InDesign. First, there are no features in InDesign to combine shapes (the Merge commands in QuarkXPress, or the Pathfinder features in Illustrator). And there are no commands to automatically switch the shape of a frame or path to another shape.