InDesign for QuarkXPress Users [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Simple Shapes

Simple shapes are the ones we create the most, so InDesign has specialized tools for making specific shapes.

Line Tool

Unlike QuarkXPress, there is only one tool dedicated to creating straight lines in InDesign. (You can also create creates lines with the Pencil or Pen tools, described below.) You use the Line tool exactly like QuarkXPress's tool of the same name. When you finish dragging, you'll see the bounding box of the line (unless the line is horizontal or vertical, in which case you only see the two end points). Dragging while holding down the Shift key is the equivalent of drawing with XPress's Orthogonal Line toolit constrains your line horizontally or vertically. Plus, if you hold down the Option/Alt key while you drag, you can draw the line from the center.

Rectangle, Ellipse and Polygon Tools

When you want to make a background tint rectanglea frame with no contentthe Rectangle tool (press M; see Chapter 15 using corner effects.

There are several modifier keys already familiar to Illustrator users which work with these three tools:

• Holding down the Shift key constrains the shape to have the same height and width, just like in XPress.




• Holding down the Option/Alt key draws the shape from the center.




• Holding down Shift-Option/Shift-Alt draws a proportional shape from the center.




• Holding down the Space Bar when drawing lets you move the shape while still drawing it.

The Polygon tool is even more versatileyou can even use it to draw starbursts! After selecting this tool, double-click on the tool icon in the Tools palette to open the Polygon Settings dialog box. Here you can set the number of sides for a polygon. The default Star Inset is 0% which creates a polygon, but if you choose a positive value, you create stars. Increasing the percentage moves the inner vertices of the star inward, creating a spikier star (see Figure 12-2).