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Modifying a Frame's Shape
When a frame is active, you can modify it — by adding a stroke to its edges or a background color, by rotating, skewing, or shearing it, and so on.| Caution | A word of warning: Don't try to click on a frame handle when a frame-creation tool is selected. Instead of moving the handle you click on, you'll end up creating a new frame. You have to switch to one of the Selection tools to move or resize a graphics frame. |
You can configure the Polygon tool and the Polygon Frame tool to create either regular polygons or starburst shapes. Double-click on either of the Polygon tools to display the Polygon Settings dialog box, shown in Figure 10-3. The value in the Number of Sides field determines how many sides your polygons will have. If you want to create a starburst shape, specify a value in the Star Inset field. As you increase the percentage value, the spikes become longer and pointier. When you change the values in the Polygon Settings dialog box, the new values are used for both versions of the polygon tool.
Figure 10-3: The Polygon Settings dialog box lets you specify the number of sides your polygons will have and, optionally, create starburst shapes by specifying a Star Inset value. Shown above the dialog box is a starburst created with the settings shown in the dialog box.
| Note | You cannot modify an existing polygon's attributes by selecting the polygon and then opening the Polygon Settings dialog box — you must either edit its shape via the Direct Selection tool, as covered in Chapter 26, or change attributes in the Polygon Settings dialog box and create a new polygon. |
When any of the frame-creation tools is selected, you can create as many new frames as you want. Simply keep clicking, dragging, and releasing. After you create a graphics frame, you can modify it (without changing tools) by adding a border or a colored background or by applying any of the effects — such as rotation, shear, and scale — in the Control palette or Transform pane. You can also move or resize a graphics frame, but you have to switch to the Selection tool or the Direct Selection tool to do so.
| QuarkXPress User | The difference between the Selection tool and the Direct Selection tool takes some getting used to for QuarkXPress users. In terms of working with content, the Direct Selection tool is much like QuarkXPress's Content tool, but it also lets you edit the frame as if it were a Bzier object. For example, if the Direct Selection tool is selected and you drag a point on the frame, you'll move that point and thus change the shape of the object — a rectangle would be converted into a polygon, since the lines immediately adjacent to the moved point will move with the point, while the rest of the frame will not be affected. In QuarkXPress, if the Content tool is selected and you drag a point on the frame, you'll resize the frame (perhaps nonproportionally) but the entire side(s) adjacent to the point will move with the point, so a rectangle would still be a rectangle. To change a frame in the way that QuarkXPress does with both the Content and Item tools, use the Selection tool in InDesign. |
| Cross-Reference | See Chapter 11 for more about modifying frames and Chapters 26 and 27 for sophisticated shape creation and manipulation techniques. |
